It’s unthinkable: A quartet of one-name rock stars recording, live – and for free. The likes of Mick, Bruce, Bono and Sting. cutting a disc not via disembodied dubs recorded millions of miles apart and slapped together electronically bu
t in the flesh, everybody in the same grungy store front studio., jamming to a formula based on muse as much as money.
In 1956, the unthinkable happened. Not with today’s rockers of course – Mick et al were barely big enough to wield an axe when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and a bratty young upstart named Jerry Lee Lewis convened at Sun Records on Dec. 4, 1956. With Sun founder Sam Phillips moderating sonic history, the iconic foursome recorded a holy grail of rock and roll.
In “Million Dollar Quartet”, audiences have a fly-on-the-wall perspective to that extraordinary harmonic convergence. The old-school ways of the music industry shine through as the cast rip-roars through nearly two dozen songs. In 1956, a nobody from Louisiana’s back swamps could show up at Sun, play a few bars, and – if he was good - become a bona fide, great-balls-of-fire superstar within months. That’s essentially what happened to Lewis (Levi Kreis) , seen here as a too-big-for-his-britches rube whose keyboard brilliance is matched in intensity by his wide-eyed wonder at indoor plumbing. A scant 18 months before “Million Dollar Quartet” takes place, Cash had been selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door. Today, you’d sooner find Jim Morrison lighting up in Argentina than a record producer who worked the way Phillips did. In addition to giving unknowns a shot, he actually encouraged his artists “not to sound like everyone else.” In the contemporary world of lookalike pop tarts and cookie cutter Idols, that’s downright blasphemy.
Directed by Floyd Matrux and Eric Schaeffer, “Quartet” is all about the music, although its book (a mostly dramatic tension-free affair by Mutrux and Colin 
Escott) has a single notable element. After Perkins describes how an old black man named “Uncle John” taught him to play the guitar, Phillips recalls what initially appealed to him about Elvis. The to-be King was “a white kid who could light a fire under a song like a those Negroes do.” It’s a plain-spoken deviation from the wide-spread acknowledgement that Phillips was the father of rock and roll. Those honors, the book makes clear, belong to Uncle John and all the other African Americans whose names nobody ever bothered to record.
As for the recording session that comprises “Million Dollar Quartet,” it’s an ultra-high energy 90-minute jam. This is an ensemble work, but Lance Guest’s Johnny Cash is its heart and soul. With a baritone that seems to reach into his soul, Guest is simply haunting as Cash. Equally fine in a less substantive role is Levi Kreis’ manic Lewis. A virtuoso in ratty sneakers and fashion-don’t dungarees, he stops the show more than once, at one point kicking the piano bench offstage and then playing backwards – facing away from the keyboard and finding the right notes through nothing more than intuition and sheer joy.
Only Eddie Clendening’s Elvis fails to register properly. He’s withdrawn and bland, coming off more as an interchangeable session musician rather than the King. As Elvis’ girlfriend Dyanne, Kelly Lamont displays the fevered, uber-sensual charisma you’d expect from her lover. And on bass and drums respectively, Chuck Zayas and Billy Shaffer make sure you feel the music’s percussive foundation deep into your bones.
Ironically, however the piece is nearly done in by its sound design. There are two levels of sound here: Very, very loud, and very, very, very loud. Moreover many of the lyrics are obscured by the instrumentals. Even so, the production is a blast and a must-see for rockers. 
Photos: Top - Levi Kreis as Jerry Lee Lewis; Lance Guest as Johnny Cash (center), Kelly LaMont as Elvis Presley's girlfriend, Dyanne.
“Million Dollar Quartet” continues through Jan. 4 at the Apollo Theater, 2540 N. Lincoln, Chicago. Tickets are $25 - $64.50. For more information, go to www.ticketmaster.com or call 773/935-6100.
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