Million Dollar Quartet Will Play the Nederlander

No sooner had the revival of Brighton Beach Memoirs died what many consider to be a premature death at the Nederlander Theater then a new show announced its tenancy. Million Dollar Quartet, which has been playing for more than a year in Chicago, will begin performances on 41st Street in March of 2010.

Million Dollar Quartet relates the story of one day in 1956 when Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins all jammed together "for the first and only time," according to the show's Web site. The show features a book by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott, and interpolates popular period songs, including "Great Balls of Fire," "See You Later Alligator," "Fever," and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On."

Will Million Dollar Quartet be the next Jersey Boys or the next All Shook Up? To be honest, I'm finding it really hard to care. I can't imagine a musical I'd be less interested in seeing, except perhaps Pure Country. Yeah, I'm not that big on rock 'n roll, country music, or their derivatives. Of course, I'll see the show. I like to see everything. But, to paraphrase Frank N. Furter, I'm not exactly shivering with anticipation.

Plus, the commercial resume for the show's co-director, one Eric Schaeffer, isn't particularly encouraging. Yes, Schaeffer is the artistic director of the respected Signature Theater. But his Broadway outings thus far have comprised Putting it Together and Glory Days . "Ick" and "Youch," respectively. He also directed the first national tour of Big, and the London premier of The Witches of Eastwick. So you'll forgive me if I'm skeptical.

But, getting back to the topic of Brighton Beach Memoirs, I've been lying pretty low on this topic, partly because my interests lie primarily in musical theater, but also because so many of my blogger peeps seemed to be in mourning, and I didn't want to salt their wounds. But I have been bristling at all the journalistic hand-wringing, particularly by Howard Kissel of the New York Daily News. Kissel uses the failure of BBM to bemoan the death of "the Broadway Audience," whatever that means.

I'm sorry, but I really don't see any larger implications for the closure of BBM, beyond the fact that the producers chose to do a show that few people apparently wanted to see. Yes, I'm sure poor marketing and insufficient finance had something to do with it. But all the sturm und drang I keep hearing about the death of straight plays (at least those without stars above the title) and the growing irrelevance of Neil Simon and whatnot is pretty much crap.

I see dozens of shows each season, and even I wasn't all that interested in seeing BBM. Many of my blogger cohorts were thrilled with the production, and on that basis I might have taken it in, had it run longer. But, again, I see the demise of BBM as the result of bad producing, in particular faulty (or nonexistent) market research.

Is the non-star straight play dead? August: Osage County anyone? If the play is good, people will come. Sure, the producers resorted to bringing in Estelle Parsons and Phylicia Raschad toward the end of the run, but only after the show had captivated New York audiences without a single well-known name. Is Neil Simon a relic? That remains to be seen. Recent productions of his shows have certainly been disappointing, but there's no such thing in theater as a "never" or an "always." Methinks the pundits are looking for higher meaning where it's entirely possible that none exists.

My $0.02.

Comments

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=653593095]

My thoughts exactly. I can't think there's any way you can put doppelgangers of four great rock/country singers on stage and be serious about it. That would barely fly in a Legends in Concert performance.

Except I didn't realize that Schaeffer directed Witches! I'm quite fond of the cast album. But then, I like the score of Legally Blonde too... That ain't reflective of direction.

[Marc]

Chris, I wasn't that excited about Million Dollar Quartet either--it took me almost a year to finally go see it after hearing the rave reviews. And you know what, I was pleasantly surprised--it's a damn good show. Very entertaining with some great performances. It will be interesting to see how NYC reacts to it, but Chicago loves it! Here's a link to my review:

http://marcharshbarger.blogspot.com/2009/09/broadway-bound-amazing-million-dollar.html

[Allie]

I saw Million Dollar Quartet over the summer and was less than impressed. It's basically about the night that the four singers all had a jam session and the only conflict was that the producer wanted to renew Johnny Cash's contract but Johnny didn't want that. So that blows over quickly. And then there's just some random chick hanging out in the studio. The only saving grace of the show was the guy playing Jerry Lee Lewis who actually had energy and understood his character. The music is fun but it's like they've created a rock show with the more unknown songs of these artists and then tried to weave this story in. There was zero acting (save Jerry Lee Lewis) and overall, I just didn't care about any of the characters. Without a major book rewrite, I don't see how this show can do well. I don't hope that it fails, but I think if people are going to spend $120 on a ticket to they theater, they should see something worthwhile, which is not Million Dollar Quartet.

[Michael]

I saw this show twice. The second time was last Saturday. I already had my tickets and got a call from Ricky saying it was closing the next day. It was very sad. It was a really great production of a truly classic American play.

I was really looking forward to seeing Broadway Bound. Sad.

Hopefully, Laurie Metcalf will be on the boards again soon. She really was a master class in acting. It was truly one of the best ensemble casts I’ve seen in a long time.

I think the biggest issue is that people aren’t going to see things unless they are really excited about the cast or the play. I guess I am one of the few Laurie Metcalf fans. As soon as they announced she was doing it, I bought my tickets.

The weather remains charming.