Memphis features a book and lyrics by the Joe DiPietro and music and lyrics by Bon Jovi band member David Bryan, who collaborated on the off-Broadway musical The Toxic Avenger. With a score that mixes gospel, rhythm and blues, and early rock ‘n’ roll stylings with a contemporary sensibility, the show follows the fictionalized life story of Huey Calhoun, a young, white radio disc jockey growing up in Memphis in the 1950s. Fueled by the music he hears in the black bars on Beale Street, Huey’s on-air antics and unstoppable enthusiasm for “race records” creates a new white audience for African-American music. Then he falls in love with a beautiful black singer, and his personal life transcends the race line, too, with grave consequences.
Memphis played a 2008 engagement at La Jolla Playhouse and was produced at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre in January 2009 with a cast that included Chad Kimball as Huey and Montego Glover as his love interest. No casting for the Broadway production has been announced.
