MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET To Open at London’s Noël Coward Theatre on 28 February 2011

THE NEW MUSICAL “MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET”

TO OPEN AT LONDON’S NOËL COWARD THEATRE ON 28 FEBRUARY 2011

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, the award‐winning new musical that tells the electrifying story of the night in 1956 when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis came together to make music and ended up making history, will open at London’s Noël Coward Theatre on 28 February 2011 with previews from 8 February 2011. Tickets will go on public sale at 10.00am on 4 December 2010.

Currently playing on Broadway and in Chicago, MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET is inspired by the actual event that took place on 4 December 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis and features over 20 of the greatest rock ’n’ roll, gospel, R&B and country hits ever written including: Blue Suede Shoes, I Walk The Line, Fever, Great Balls of Fire, Hound Dog, Folsom Prison Blues and Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On*

The legendary meeting was masterminded by Sun Records’ founder Sam Phillips, who discovered all four of the musicians, and brought Elvis Presley (and his then girlfriend) back to the recording studio that launched him to stardom. Together with Sun Records’ fast‐rising new superstar Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, who was still chasing his next big hit after writing and recording Blue Suede Shoes, the fourth member of this impromptu “quartet” was Phillips’ latest signing, Jerry Lee Lewis.

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET is a story of fame, friendship, discovery, divided loyalties, professional jealousy and incredible music as four of the music industry’s most extraordinary talents, all in their creative prime, made music together for the first and only time in their careers.

The production team has undertaken an extensive search of the UK and Ireland ‐ with open auditions in Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol, Dublin and London – to find performers to play these iconic figures. FULL CASTING WILL BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY.

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET is directed by Eric Schaeffer, with a book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux, and was originally directed and conceived by Floyd Mutrux. The creative team also includes: Derek McLane (scenic design), Jane Greenwood (costume design), Howell Binkley (lighting design), Kai Harada (sound design) and Chuck Mead (musical arrangements and supervision).

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET is produced in the West End by Relevant Theatricals, John Cossette Productions, American Pop Anthology, John Gore, Thomas B. McGrath, James L. Nederlander, Joseph Smith and Michael McCabe.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

Official UK website: http://www.MillionDollarQuartet.co.uk

Noël Coward Theatre, St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4AU

Box Office opens Saturday 4 December 2010 at 10.00am

Previews from: Tuesday 8 February 2011

Opening Night: Monday 28 February 2011

First booking period to: Saturday 1 October 2011

Book Online: http://www.MillionDollarQuartet.co.uk or http://www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk

Box Office: 0844 482 5141

Telephone and online sales subject to a £1.75 booking fee per ticket.

No booking fee for tickets booked in person at the Box Office.

Show Times:

Monday‐Saturday 8.00pm, Thursday* & Saturday 3.00pm

The performance runs approximately 90 minutes with no interval

*First Thursday matinee 3 March 2011.

Ticket Prices: (from Monday 28 February 2011)

Monday‐Thursday (including Thursday matinees):

£55.00, £45.00, £35.00, £19.50, £15.00*

Friday and Saturday Evenings and Saturday matinees:

£60.00, £50.00, £40.00, £25.00, £20.00*

*Restricted view

£10.00 off all the above prices at preview performances 8‐26 February 2011

PREMIUM TICKETS AVAILABLE AT ALL PERFORMANCES

All prices include £1 theatre restoration levy.

Group Sales: 0844 482 5100

Priority booking for groups available now. Buy 10 or more top price tickets at certain performances and save money.

Subject to availability.

Hospitality: 0844 482 5166

Access: 0844 482 5137

Standby Concessions: Best available seats £25.00

From 6pm at Monday‐Friday 8.00pm performances and from 12 noon at Thursday and Saturday 3pm performances at the Box

Office for Students, Senior Citizens, Jobseekers, Equity, BECTU and MU members. Subject to availability. One ticket per ID.

BIOGRAPHIES

ERIC SCHAEFFER (Director)

Eric Schaeffer is the artistic director/co‐founder of Signature Theatre, Washington DC, recipient of the 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award and home to the American Musical Voices Project, the largest musical commission program in the country. Broadway: Putting It Together, Glory Days. West End: The Witches of Eastwick. Kennedy Center: artistic director, Sondheim Celebration; Sunday in the Park with George, Passion, Mame, Follies. Regional: Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theatre, Ford’s Theatre and Arena Stage. Signature: world premieres of The Hollow, First You Dream, Saving Aimee, Nevermore; the American premieres of The Fix and The Witches of Eastwick; as well as Les Misérables, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods among others. Six Helen Hayes Awards for Direction.

