Whether you have yet seen Million Dollar Quartet, its holiday version, playing through Dec. 21 at Sierra Repertory Theatre’s East Sonora location, holds well as a standalone and a terrific holiday treat.
In 2018, Sierra Rep produced a jukebox musical account of the original, impromptu session, which was altogether incredible because it drew together Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and newcomer at the time Jerry Lee Lewis pure coincidence on Dec. 4, 1956 at Sam Phillips’ legendary Sun Records studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Music writer-historian Colin Escott and screenwriter Floyd Mutrux, who co-wrote the book for the production, received a 2010 Tony Award nomination for their efforts.
As the story about the actual session goes, Phillips called in the Memphis Press-Scimitar to cover it as it began to unfold in the moment, which resulted in a story dubbed “Million Dollar Quartet.” Perkins, who had been successful with his “Blue Suede Shoes” single, had come in with band members to record a track; Jerry Lee Lewis, one of Sam’s finds who, relatively unknown at the time, was there to add to the session; Cash, still a Sun artist, had come just to listen; Presley, who had a singer-girlfriend with him and had moved on to RCA Victor Records, happened to drop by for a visit.
For background purposes, you should know, if you do not already, that music from the storied session, which retained the newspaper’s slug name for it, got its first public airing in 1981 about four years after Presley’s death, as a 17-track European release. After more tracks were discovered, a U.S. version was released in 1990 called Elvis Presley: The Million Dollar Quartet. Music historians noted that the surviving members of the reunited several times in following years to come with Cash, Lewis and Perkins uniting in 1982 for the concert album The Survivors Live, and again in 1985 for an album called Class of ‘55, which included Roy Orbison, who had been on the Sun label around the time.
Million Dollar Quartet Christmas, penned by Escott, serves as a sequel to the original story, imagining the icons gathering again in December 1956 at Phillips’ Sun Records to celebrate the holidays. The studio is decked out with a tree, lights with the decor nearing completion, save for a tree topper and lighting the place up, which happens in due course. The icons all share camaraderie and colorful, sometimes dramatic and often humorous conversation and antics as they play holiday tunes, their own and others’ chart-topping classics.
As young Jerry Lee Lewis, New York-based actor, singer-songwriter Henry Crater is a standout. The other male leads are all solid: Caleb Graham, who plays Carl Perkins, no stranger to the MDQ-universe, has played the role before and has also appeared in other productions as Johnny Cash and Elvis; Adam Fields captures a young Cash before he became the Man in Black; Jason Wells as Elvis turns in an earnest performance of a young King before Col. Tom Parker got his hooks all the way into him.
Los Angeles-based actor Dane Oliver as Sam Phillips, is in turns a ringleader, father figure and instigator. Indianapolis-based composer-musician John Oliver and New Jersey-based composer, playwright, musician-actor Jason Curtis Rivera respectively and literally play along as session player sidekicks Fluke and Brother Jay.
Supplying a full complement of feminine energy, Sierra Rep Artistic Associate and regular Camryn Elias, who plays Elvis’s lady friend, a singer-ingenue character named Dyanne, might sound on paper like a minor role, but in typical Elias fashion lights up and helps drive the action, gravitating into the thick of it, still leaving plenty of space for the iconic characters to shine.
The production is directed by Manhattan-based Jason Cohen, who, also the musical director, has already staged 15 productions in the MDQ-universe; played Jerry Lee Lewis in the MDQ national tour for a year in 2022; and will return to Sierra Rep in July 2026 to reprise Great Balls of Fire, his own theatrical concert, playing Lee.
The show, which plays through Dec. 21 at SRT’s East Sonora Theatre, located at 13891 Mono Way above the Junction Center, runs 145 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission. Nearly already sold out, A Christmas Carol plays Dec. 5-21 at Fallon House Theatre in Columbia State Historic Park. For more details, including showtimes, tickets, and what is on deck in 2026, visit sierrarep.org.
