“Million Dollar Quartet,” the Broadway musical centered around a legendary recording session, will make a stop at the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center on Nov. 18.
Jessica Burger
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Broadway musical “Million Dollar Quartet” is making its way to the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center (PAC) on Nov. 18. The show sings the tale behind the legendary recording session of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.
PAC Program Manager Denise Leader Stoeber saw the show in 2011 and worked to bring the musical to Cal Poly for one night during its national tour.
“The guys that portray these four icons so embody them,” she said. “They each play their character’s instruments so brilliantly that it’s almost like watching them.”
The production tells the story behind the night of Dec. 4, 1956 inside Sun Records in Memphis, Tenn., where Presley, Lewis, Cash and Perkins were brought under one roof by legendary music producer, Sam Phillips.
Filled with a medley of American rock ‘n’ roll hits such as “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Ring of Fire,” the story gives a portrait of each rockstar’s personality and a plot line complete with rivalry, jealousy and even romance, Stoeber said.
“They look like them, they sound like them and of course, there is a love story,” she said. “One of them wants to leave the studio to go off and sign a contract with somebody else. So there’s a little bit of tension, and of course, a rivalry between the four performers.”
The show begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased from pacslo.org.
“It’s not so much like a tribute show would be,” Stoeber said. “It’s really more of a musical … but you know all the songs.”