Broadway's 2010 Tony Award-Winning Best Musical Memphis captured live-in-performance at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre and in high definition is headed to our television screens on WNET/THIRTEEN’s Great Performances on Friday, February 24 at 9 p.m. Tony® nominees Chad Kimball and Montego Glover lead the original cast in a story of forbidden love and the early days of rock and roll.
Memphis is the historic first Best Musical Tony Award winner to air on U.S. national television with its original principals while simultaneously continuing a successful Broadway run and national tour.
Memphis was the winner of four Tony Awards® including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book and Best Orchestrations. Featuring the original Broadway cast, including Tony nominees Chad Kimball and Montego Glover, as well as Derrick Baskin, J. Bernard Calloway, James Monroe Iglehart, Michael McGrath and Cass Morgan.
"Memphis takes place in the smoky halls and underground clubs of the segregated 50's, where a young white DJ named Huey Calhoun (Kimball) falls in love with everything he shouldn't: rock and roll and an electrifying black singer Felicia Farrell (Glover). Memphis is an original story about the cultural revolution that erupted when his vision met her voice, and the music changed forever."
The show’s Tony®-winning original score features music by Bon Jovi’s founding member and keyboardist David Bryan and lyrics by Bryan and Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change), who also pens the musical’s book. . The show is based on a concept by the late George W. George (producer of the Tony nominated Bedroom Farce and the film My Dinner With Andre), with direction by Tony nominee Christopher Ashley (Xanadu) and choreography by Sergio Trujillo, (Jersey Boys, Next to Normal).
The critically acclaimed production of Memphis won a total of four 2010 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Score (David Bryan and Joe DiPietro), Best Book (Joe DiPietro), and Best Orchestrations (David Bryan and Daryl Waters). Memphis is currently in its 3rd smash year on Broadway, delighting audiences nightly at the Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th Street).
Memphis recently launched a U. S. national tour in Memphis, TN, which opened to critical acclaim in October 2011 at the historic Orpheum Theatre.
Great Performances is a production of THIRTEEN for WNET, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers. For nearly 50 years, WNET has been producing and broadcasting national and local arts programming to the New York community.
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