COLIN ESCOTT (Co‐Author)

Born in England, Colin Escott lives near Nashville, Tennessee. He is the author of several books, including Good

Rockin’ Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll, the first in‐depth account of the Sun Records story. He coproduced “Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues” for PBS and BBC, and won a Grammy for The Complete Hank Williams on Mercury Records. He is a consultant to Time Life Music.

FLOYD MUTRUX (Co‐Author)

Floyd Mutrux apprenticed at Alley Theatre, Houston; Second City, Chicago; studied in NY while working at Second City and attending Columbia University; in Los Angeles, created ideas, wrote, directed or produced 50 films in 25 years: American Hot Wax (Best Picture, Director, Village Voice, etc.), Scarecrow (Best Film, Cannes), Hollywood Knights, Urban Cowboy, The Untouchables, American Me, Freebie and the Bean, Up in Smoke, Dick Tracy, Ice Cube’s new football movie, and with his wife, Birgitte, created a rock ‘n’ roll ‘Field of Dreams’: Moon Over Memphis. www.floydmutrux.com

DEREK McLANE (Scenic Design)

Credits include: The Miracle Worker, Ragtime, 33 Variations (2009 Tony Award, Best Scenic Design), The Pajama Game (Tony Award, Best Revival), Grease, The Threepenny Opera, Little Women, I Am My Own Wife (Tony Award, Best Play), The Women, Present Laughter, Holiday, Ruined, Lie of the Mind, Becky Shaw, Rafta, Rafta, 10 Million Miles, Things We Want, The Voysey Inheritance, Two Trains Running, Hurlyburly, Abigail’s Party, Aunt Dan and Lemon. Awards: 1997 and 2004 Obie Awards; 2004, 2005, 2007 Lucille Lortel Awards; 2006 Tony Award nomination.

HOWELL BINKLEY (Lighting Design)

Broadway credits works include: Memphis, West Side Story (Tony Award nomination.), Guys and Dolls, In the Heights (Tony Award nomination), Jersey Boys (Tony Award), Avenue Q, Parade, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Tony Award nomination) and How to Succeed…. Extensive regional and dance works. Joffrey Ballet (Billboards), Parsons Dance (co‐founder) for which he has designed more than 60 pieces and the Kennedy Center’s Sondheim Celebration. Fivetime Helen Hayes Award recipient, 1993 Laurence Olivier Award and Canadian Dora Award for Spider Woman, 2006 Henry Hewes Design Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Jersey Boys.

JANE GREENWOOD (Costume Design)

More than 100 Broadway/Off‐Broadway credits including: Present Laughter, A View From the Bridge, Waiting for Godot, Thurgood, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Trumpery, Heartbreak House, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, On Golden Pond, A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Master Class, The Sisters Rosensweig. Metropolitan Opera: revival of Adriana Lecouvreur (2009), Dialogue of the Carmelites, The Great Gatsby; Chicago Lyric Opera: Nabucco and Rigoletto; SF Opera: La Favorita. Film: Arthur, Can’t Stop the Music, Glengarry Glen Ross. Awards: Irene Sharaff Life Time Achievement Award, Theatre Hall of Fame, 15 Tony Award nominations. Professor, Yale School of Drama.

KAI HARADA (Sound Design)

Kai Harada attended Yale University before leaving to pursue a career in theatrical sound design. As associate to sound designer Tony Meola, he has worked on such projects as A Christmas Carol, The Sound of Music, Disney’s Der Glöckner von Notre Dame, Kiss Me, Kate, Sweet Smell of Success and Wicked. Regional and Off‐Broadway designs include: Two Cities, Heaven Help Us!, Under the Bridge, Barbie Live! in Fairytopia and, Million Dollar Quartet in Chicago and on Broadway. In his spare time he supervises the sound for Wicked around the world.

CHUCK MEAD (Musical Arrangements and Supervision)

For the past 15 years singer/songwriter Chuck Mead has stood at the forefront of the Americana roots music movement as co‐founder and front man of the three‐time Grammy‐nominated and Country Music Association

Award‐winning country band BR‐549. After five acclaimed albums and two hit EPs, Chuck released his first solo record Journeyman’s Wager in 2009 and continues to tour the world. Also known as a record producer, Million Dollar Quartet is Chuck’s first foray into musical theatre.

