Tuesday, December 31, 9:15 p.m.
Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, 1828 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL
Classics from the golden age of rock, blues, and country music, among them legendary tunes by the four iconic artists of Million Dollar Quartet, will fill Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse on New Year's Eve as the theatre hosts Good Rockin' Live: A Salute to Sun Records, a concert event boasting iconic songs performed by venue favorites Robert Shaw & the Lonely Street Band.
In 1952, Sun Studios opened up shop in a small storefront in Memphis, Tennessee, setting off a chain of events that would change the course of musical history. In a few short years, this little record company produced superstars such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich, and B.B. King, and Good Rockin' Live – its hits including “Great Balls of Fire,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “That’s All Right Mama,” and “Blue Suede Shoes” – tells the tale of how rock was born through the music and stories of those who lived it. The Tony Award-winning Broadway-musical tribute Million Dollar Quartet, which debuted in 2008, is based on the famous 1956 photograph of Perkins, Cash, and Lewis as they grouped around Presley at a piano on the night in which the foursome joined in an impromptu jam at Sun Records' one-room sound studio.
Last seen at Circa '21 in the Elvis-themed holiday revue Blue Christmas: A Rock 'n' Roll Holiday Extravaganza, Indiana native Shaw studied at Philadelphia's University of the Arts, performed with both the Chicago and New York casts of Million Dollar Quartet, and has performed nationally in venues including Disneyland and Oklahoma's esteemed Gaslight Theatre. In addition to Elvis, Shaw, performing alongside the musicians of his Lonely Street Band, frequently plays touring engagements impersonating Johnny Cash, Bobby Darin, and both Jake and Elwood Blues of The Blues Brothers.
Doors for the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's Good Rockin' Live: A Salute to Sun Records open at 7:30 p.m. on December 31, with the evening buffet available from 8 to 9 p.m. and the show starting at 9:15 p.m. Tickets are $85-95 with the admission price including New Year's Eve favors and a champagne toast, and more information and reservations are available by calling (309)786-7733 extension 2 or visiting Circa21.com.
