History of shock and roll
BEVERLEY Knight and Killian Donnelly were quietly going over a scene from the new musical Memphis before a rehearsal.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw cast member Mark Carroll suddenly loom over them with a club, and proceed to pretend to beat them. It’s a moment of racial ugliness in Memphis, which won a Tony for best musical on Broadway four years ago, that shocks to the core.
‘The first time I did that scene, I must say I felt pretty sick inside,’ said Knight, who plays would-be singer Felicia Farr, ‘that people did that to each other, with no sense of guilt or shame.’
The show is set in segregated Tennessee and focuses on Huey Calhoun, a white DJ, played by Donnelly, who introduces the ‘devil’s music’ (rhythm and blues — or any music with a pulse) to the ‘white folks’ in the Fifties and early Sixties.
Calhoun is loosely based on the late DJ Dewey Phillips, who launched R&B on his audience with a delivery like an express train. The reason for the beating in the show is that Huey and Felicia are dating. ‘Black and white romance was illegal then,’ Donnelly said.
Knight said she had visited Memphis. ‘Segregation is over, but they still preserve the whites-only water fountain — and the blacks-only one.’ The singer was a sensation in the musical The Bodyguard before taking on Memphis, created by David Bryan, Joe DiPietro and director Christopher Ashley.
The original songs and energy of the cast are exciting. I had some misgivings when I saw the show in New York, but it has been worked on since then.
Donnelly and Knight make an electrifying duo. He has a special routine to protect his voice, and has been contracted to do seven out of eight performances each week. She will do six and drinks lashings of Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa, a black sweet Chinese tea, to keep her voice in tip-top condition for when previews start at the Shaftesbury Theatre on October 9.