RELEVANT THEATRICALS (Producer)

Headed by Gigi Pritzker and Ted Rawlins, Relevant Theatricals develops and produces new work for the stage. Current projects include Snapshots, a new musical with book by David Stern and music and lyrics by Stephen

Schwartz (Wicked), and a new musical version of Dennis the Menace. Relevant’s sister company, Odd Lot Entertainment, develops and produces film properties. Current films include Rabbit Hole, based on the Pulitzer Prizewinning play by David Lindsay‐Abaire, starring Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart and Dianne Wiest and directed by John Cameron Mitchell.

JOHN COSSETTE PRODUCTIONS (Producer).

John Cossette was destined for the theatre. As rumour has it, in his early days managing an Off‐Broadway theatre, he learned that shutting off the air conditioning ten minutes before the interval sold more drinks. Thirty‐plus years later, Cossette has become a major force in music, television, live events and theatre. Credits include 18 years producing the Grammy Awards®; ten years for the BET Awards, earning him two NAACP Image Awards, the grand reopening of Radio City Music Hall, live concerts in Central Park and Centennial Olympic Park for the 1996 Olympic Games; and MusiCares for NARAS.

AMERICAN POP ANTHOLOGY (Producer)

An anthology series about the people “who made the music that changed the culture of our country”. Along with Colin Escott and Birgitte (who choreographed Million Dollar Quartet in Florida), is workshopping The Alan Freed Show, The Fat Man Sang, Boy From NYC, Lonesome Town (with John Kaye), Someday My Prince Will Come. After a one‐year workshop in L.A., Baby It’s You (about the Shirelles) is coming to New York in the 2010/11 season.

JOHN GORE (Producer)

John Gore is a producer/director who owns and is CEO of Key Brand Entertainment / Broadway Across America ‐ the largest dedicated theater company in the US. He has won 4 Tony Award’s, one Olivier Award and an Emmy Award nomination for Believe ‐ The Eddie Izzard Story. His company presents first‐class touring Broadway musicals, plays and other live events throughout a network of 42 North American cities, and currently has 12 shows on Broadway. He directed the only stage adaptations of Batman and Star Trek and produced Thunderbirds F.A.B and Wallace & Gromit on stage in the West End. He is a major investor in the original London productions of Cats, The Phantom of the Opera and Wicked. Check out http://www.johngore.com and www.broadwayacrossamerica.com

THOMAS B. McGRATH (Producer)

Thomas B. McGrath is the Chairman/owner of Key Brand Entertainment/Broadway Across America as well as Bug Music, Inc. Formerly COO of the Viacom Entertainment Group, including Paramount Pictures. Films released during his tenure include Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump, Braveheart and Titanic. At Act III Communications he produced The Princess Bride and Fried Green Tomatoes. McGrath has received Tony Awards for La Cage aux Folles, Memphis, Boeing‐Boeing and Hair; other shows include Promises, Promises and Million Dollar Quartet on Broadway. In London McGrath has produced Spring Awakening (Olivier Award), Hair, Sweet Charity and the upcoming Million Dollar Quartet. Graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Business School.

JAMES L. NEDERLANDER (Producer)

James L. Nederlander is President of the Nederlander Organization and son of James M. Nederlander (Chairman). He is the third generation of a family known for owning and operating theatres around the world as well as theatrical productions, cultural presentations and popular music attractions. Current productions include West Side Story, The Addams Family, Next to Normal and Race. Upcoming productions include a live show with magician David Blaine.

JOSEPH SMITH (Producer)

Joseph Smith is currently Executive Producer for Old Vic Productions (OVP) in London where he represents the

company in its role as co‐producer, alongside Working Title Films, of Billy Elliot The Musical worldwide. Recently produced, with Michael McCabe, Spring Awakening in the West End that won 4 Olivier Awards including ‘Best Musical’. McCabe/Smith is currently represented on Broadway by Promises, Promises and Million Dollar Quartet and will be a lead producer on How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying starring Daniel Radcliffe in 2011. www.mccabesmith.com

MICHAEL McCABE (Producer)

Michael McCabe is the UK Executive Producer of Wicked, winner of the 2010 Laurence Olivier Award for ‘Most

Popular Show’. In partnership with Joseph Smith, his West End producing credits include: Million Dollar Quartet; Spring Awakening, winner of the Critics’ Circle Award for ‘Best Musical’ and 4 Laurence Olivier Awards including ‘Best Musical’ and, on Broadway, the new production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, starring Daniel Radcliffe, and the Tony Award‐winning revival of Promises, Promises, starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth. www.mccabesmith.com

*Final song list subject to clearance