Memphis the Musical: Behind the Scenes Documentary | 10 Year Anniversary!

There comes a time when muddy waters run rough. There comes a point when a man has had enough. Like a friend who always stands by me. Memphis knows me, Memphis shows me how this life is meant to be.

The big thing about a show is tweaking it and making it better and better storytelling. It's just fine-tuning and fine-tuning and fine-tuning. Tuning, and I think we fine-tuned and we're done fine-tuning.

The baby is ready to walk. Yes.

It's really a time that I'm really happy to be at, but also sad because it's at an ending, but it's really the beginning. But very happy that we're here.

It's just something about the electricity, it's something about the moment of being here that is so, so much fun.

Talk about a journey. Talk about living a dream.

Yes, I've seen it twice, actually. Yeah, I have not seen it. I'm totally— You're gonna enjoy it. I'm totally like, I'm gonna be shocked and I'm gonna love it.

Yeah, you're gonna love it.

Oh, it's Memphis's opening. We're about to tear the roof off of it. They're not ready. Broadway is not ready for this amazing show.

Memphis, come see it. You'll love it. All right, I'm going. Okay, I'm going to get dressed.

What time is it?

It's like, uh, places.

We going down, we going down. We going underground, we going underground. Oh, we going underground, oh, we going underground.

All I know is Memphis lives.

All I know is Memphis lives.

It's a story about a of a man's, a DJ's love for music and how it pushed the world ahead, but also that it was important. It was entertainment, but it was important. We're talking about racism and, you know, hate is, you're not born with hate, you're taught hate, you know? So if we can teach people not to through example, it means something.

We both love the story, we both love music, we both love the history of it, what segregation was and the horrors of it in the 1950s in this show in Memphis, Tennessee. So we just thought it had an epic background to tell an important American story, and also as a story about no matter how bad things are, art and music and joy can push through all that and really help change the world.

When I was a young boy, my daddy sat me down. He said, son, don't you never go to the dark side of town.

This ain't helping.

I'm talking downtown Memphis. See, that's where the black folk play. And I said, yes, sir, daddy. Then I snuck down anywhere.

See, so what it really is, is is understanding the root of rock and roll, which comes from African American rhythm and blues. And that most Americans assumed that the music that they were hearing being sung by white singers had been created by whites. They were copying songs that had been created by blacks. And nobody knew that. And this is taking you back to understand that path.

She's the best singer in Memphis, and I discovered her.

What?

Who are you?

Gordon Grant, RCA Records.

Huey Calhoun, number one TV and radio man in Memphis.

That's very nice. Ma'am, I was telling your brother, you sing Negro music, the kind of Negro music I think white folks might really like. Have you ever sung this new music, this rock and roll?

Sure.

All rock and roll is is Negro blues sped up.

Well, that's not exactly true.

Actually, sir, it is.

This man here thinks that good white folks like you and me stole this music. Can you believe that?

Well, I don't really care if anybody stole it or not, because the fact is the kids are buying it.

Well, I hope it seems like a show about those moments of huge change in the world. The 1950s in the South, as segregation was beginning, was a moment where everything was in play, everything was changing. Not unlike this moment in some ways. Like, I think things are changing hugely right now. I hope it's— that audiences really care about the romance, the love story of it.

What if we could do more than visit?

So be honest, am I the best lover you ever had? Yeah, okay.

I hope it ends up being a story about the people who can change the world, who are so passionate about their point of view, the way Huey, our central character, cares so much about this music and wants to communicate that love of that music. Those aren't necessarily the people who profit from it, but the people who have that passion are the people who create change.

Now, if you like the sweet sound of my sweet voice and you want to hear some real music, well, you just call in as soon as you can, because right now there are aliens, evil, ugly aliens conspiring to take me away from you. So remember, the name is Huey, Rhymes with Louie. Now let's again, a rhythm and bluey!

Whoa! Everybody, everybody, everybody, everybody wants to be black on a Saturday night. Yeah! Woo! Everybody! Everybody, everybody wants to jump back and feel the spirit they got. Everybody wants to be black. Everybody wants to jump back. Everybody wants to be black on a Saturday night.

I can feel the hurt. I can feel the emotion, the disappointment, and the anger.

Mama told me not to dream big, but Mama lived her life running scared. I am stronger and I'll fight longer. I'll do what momma never even attempted.

I can also feel the hope and I can feel the wanting to change, and I think that this show shows both sides. It shows from the African American side and from the Caucasian side, you know, the black and white side. And it makes it one unit. It's like you understand Huey, you understand Felicia, and at the end all you see is love and music. You know, so for me it is a feeling of pride and another look at how far we've come.

<LYRICS>Sometime I'll cause you pain.

