When Broadway Comes to Niagara Falls…

When people first start planning their Niagara Falls itinerary, after writing “See the waterfalls” at the top of the list, they tend to move on to other common area favorites like: touring wineries, spending time in the casino, and taking a ride on the Maid of the Mist.

While all these activities are definitely worth your time, one routine attraction that’s often missed is the opportunity to take in high-quality theater. Most people assume you have to go to New York City or London to take in a Broadway-style play, but thanks to Niagara Falls’ reputation as a hot-spot for fun and people, sometimes, the Broadway plays make there way to us.

Here’s one such lucky happening that’s slated to grace the stage for ten days during the month of June.

The History

Called a “jukebox musical,” the Broadway play that’s making its way to Niagara is called “Million Dollar Quartet,” and it brings to stage the too-good-to-be-believed-but-still-true story of one of music’s most famous recording sessions. 60 years ago, on December 4th in 1946, stars Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis got together for an impromptu jam and recording session at Sun Record Studios — easily the most famous early rock and roll recording studio — located in Memphis, Tennessee.

Considered one of rock and roll and pop music’s most seminal moments, 17 tracks from the session were finally released to the public in 1981, but they were just released in Europe. After the discovery of more tracks, another record was released — again to a European audience. Finally, the full batch of recordings was released in the United States in 1990 under the title “Elvis Presley — The Million Dollar Quartet.”

The Play

The musical spawned from that session seeks to bring to life that long-ago and legendary night when four of the world’s best and most iconic musicians and performers played and sang together for little more than the fun of it. For fans of that era of rock and roll music — and those four performers — the musical offers a snapshot of that moment in time as well as the songs the four young men played together.

The musical first opened on Broadway in New York in 2010, and it enjoyed a West End run in London in 2011. Now, the musical has finally hit the road so that audiences in other parts of the world can experience what it would have been like to be a fly on the wall of Sun Record Studios all those years ago.

The Songs

Here are just some of the songs you’ll hear:

• “Blue Suede Shoes”
• “Folsom Prison Blues”
• “Long Tall Sally”
• “Sixteen Tons”
• “Great Balls of Fire”
• “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”
• And many more!

The musical should be easy to fit into your Niagara vacation schedule since there are both matinee and evening performances offered from June 21st through June 30th. Don’t miss this chance to relive one of musical history’s finest moments. Get your tickets to see Million Dollar Quartet at the Fallsview Casino Resort’s Avalon Ballroom today. Tickets start at just $35.

Categories: Falls Avenue Resort