'Million Dollar Quartet' debuts at the Aronoff Center

Rick Pender
CityBeat

If I said you could catch a jam session featuring four Rock & Roll icons together, I’d probably get your attention, right? That’s what the unusual Broadway musical, "Million Dollar Quartet," is all about — an afternoon in early December 1956 when the not-quite-famous Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley ended up in a storefront recording studio at Sun Records in Memphis, Tenn.

It really happened: Perkins was there for a recording session with Lewis, who was the new kid. Presley and Cash came by separately, and soon an impromptu jam session happened. The show was nominated for three Tony Awards in 2010, including Best Musical, and now it’s at Cincinnati’s Aronoff Center for two weeks. Each character is featured in several of his best-known tunes — all in all, there’s “a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on.” $28-$103. Tuesday-Sunday. Through March 3. Aronoff Center, 650 Walnut St., Downtown. 513-621-2787, cincinnatiarts.org .