There’s a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on in Aurora, Illinois, right now as the city’s top downtown cultural attraction, Paramount Theatre, prepares to inaugurate its third live theater space, Stolp Island Theatre at 5 E. Downer Place, Suite G, with a rockin’ new staging of Million Dollar Quartet.
Today, Paramount announced its cast and crew for one of the all-time best rock and roll musicals, custom produced for Paramount’s new Stolp Island Theatre, an experiential space with just 98 seats, where audiences will feel like they are part of the show. Performances start July 10. Due to popular demand, Million Dollar Quartet has already been extended through December 29, 2024.
(from left) Garrett Forrestal plays Jerry Lee Lewis, Christopher Wren is Carl Perkins, Bill Scott Sheets plays Johnny Cash and Alex Swindle is Elvis Presley in Million Dollar Quartet. Credit: Amy Nelson
(front to back) The cast of Million Dollar Quartet (front to back) - Bill Scott Sheets (Johnny Cash), Garrett Forrestal (Jerry Lee Lewis), Alex Swindle (Elvis Presley) and Christopher Wren (Carl Perkins) - outside Paramount Theatre’s new Stolp Island Theatre. Credit: Amy Nelson
As soon as audiences step inside Stolp Island Theatre, they’ll feel like they’ve stepped back in time to December 5, 1956, inside the Sun Records recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where music legends Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins came together and recorded one of the most historic jam sessions in rock and roll history. Nominated for three Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Million Dollar Quartet features some of the biggest and best songs of all time, including “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk the Line,” “Hound Dog” and “Great Balls of Fire.”
Paramount’s Million Dollar Quartet will be led by Garrett Forrestal as Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Scott Sheets as Johnny Cash, Alex Swindle as Elvis Presley and Christopher Wren as Carl Perkins. Dan Leali plays Fluke, Madison Palmer is Dyanne, Sam Pearson plays Sam Phillips, Jake Saleh is Brother Jay and Haley Jane Schafer plays Marion. Understudies are Drew Mitchell, Billy Rude, Haley Jane Schafer, Zach Sorrow and Kyle Wells.
Paramount’s Million Dollar Quartet features (top, from left) Garrett Forrestal (Jerry Lee Lewis), Bill Scott Sheets (Johnny Cash), Alex Swindle (Elvis Presley) and Christopher Wren (Carl Perkins) with (bottom) Dan Leali (Fluke), Madison Palmer (Dyanne), Sam Pearson (Sam Phillips), Jake Saleh (Brother Jay) and Haley Jane Schafer (Marion).
Directors Jim Corti and Creg Sclavi are working with a “million dollar” production team including Kory Danielson, music director; Jeffrey D. Kmiec, scenic designer; Matt Guthier, costume designer; Greg Hofmann, lighting designer; Adam Rosenthal, sound designer; Mike Tutaj, projections designer; Katie Cordts, wig, hair and makeup designer; Jonathan Berg-Einhorn, properties designer; Ethan Deppe, electronic music designer; Susan Gosdick, dialect coach; Max Fabian, fight and intimacy director; Devon Hayakawa, dramaturg; Bill Scott Sheets, associate music director; Rebecca J. Lister, stage manager; and Emily Hanlon, assistant stage manager. Book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrex. Original concept and direction by Floyd Mutrix.
Previews of Million Dollar Quartet start July 10. Opening Weekend is July 19-21. Show times are Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sunday at 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. though December 29, 2024.
Tickets to Million Dollar Quartet are $65. For tickets and information, visit paramountaurora.com, call (630) 896-6666, or stop by the Paramount Theatre box office, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and until show time on show days. For updates, follow @ParamountAurora on Facebook, Instagram and @paramountarts on LinkedIn.
Stolp Island Theatre is located at 5 E. Downer Place Suite G, facing the Fox River in downtown Aurora. It’s just a block and a half from Paramount Theatre, the 1,888-seat Art Deco palace, home to Paramount’s blockbuster Broadway Series and the largest subscription base in the nation, and the 165-seat Copley Theatre, where Paramount presents its BOLD Series of more intimate works.
“Our 2017 Broadway staging of Million Dollar Quartet remains an audience favorite, and has always been one of our top requested shows to ‘bring back,’” said Jim Corti, Paramount Artistic Director and co-director of Million Dollar Quartet. “Not only are we bringing it back, but this new production will be staged in a whole new way, where audiences are going to feel surrounded by amazing musical talent and the dazzling production values they’ve come to expect from Paramount.”
