‘One Night in Memphis’ comes to town for one night in Layton
John Mueller plays Carl Perkins in "One Night in Memphis," a musical tribute to four legendary Sun Records artists. The show will be presented Saturday, Sept. 8, in the Kenley Amphitheater in Layton.
"One Night in Memphis," a musical tribute to four legendary Sun Records artists, will be presented Saturday, Sept. 8, in the Kenley Amphitheater in Layton.
"One Night in Memphis," a musical tribute to four legendary Sun Records artists, will be presented Saturday, Sept. 8, in the Kenley Amphitheater in Layton.
Brandon Bennett plays Elvis Presley in "One Night in Memphis," a musical tribute to four legendary Sun Records artists. The show will be presented Saturday, Sept. 8, in the Kenley Amphitheater in Layton.
For one night in Layton, audiences will be transported back to one very special night in long-ago Memphis, Tennessee.
“One Night in Memphis” — a musical tribute to legendary Sun Records recording artists Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash — comes to the Kenley Amphitheater on Saturday, Sept. 8, for an 8 p.m. performance. The show loosely recreates the night of Dec. 4, 1956, when what would turn out to be four of the biggest names in early rock ‘n’ roll just happened to end up in the same recording studio at the same time.
“One Night in Memphis” creator John Mueller explains that Carl Perkins had gone into the studio to record a song, and a young piano player by the name of Jerry Lee Lewis was booked for the session. They started jamming, and eventually Elvis Presley, who happened to be in town that night, dropped by. Johnny Cash stopped by later.
The event was recorded when a studio engineer kept the tape rolling that night. The impromptu session was quickly nicknamed the “Million Dollar Quartet” in the media.
Mueller, who will perform the Perkins role at Saturday’s Layton show, said the evening will feature more than an hour and a half of rockabilly, country, gospel and 1950s rock ‘n’ roll.
The idea for “One Night in Memphis” came to Mueller a few years ago. He’d already created a show called “Winter Dance Party” — a tribute to the music of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper — when he was offered a chance to become involved in a new musical called “Million Dollar Quartet.”
“I was approached by the guy who wrote the musical “Million Dollar Quartet,” and he cast me in the beginnings of that show,” Mueller recalled.
However, that original incarnation never quite materialized, and four years later Mueller needed to move on to other projects. Eventually, “Million Dollar Quartet” — sans Mueller — became a hit in Chicago, and then went on to Broadway.
At about that same time, an agency approached Mueller and told him there was a demand for that music because of the success of “Million Dollar Quartet.” However, many venues couldn’t afford the elaborate sets and long runs the Broadway musical required, so Mueller created a more stripped-down version and “One Night in Memphis” was born.
“It’s more focused on the music than the Broadway play, because there’s no plot in it,” Mueller said of his creation. “I listened religiously to the original recording, and those guys were jamming and having a blast.”
That’s what Mueller tried to capture.
Mueller called the music from the 1956 session a “microcosm” of the birth of rock. The four musicians were singing gospel songs, country song, and the hard-driving tunes of that day.
“It’s really a great window into how rock ‘n’ roll came to be,” he said. “That’s what really interested me, because I’m a big fan of these legends.”
Saturday’s show will occasionally break the fourth wall of the theater, according to Mueller.
“Actually, we break the fourth wall a lot,” he admits. “We like to get the audience involved.”
Performers will talk to the audience, sometimes explaining something about their character in the third person. And no two shows are exactly the same, as these musicians like to involved the audience, Mueller says.
“Sometimes, the Johnny Cash guy will engage the audience, even asking them what song they want to hear,” he said. “Which is what that jam session was like.”
Joining Mueller on stage will be Brandon Bennett, who played Elvis in “Million Dollar Quartet” for five years in Chicago.
“He’s from the South, and it’s really scary looking — just like a young Elvis,” Mueller said.
Neil Morrow takes the Cash role, and Blair Carman is Lewis.
The production does about 65 shows a year, and while many older Americans love the early rock pioneers, Mueller says younger audiences are turning up as well. That’s been especially true since the release of “Walk the Line,” the 2005 Cash biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon; and the earlier “Great Balls of Fire!” with Dennis Quaid as Lewis.
“One Night in Memphis” is not always historically accurate of that night in late 1956, with the performers sometimes playing hits that would be recorded much later.
“But we felt like if we didn’t play ‘Great Balls of Fire,’ for example, people would feel cheated,” Mueller said.
Mueller calls “One Night in Memphis” sort of like a concert recreation of a historic night. The performers in the show are all “legit” musicians, and he says that shines through on stage.
“I would say, even if people don’t know anything about this particular night in Memphis, but they’re just a fan of rock ‘n’ roll, they’d enjoy this,” he said. “It’s a super high-energy show, and you can see how — not that I’m saying bad things about today’s music — this is much more raw and visceral.”
WHAT: “One Night in Memphis”
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8
WHERE: Kenley Amphitheater, 403 N. Wasatch Drive, Layton
TICKETS: $19-$39, tickets.davisarts.org or 801-546-8575