MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET Grooves at Encore Musical Theatre Company
By: Julie Musbach Jan. 10, 2018
The Encore Musical Theatre Company proudly presents Million Dollar Quartet, running February 1st through 25th, 2018, directed by Tobin Hissong, and music directed by R. MacKenzie Lewis.
On December 4, 1956, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley assemble at the Sun Records recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Established performer Carl Perkins was to record songs with a new performer, Jerry Lee Lewis. Elvis Presley stops by the studio along with his girlfriend, a singer named Dyanne. Johnny Cash has stopped by to talk to recording impresario Sam Phillips. They soon have a jam session together. Phillips attempts to re-sign Johnny Cash to a new contract, unaware he has already signed with Columbia Records.
Songs include: "Blue Suede Shoes", "Folsom Prison Blues", "Fever", "Real Wild Child", "Long Tall Sally", "I Walk the Line", "Great Balls of Fire", and many more.
TO PURCHASE TICKETS
You can call (734-268-6200) or come in to our box office (3126 Broad Street, Dexter, MI), as well as purchase on our website: http://www.theencoretheatre.org.
About The Encore Musical Theatre Company: Enhancing the performing arts in Washtenaw County. The Encore Musical Theatre Company is a non-profit musical theatre located in the historical City of Dexter. Our mission is to create quality, original theatrical productions with an emphasis on Musical Theatre, utilizing a unique mixture of Broadway and local talent, while engaging and entertaining a wide spectrum of the surrounding communities.
CAST
Jerry Lee Lewis: Marek Sapieyevski
Carl Perkins: Alex Canty
Sam Phillips: Jim Walke
Dyanne: Kaitlyn Weickel
CREATIVE
Director: Tobin Hissong
Music Director: R. MacKenzie Lewis
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Marek Sapieyevski (Jerry Lee Lewis) has appeared as Jerry Lee Lewis in three previous productions of Million Dollar Quartet. Other credits include Joltin' Jim McCoy/Keyboardist in the national tour of A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline, Ring of Fire (the music of Johnny Cash) at The Palace Theater (Wisconsin Dells) as well as a banjo infused Bertram Rogers in a revival of the 1920's comedy Six Cylinder Love, a boogie-woogie piano playing DJ in Menny and Mila (debuted NYC fringe), various characters/instruments in The Caucasian Chalk Circle (NYC Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Original Music), and a residency as acting company member and Assistant Musical Director at EndTimes Productions NYC. As a musician he has performed with veteran Americana players including Arno Hecht (Uptown Horns), Jon Paris (Johnny Winter/Les Paul Orchestra), and in the bands of original Broadway cast members of Million Dollar Quartet. Marek Sapieyevski has crossed genres for projects with "freak folk" icon Devendra Banhart as well as mariachi-bluegrass fusion group 'Rana Santacruz,' for which he was the primary banjo player on the debut album and subsequent North American tours, National Public Radio (Tiny Desk Concerts) and John F. Kennedy Center performances, and was added as an endorsing artist for Deering Banjo Company. He is also featured in his own boogie woogie, honky tonk and early rock & roll band 'Marek and the Boss Chops.'
Stephen Shore (Johnny Cash) is thrilled to play Johnny Cash in his debut with The Encore Musical Theatre Company. NEW YORK credits: John in Smoke at T. Schreiber Studios; Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing with The Fools & Kings Project; Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew and Benvolio in Romeo & Juliet with Barefoot Shakespeare Company; Benjamin in Lost in Space with The WhiteListed Theatre Company. REGIONAL credits: Harry Heywood in It's A Wonderful Life: A Radio Play and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew at Texas Shakespeare Festival; Tinman in The Wizard of Oz, Man 3 in 35MM: A Musical Exhibition, Johnny Cash in Million Dollar Quartet, Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, and Exeter in Henry V at the Roxy Regional Theatre Company; Cloten in Cymbeline and Tybalt in Romeo & Juliet at Virginia Shakespeare Festival; Slim in Of Mice And Men with Cardinal Stage Company; Narrator/Mysterious Man in Into the Woods, Stage Manager in Our Town, Le Bret in Cyrano de Bergerac, and Jim Cullen in The Legend of Jim Cullen with Heartwood Regional Theater Company; Feste in Illyria: A Twelfth Night Musical and Balthasar in Much Ado About Nothing at Georgia Shakespeare Festival. A proud graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama, Spring of 2013. He currently resides in New York City. www.StephenTShore.com
Josh White (Elvis Presley) is a resident of Kalamazoo Michigan, where he graduated from Western Michigan University with a B.A. in Economics. He has been performing in theatres across Michigan for over 10 years. Josh's Favorite credits include Les Miserables (Enjolras), You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Charlie Brown), Cotton Patch Gospel (Jesus), Annie Get Your Gun (Frank Butler), and 1776 (Richard Henry Lee). Josh has played Elvis in Million Dollar Quartet twice before, once at Farmers Alley Theatre in Kalamazoo, and then again at the Springer Opera House in Columbus, Georgia.
Alex Canty (Carl Perkins) is excited to make his debut with The Encore Musical Theatre Company. Alex is a New York City based actor, singer and musician. NEW YORK CREDITS: "Writer's Blocked" (Barnaby) People's Improv Theatre, "Once in a Lifetime" (Featured Soloist) The Duplex: INTERNATIONAL CREDITS: "Avenue Q" (Ensemble Swing) Upstairs at the Gatehouse (UK): REGIONAL CREDITS: "Million Dollar Quartet" (Carl Perkins) Wohlfhart Haus Dinner Theatre, "Beauty and the Beast" (Gaston) Derby Dinner Playhouse, "James and the Giant Peach" (Ladahlord) Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, "Lend Me a Tenor" (Tito Merelli) North Country Center for the Arts: alexcanty.com
Tobin Hissong (Director) is thrilled to be back at The Encore to direct this incredible story! Tobin has also directed highly acclaimed productions of Noises Off and Lend Me A Tenor here at The Encore, as well as The Woman In Black and The Art of Murder for Williamston Theatre. As an actor, Tobin has appeared on many stages throughout Southeastern Michigan, most recently performing in his 10th year as Bob Cratchit in Meadow Brook Theatre's annual adaptation of A Christmas Carol and, this past summer, as part of the company with the Michigan Shakespeare Festival for his second consecutive season.
R. MacKenzie Lewis (Music Director) is the composer and music director for Eastern Michigan University's School of Theatre arts and lecturer and accompanist with the School of Music and Dance. Some favorite projects outside of the university have been orchestrating and music directing the National Tour and Off-Broadway premiere of The Berenstain Bears LIVE! in Family Matters, The Musical; music directing and orchestrating Gypsy at the Hangar Theatre in New York (Broadway World Award for Best Music Direction); music directing A Little Night Music at the Performance Network in Ann Arbor (Wilde Award for Best Music Direction and Best Musical); music directing Legally Blonde as a guest artist for MSU (Pulsar Award for Best Music Direction); composing Irrational (Wilde Award for Best New Script); associate music directing the workshop of Romance in Hard Times with William Finn at the Barrington Stage Co.; composing music for Mockingbird (two Helen Hayes nominations), Wings of Ikarus and Jason Invisible-all of which were commissioned and premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.. He also composed the musicals Video Games: The Rock Opera, Treasure Island, Pinocchio, A Very British Christmas, Sugar Plum Panto, and Soaring on Black Wings-a world premiere with Ben Vereen.
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