If you’re a fan of 1950s-style Rhythm & Blues, you’ll enjoy Memphis: The Musical. The gossamer plot merely holds the songs together. As you might expect, race plays a role in the plot and the music. A nerdy character named Huey Calhoun (based on real-life Dewey Phillips who was one of the first white DJs to play “Negro music” on the radio) causes a sensation when he promotes music written and performed by African-Americans. There’s a love story, too. My chief complaint is that the music should have been better. Couldn’t the producers have gotten the rights to some of the classic R&B songs of this era? Memphis: The Musical is entertaining, but it could have been a lot better with great songs. GRADE: B
I agree with you, George. The singing was enthusiastic and some of the dance numbers were excellent, but the music was just okay. A lot of the plot actually gave me a deja vu feeling as if I was watching a grown up HAIRSPRAY. It was fun but the fact that it won the Tony for Best Musical had more to do with the lack of higher quality competition than anything else.
Jackie liked this one better than either of us.
If MEMPHIS had the quality of music that HAIRSPRAY did, I’d be raving about it, Jeff. As it stands, in the immortal words of Bill Crider, “it’s good, but not great.”
They just don’t write great songs for Broadway shows anymore. And they don’t seem to be able to use old ones.
You’re right, Patti. If the producers of MEMPHIS could have acquired the rights to some of the classic R&B songs of the Fifties, MEMPHIS would have been amazing!
The somewhat similar (certainly in time period) MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET does use the actual songs sung by Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, which – in my opinion – made it a more entertaining show.
Exactly, Jeff! We saw MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET and loved those classic songs. The songs in MEMPHIS are several notches below Elvis, Johnny Cash, etc.