Sometime I'm gonna leave you dry and crying in the rain.</LYRICS> How it all started, actually, is I had written a draft, the first draft of the script, and I knew it was a story about the birth of rock and roll. And I know a lot of great theater composers, but I thought, God, this is about rock and roll, and I wish it just sounded authentic. I would love to write this with a rocker, but I just I didn't know any. And I think about 3 or 4 months later, I get a call saying, "Hi Joe, my name is David Bryan. I'm the keyboardist for Bon Jovi, and I just read your script Memphis, and I hear every song in my head, and I want to know how to write the score." Joe's face was like sticking out of the page, and I could see all these characters, and he was talking, and the lyrics were put into such a—

the poetry of it and the rhythm of it fit perfectly for songs. And then when I called him up and I said, you know, "Can I play around with the lyrics?" He's like, "Yeah." you know, have fun with it.

Next day there was a CD on my doorstep and I opened it up and it was David singing a fully orchestrated rock record, essentially.

<LYRICS>Home, where all the streets are paved with soul. Down on Beale there's a honky-tonk bar, you can hear the wail of a blues guitar.</LYRICS> Have a beer and drop a dime in the blind man's jar.

What I think this hopefully represents is, I think, what Dave and I love working together is bringing the world of rock and roll and what that is to the world of theater and what that is, and combining them without compromising either of them, and hopefully making the end result go to a whole sort of new place.

Here it comes, baby!

You know, I think one of the things about Memphis that I find the most fulfilling is that when David played the music to me, I immediately knew how to dance to it. And you know, sometimes for me to get into it, like figure out what I'm going to do in a show, a lot of that has to do with the music and the vocabulary, the language, the steps, how I move. But with this one, it was easy. And it hasn't— it's never been a challenge.

The choreographer Sergio Trujillo and his associates Edgar and Kelly are— I mean, they're tremendous. I've gone to theater, as I said, you know, forever and seen musicals up, down, and sideways, but the folks here, the guys, the girls, I've never seen such extraordinary choreography.

I think more than any other show I've ever done, this is where I feel like I reign, where I feel like this is the most of who I am. I feel like I've really picked phenomenal dancers. You know, it's like I have the A-team of dancers.

Oh!

You're fired!

All of them, in their own right, their own little soloists, little actors, little stars. And you know what I've done is I've gathered these, all these great dancers on one stage and giving them really cool, interesting, hip 1950s choreography. And, you know, I feel that we've created a really magical, magical thing. You know, in order for For a period piece to be accessible to a younger generation, you have to break the rules. You can't be puritanical about mashed potato or the twist or the fly or the Madison, you know. How is a young 18, 16, 17-year-old kid gonna look at this and feel like, wow, those are some cool moves, I wanna do that.

All actors want to do it as well as they possibly can, and you are— if you talk to them with respect and with intelligence and with some degree of compassion, like, they hold on to you like a lifeline. And we, in this process, we all the way through previews, we had 5 hours a day. And we would come in for the first hour just with me and the actors, and we would talk through what had happened the night before. We would talk through what was great about their performance and what could be better. And that hour every day, we met in the smallest room in the theater down in the basement. We had a little sort of circle of chairs, and that very intimate hour before we went upstairs into the big room of the theater, and that sort of little family time actually really bonded us. They're also really, really good with each other. They're really supportive. Whenever in notes, whenever I would say, you know, great job last night on that one moment, all the other actors would applaud. You know, like they're very uncompetitive and very supportive of each other.

I always, when I look at a show, I always look at a show and say, is it gonna speak to audiences today? It doesn't matter what it's about or when it takes place, but is it gonna resonate with an audience today? And we feel that Memphis really does that.

It's kind of like that, and it's kind of timeless.

I mean, I think it will always resonate, which is the sign of a good show.

I believe that this is one of those magic moments when things were just supposed to happen the way they did. This director, this creative team, this group of producers, it is phenomenal.

After our 8-year journey, it ends today and it starts tonight.

There you go.

So really, from the bottom of my heart, we've prayed for this and hoped for this since you were a kid. And to finally be here, it's kind of surreal because you're like, wow, we still have to do the show. You know, everybody's all excited and taking pictures and stuff, but we still have to do a show. We still have to do a wonderful show.

So like everyone's in little clumps around the mics. Those guys right behind you, you're going to start here. Hey, hey, hey! We're doing Del Rey.

Del Rey lifts on stage.

Everyone, half hour.

Talk about living a dream. Talk about being blessed beyond my wildest dreams. Talk about stuff dreams are made of. Talk about legend. Talk about—

Pretty incredible.

Pretty incredible.

All right, dudes, we are here. It is opening night. Let's take this town by storm!

Memphis on 3! Memphis on 3! 1, 2, 3!