It’s a Sunday afternoon in SLO REP’s downtown theater, and Million Dollar Quartet Director Kevin Harris is putting his actors through their paces while working with his tech crew to get all the glitches worked out. Elvis Presley (Tony Costa, one of only two locals in the cast of professional actors) can’t hear his voice in the monitor. Carl Perkins (Collin Yates, who’s also the production’s music director) needs his guitar turned up. It’s just another day depicting one of the most famous impromptu jam sessions in rock ’n’ roll history.
Time travel to 1956
The SLO Repertory Theatre invites you to “step back in time to the legendary night of Dec. 4, 1956, when four rock ’n’ roll icons—Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins—came together for an unforgettable jam session.” Back by popular demand, Million Dollar Quartet—playing through March 8, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.—depicts the historic moment when four soon-to-be-legends made music magic. Find tickets and details at slorep.org.
Jerry Lee Lewis (Alex Burnette) isn’t tickling the ivories, he’s punishing them. Johnny Cash (Zachary Tate) is developing his infamous gravitas. Sun Records owner Sam Phillips (Toby Tropper, the other local) is wrestling with the fact that his four talented protégés will soon transition from his tiny label to bigger things.
This new incarnation of Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux’s 2006 musical is SLO REP’s third go-around, mounted first in 2019 and again last year, so it’s a little unusual that the year-round professional nonprofit theater would bring the same show back so soon.
“I have a couple reasons,” Harris, who’s also SLO REP’s managing artistic director, said. “Obviously, it’s the financial aspect of it. Last year’s performances sold out a week after we opened, and we had to just keep extending and adding performances, so we know the audience is out there, and honestly, this show—having been here 18 years now—nothing, nothing gets audiences more excited than the end of this show. People were on their feet. They’re screaming. They’re whooping and hollering, and it’s just nice once a year to have a show that feels like an actual fucking party in the theater.”
This is a technically complicated show—essentially a live concert where the actors are playing their own instruments and telling a story with entrances, exits, scenes, and lighting cues between the show’s 23 songs. It also requires a very talented cast. They’re actors, yes, but they must be highly skilled musicians.
Even if you saw last year’s show, Harris said this incarnation has a new flavor and new dynamics.
“Our Jerry Lee Lewis was not able to return. He got picked up on a Sondheim national tour,” Harris explained. “But we found one of the premier Jerry Lees [Burnett] in the nation. He’s absolutely fantastic. This is his first time ever in California. He was born in Georgia and lives in Brooklyn now, so he’s super stoked to come out here for two and a half months to San Luis and get out of the snow.”
“This is my 10th production of a Million Dollar Quartet,” Burnett explained, “and my first time working with SLO REP.”
Burnett is a force of nature onstage, able to create that live-wire manic energy The Killer was known for.
“It’s become second nature,” Burnett said with confidence. “I can tap into that buzz he has, right? That battery that just keeps him going. It’s where that playing style comes from, I think, too. He has all this this energy. Where does it go? I’m gonna take it out on the keys.”
The early days of rock music and ’50s nostalgia are also selling points for the show, but Yates, who plays Perkins, thinks there’s another draw.
“A lot of people come to the theater for, at the very least, escapism—to escape their own lives and enjoy something,” he explained. “A lot of theater is about teaching a lesson or making people’s understanding a little broader. But for this show, it’s pure ‘Let’s go back to the ’50s. Let’s have fun rocking and rolling.’ There’s a story here and there’s a lot of information that people might not know. For example, Carl Perkins wrote ‘Blue Suede Shoes.’ But it’s really a concert onstage watching live music, and this kind of music was so fundamental to how our music is today. Going back and being able to see it live is just an extraordinary experience.”
You know the songs: “Real Wild Child,” “Who Do You Love,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Fever,” “That’s Alright Mama,” “Down by the Riverside,” “Sixteen Tons,” “Long Tall Sally,” “I Walk the Line,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “Hound Dog,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’,” and more.
Harris believes this particular production has unearthed new layers of depth in the dialogue, too.
“Toby Tropper is a fantastic actor, and he’s found new dynamics with his role as Sam Phillips, stuff that we really missed in the first show,” Harris explained. “It’s an interesting story about this dude who was basically a father figure to all these people. I mean, this guy was a real mess, and he manipulated them and used them but also really loved them, so we really leaned into that this year. It’s been super fun to work on.”
It also promises to be an intimate experience for theatergoers in the 97-seat theater.
“To be 4 feet away from Jerry Lee Lewis, and actually have the sweat fall on you,” Harris quipped. “There’s nothing cooler than sitting there and watching an amazing pianist and an amazing guitarist doing it right in front of your face. It’s so loud and so wonderful, and you’ll hear these songs in a completely different way, even though you’re familiar with all of them. It’s a combination of that and getting to know these people as human beings, you know? It makes for a very, very satisfying evening.”
“It’s all happening right here in this room that you’re also in,” Yates added. “You get to see these legends as they were at this time. A lot of people know Elvis and Johnny Cash from later in their lives. You know, big jumpsuit Elvis. Man in Black Johnny not moving onstage. But this was before all that. They were just starting. Elvis was 21. Jerry Lee was 20. Carl was 24. Sam Phillips was only 33. All so young, but there’s this energy in this room of these young artists, and you get to experience them as real people.” ∆
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Feb 5-12, 2026.