Great Performances “Memphis”

Captured live-in-performance at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre, Tony® nominees Chad Kimball and Montego Glover lead the original cast in a story of forbidden love
and the early days of rock and roll.

Broadway’s smash hit musical Memphis, winner of four Tony Awards® including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book and Best Orchestrations, features the original Broadway cast. Memphis is the historic first Best Musical Tony Award winner to air on U.S. national television with its original principals while simultaneously continuing a successful Broadway run and national tour. Great Performances “Memphis” airs Friday, February 24, 2012 at 8 p.m. on Eight, Arizona PBS.

Charles Isherwood of The New York Times observed, “[Composer] David Bryan evokes the powerhouse funk of James Brown, the hot guitar riffs of Chuck Berry, the smooth harmonies of the Temptations, the silken, bouncy pop of the great girl groups of the period.” The New
York Post raved “Of such thrills, Broadway is made.”  The Associated Press called Memphis “the very essence of what a Broadway musical should be.”

Memphistakes place in the smoky halls and underground clubs of the segregated ‘50s, where a young white DJ named Huey Calhoun (Kimball) falls in love with everything he shouldn't: rock and roll and an electrifying black singer Felicia Farrell (Glover). Memphisis an original story about the cultural revolution that erupted when his vision met her voice, and the music changed forever.

Filled with high-octane dancing, songs that perfectly capture the era, and an absorbing tale of fame and forbidden love, the show offers soaring emotion and roof-raising rock 'n' roll.