Creg Sclavi, who is both project manager supervising construction of Stolp Island Theatre, and co-directing Million Dollar Quartet with Corti, added, “When audiences walk inside, they’ll encounter dramaturgical displays about the history behind one of the most seminal nights in music history. Making their way through a 1950s downtown Memphis streetscape, they’ll then step inside a theatrical recreation of Sun Studio, with seats all around. It will feel like Elvis, Jerry Lee, Johnny and Carl are treating them to a personal, intimate, one-of-a-kind live music experience.”
Talk about popular demand: when tickets went on sale in May, the first four weeks of shows sold out in 30 minutes. The first eight weeks sold out in less than 48 hours. The day after tickets went on sale to the general public, due to box office demand, Paramount announced an extension through the end of the year, December 29, 2024.
“Aurora is already a destination for Broadway-caliber musicals at Paramount Theatre, our BOLD Series in our intimate Copley Theatre, and live outdoor concerts at RiverEdge Park,” said Tim Rater, President and CEO, Aurora Civic Center Authority. “Now, we’re adding an all-new theater experience, just a block away, right on the Fox River. With Paramount’s commitment to doing more and better, and the City of Aurora’s commitment to the arts and downtown, we are the model that others can look to as to how the performing arts can revitalize a community.”
Stolp Island Theatre received a multi-year funding commitment from Verano, a leading multi-state cannabis company that operates Zen Leaf Aurora, located at 740 Illinois Route 59, and nine additional Zen Leaf dispensaries across Chicagoland.
(from left) Alex Swindle plays Elvis Presley, Bill Scott Sheets is Johnny Cash, Garrett Forrestal plays Jerry Lee Lewis and Christopher Wren is Carl Perkins in Million Dollar Quartet. Credit Amy Nelson
Million Dollar Quartet is the opening production for Paramount’s new Stolp Island Theatre. Here are conceptual renderings (top, from left) of the theater’s floor plan, lobby streetscape welcoming audiences into the Sun Studio storefront, and (bottom) inside the Sun Studio performance space. Renderings by Jeffrey D. Kmiec.
Director and lead cast bios
Jim Corti (Paramount Artistic Director, co-director, Million Dollar Quartet) is fresh from co-directing Paramount’s 12th Broadway Series finale, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, with Johanna McKenzie Miller. Corti inaugurated Paramount’s Broadway Series with President and CEO Tim Rater in fall 2011 with the critically acclaimed My Fair Lady and a subscriber base of 12,500 patrons. In 2015, Paramount’s Broadway Series became Jeff Award eligible. Since then, Paramount has garnered 115 nominations with 29 wins, including three consecutive Best Large Musical awards for Les Misérables, West Side Story and Sweeney Todd. Corti helmed all three, and won Best Director for two of them, Les Misérables and Sweeney Todd. Corti also directed Paramount’s Fiddler on the Roof, Miss Saigon, RENT, The Who’s Tommy, Oklahoma!, Mamma Mia!, Million Dollar Quartet, Once, The Producers, Newsies, Groundhog Day: The Musical, Next to Normal, and co-directed Into the Woods, A Streetcar Named Desire and Fun Home. A Broadway veteran, he appeared in the original New York casts of Ragtime and Candide, joined the long running A Chorus Line, and toured nationally in Urinetown, Cabaret and Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. Other highlights include being the only director to have two productions in the same year in the Chicago Tribune’s 2009 list of 10 Best Shows for Drury Lane’s Cabaret and Writers Theatre’s Oh, Coward! He remains the sole honoree to have won Jeff Awards as an actor (Marriott’s Grand Hotel), choreographer (Drury Lane’s Singin’ in the Rain) and director (Paramount’s Sweeney Todd and Les Misérables, Drury Lane’s Sweet Charity and Northlight’s Blues in the Night).
Creg Sclavi (Stolp Island Theatre Project Manager, co-director, Million Dollar Quartet) has spent the past year project-managing the construction of the new Stolp Island Theatre. His credits include associate director, Next to Normal (Paramount’s BOLD Series) and assistant director, Murder on the Orient Express (Maltz Jupiter) and Dead Man’s Cell Phone (FSU/Asolo). Sclavi earned a BFA in Musical Theatre at UW-Stevens Point, and a MFA in Acting at FSU/Asolo Conservatory). cregsclavi.com
Garrett Forrestal (Jerry Lee Lewis) is making his Paramount debut. Since his first production of Million Dollar Quartet in 2022, Forrestal has dreamt of doing the show in an intimate space. He has performed all over the country and is especially excited to call Chicago home for the next bit of time.
