Director Scott Weinstein has been living and breathing Million Dollar Quartet for 13 years.
From its early runs at Chicago’s Apollo Theater to Broadway, he has helped shape this beloved musical into what it is today.
During this Director’s Download, Weinstein shared his insights on what it takes to recreate one of the most iconic nights in music history and what keeps him coming back.
Q: Tell us about Million Dollar Quartet. The storyline.
Weinstein: Sure, it’s the true story of the night that Sam Phillips, who, owned Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee, brought Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley together to play for the first and only time. It was a monumental, legendary jam session.
And, he was smart enough to hit the record button so it was preserved for history. So it’s a musical that is based on that session. It takes the lives of all four of those guys and Sam Phillips and intertwines them, recreates bits of that jam session live on stage and intersperses drama and humor.
It’s an amazing show where you get to see a fly on the wall to music history.
Q: Can you describe the set a little bit?
Weinstein: Yeah, so the show is set in Sun Records. We’ve tried to create a really realistic looking recording studio based off of the real Sun Records in Memphis, which is a really unique, place.
It wasn’t every big budget recording studio that you had, it wasn’t RCA or Columbia, it was actually built inside an old auto parts store. So it’s basically a storefront and it has this really unique character to it.
And our scenic designer, Douglas Clark really captured that on stage. You’ll really feel you’re inside the studio.
Q: How do you approach casting these roles, these icons? What is a must-have?
Weinstein: Yeah, it’s really hard to cast this show. The biggest must-have, first of all, is musicality. All the instruments in the show are played live on stage by the cast.
So they all have to be these virtuosic musicians first and foremost. Then you have to get into the fact that they have to act and be good actors, and then they have to bear a striking resemblance to the real people because this really does have a documentary feel to it.
In terms of the way that the show looks and feels, we want that truth and we want to believe that you are seeing an actor embodying these people.
And also, at the same time though, we’re not looking for impersonators. It’s not an impersonator show. It’s nothing cheesy that. The idea is that we’re finding actors who can embody the spirit of these people, and bring them to life, naturally on stage.
It’s a challenging casting process, but we have a really, really amazing, amazing group here.
Q: Can you describe your history with the show and what keeps you coming back?
Weinstein: I’ve been working on this show now for probably 13 years, on and off.
I was one of the original associates and residents on the original production that dated back to the Apollo Theater in Chicago and Broadway and the National Tour in Vegas.
So I came into the show as an associate resident whose job was to help maintain the show and help cast it, and keep it running. Then started doing my own productions of it shortly thereafter.
It’s a show I love because it really is based so much on the people you have in the room with you. Everyone’s got different skills and everyone brings something different to these roles.
And because it’s all live on stage and because it’s, the instruments are all played live, there’s no conductor, there’s no click, a tempo track along with them. It’s just them doing the whole thing and it really lives and dies based on what’s going on in that room.
There’s always something really electric about the show and there’s always something new to find. It really is a show about family. At the end of the day, yes, it’s about these icons, but these four guys were united by this brotherhood of coming up together at Sun Records.
They were also all united by the abject poverty that they all grew up in. They really are the American dream. They came from nothingness and became the biggest stars in the world.
And Sam Phillips is this father figure in this family dynamic relationship. That makes it really relatable at the same time, even though it is a show about these superstars.
Watch the full Director’s Download here on our YouTube Channel, then grab your tickets to see Million Dollar Quartet live!
Details:
Dates: December 17, 2025 – March 8, 2026
Location: The Phoenix Theatre Company, Hormel Theatre
Tickets: phoenixtheatre.com | (602) 254-2151
ASL/Audio Describe Night is Thursday, January 22, 2026.
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