If you are on the Obama transition team in Chicago and exhausted having gone right from the campaign into the transition, take a night off and treat yourself to a very special musical. Immediately head for Chicago's Apollo Theater and get ready to witness "a whole lot of shakin". "Million Dollar Quartet" has not only wowed Chicago audiences but has captured the attention of critics from Seattle to New York.

This entertaining musical is based on a one night recording session that took place 1956 at Sun Studios in Memphis. In one magical evening, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis were all in the studio at one time. In what has become almost mythological in the world of music, the four jammed for only night.

"Million Dollar Quartet" not only effectively brings us the recreation of that night, it roars into the Apollo and dares the crowd not to respond. The show has been sold out and has now been extended until January 11 and might move to London and then New York. In a rave review in the New York Times, critic Charles Isherwood states:

"...the performers — some actors who can play guitar, others musicians trying the acting thing — are genial, winning and persuasive without lapsing into hackneyed or overripe impersonation. The songs, a stack of early rock hip-shakers, including “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lot-ta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” are performed with a vibrant commitment that keeps the sea of gray heads in the audience bobbing, bobbing, bobbing throughout the show’s fleet 90-minute running time."

The cast, consisting of the multi-talented Levi Kreis (Jerry Lee Lewis), Rob Lyons (Carl Perkins), Eddie Clendening (Elvis) and Lance Guest (Johnny Cash), creates an energy rarely seen in musicals and maintains it for the entire show. The audience promises to be exhausted by the time the curtain falls from their knees bouncing and hands clapping. These fine performers hold nothing back in their effort to journey back over 50 years, allowing us to witness the interaction of four of American music legends and make us believe we were really in the Sun Studios. That is no small feat.

Isherwood says of the performances in his New York Times review:

" The hot-headed, loud-mouthed Jerry Lee Lewis (Levi Kreis) is new to the label and wants to prove his mettle. Mr. Kreis just about pounds a hole in the stage floor with his Converse high tops when he starts flailing away on the keyboard. Jerry Lee’s cockiness antagonizes Carl Perkins (a charismatic Rob Lyons), who is also sore because his records aren’t selling and because Phillips had allowed Elvis to sing Perkins’s hit song “Blue Suede Shoes” on television. Johnny, gracefully played by Lance Guest, is the courtly country gentleman, pained at having to break bad news to the man who jump-started his career. Eddie Clendening, who plays Elvis, is obviously not a trained actor, but he gives a gentle, likable performance. His honey-coated vibrato is perfectly suited to the songs."

This site has sung of Levi Kreis's talents before especially in a piece by Steven Guy which you can read here. Kreis is on the verge of becoming a big star with a bright future in music and stage. Come to think of it, isn't that what Jerry Lee Lewis was that night? History repeats itself.

This is a show worth flying to Chicago to catch and certainly if you are in the Windy City you would be doing yourself a disservice not to take one extra night and witness true magic from the stage.

Call (773) 935-6100 for tickets...that is, if you can still get them!