Bill Scott Sheets (Johnny Cash) returns to Paramount after playing Johnny Cash in its acclaimed 2017 Broadway Series production of Million Dollar Quartet. His credits include Million Dollar Quartet Christmas (2021, 2022, 2023 national tour and original cast album), Million Dollar Quartet (Norwegian Cruise Line and more) and Ring of Fire (Drury Lane, Palace Theater). Concert performances include Cash vs. The King, Million Dollar Reunion and December of ‘63. billscottsheets.com
Alex Swindle (Elvis Presley) is a singer, musician, National Grand Champion and 2015 Ultimate Elvis Top Ten World Finalist from Birmingham, Alabama. Growing up in a household of musicians, Swindle discovered his passion for performing at a very young age. After twelve years of performing as an Elvis tribute artist, he brings to the stage the thrill and charged atmosphere that’s reminiscent of young Elvis in his Sun record days of 1956. A genuine southern gentleman, Swindle presents to his audience a raw talent and compelling charm much like Elvis at the beginning of his career.
Christopher Wren (Carl Perkins) is making his Paramount debut and entering Sun Studios for the 16th time since starting with the 2015-2016 national tour of Million Dollar Quartet. Off-Broadway credits include God Loves My People Best and Iva: The Myth of Tokyo Rose. Other credits include The Buddy Holly Story, Hank Williams: Lost Highway, The Civil War and Big River. TV credits include Billy on the Street (truTV) and Dates from Hell (ID.)
The cast of Million Dollar Quartet (from left) - Bill Scott Sheets (Johnny Cash), Christopher Wren (Carl Perkins), Garrett Forrestal (Jerry Lee Lewis) and Alex Swindle (Elvis Presley) take a stroll along the Fox River, right in front of Paramount Theatre’s new Stolp Island Theatre, 5 E. Downer Place, Suite G, in downtown Aurora. Credit: Amy Nelson
Also coming soon to Paramount Theatre
Paramount has a blockbuster, four-show line-up for its 13th Broadway Series, launching this fall with The Full Monty (August 21-October 6, 2024), followed by two highly anticipated Regional Premieres – Disney’s Frozen (October 30, 2024-January 19, 2025) and Waitress (February 12-March 30, 2025) – climaxing with a revival of Cats (April 30-June 15, 2025). Broadway packages start as low as $56.
Paramount’s third BOLD Series – right across the street in Paramount’s intimate Copley Theatre – will present three fresh, exciting works in 2024-25: Peter and the Starcatcher (July 24-September 1, 2024), An Act of God (October 2-November 10, 2024) and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (March 12-April 27, 2025). BOLD packages start at just $75.
For subscriptions, tickets and information, visit ParamountAurora.com, call (630) 896-6666, or visit the Paramount box office, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in Aurora, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and until show time on show days.
About Paramount Theatre
Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., is the center for performing arts in Aurora, the second largest city in Illinois. The beautiful, 1,843-seat theater, graced with a strong 1930s Art Deco influence and original Venetian décor, nationally known for its high-quality productions, superb acoustics and historic grandeur, has been downtown Aurora’s anchor attraction since 1931.
Since launching its own Broadway Series in 2011, Paramount has amassed more than 37,000 subscribers, making it the largest subscription house in the U.S.
For over 50 years, the Joseph Jefferson Awards has recognized excellence in Chicago area theater. Paramount has been honored to earn 115 Jeff nominations and 29 wins over the last eight years of eligibility, including six Jeff Awards in 2022 for Kinky Boots, including Best Musical-Large, Paramount’s fourth win in that category following Sweeney Todd (2017), West Side Story (2016) and Les Misérables (2015).
Paramount Theatre is one of four live performance venues programmed and managed by the Aurora Civic Center Authority (ACCA). Paramount’s newly-renovated “sister stage” is the 165-seat Copley Theatre, home to Paramount’s BOLD Series, across the street in North Island Center. ACCA also programs and manages Stolp Island Theatre, an immersive theater experience opening on the Fox River in July 2024, the Paramount School of the Arts, and RiverEdge Park, downtown Aurora’s 6,000-seat outdoor summer concert venue.
Paramount Theatre continues to expand its artistic and institutional boundaries under the guidance of Tim Rater, President and CEO, Aurora Civic Center Authority; Jim Corti, Artistic Director, Paramount Theatre; a dedicated Board of Trustees and a devoted staff of live theater and music professionals.
For updates, follow @ParamountAurora on Facebook, Instagram and @paramountarts on LinkedIn.