BY GILLIAN G. GAAR

Memphis is the latest musical to have an out-of-town-tryout in Seattle before (hopefully) moving on to the Great White Way; other shows in recent years that have played Seattle before the Big Apple include Hairspray, Young Frankenstein, and Shrek: The Musical. The show has previously been staged at TheatreWorks in Mountain View, California, and the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego.

The story is loosely based on the life of legendary Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips, whose "Red, Hot, and Blue" radio program introduced a burgeoning white audience to the glorious sounds of rhythm & blues. In Memphis, Dewey becomes Huey Calhoun, a perennial loser (his persistently whiny voice possibly having something to do with that) who's also a staunch lover of R&B, and makes it his mission to take the music to a broader audience than that found on Beale Street.

There's also a racial twist, as the whitebread Huey falls for aspiring African-American singer Felicia, with whom he starts a clandestine affair. The love affair plays out against the backdrop of Huey spreading the word; first via his radio show, then on TV, as the possibility of national fame becomes increasingly likely for both Huey and Felicia.

The story is a bit ham-handed as far as its take on race relations; one would've thought we'd left the well-meaning Good Liberal era of Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? behind by now. In Memphis, every black is inherently cool, and every white is eternally clueless - except for Huey, of course. But if that were truly the case, the music would never have crossed over to a white audience, whereas in fact, a few hip, brave teens in Memphis (like a pre-fame Elvis Presley) were already sneaking into black churches to groove on the sounds. The characters are also a bit one-note, with a few key exceptions, like Huey and Felicia, who, because of their romance, are allowed to have more complex emotions.

Huey, played by Chad Kimball, previously played the lead in the ill-fated Lennon musical, and he pours all of his heart into numbers like "The Music of My Soul" and "Memphis Lives In Me"; Felicia, played by Montego Glover, gets her star turn in "Colored Woman." The cast is filled with good voices, and numbers like the opening "Underground" (set in a Beale Street dive) and the TV set romp "Crazy Little Huey" jump with energy. The score is by Bon Jovi's David Bryan, the show's composer and co-lyricist; the other lyricist, Joe DiPietro, also wrote the script. It's not outright rock - even though the gospel songs swing, they're still a bit "cleaned-up gospel" - but the uptempo numbers are especially engaging. The show sags a bit towards the finale; DiPietro doesn't opt for Dewey Phillips' sad end (he succumbed to a heart attack at age 42 after years of substance abuse), but it's still hardly what one could call a happy ending. Still, the rousing "Steal Your Rock ‘n' Roll" is slapped in there ensuring that you'll leave the theater with a smile. As it's a more comprehensive look at the beginnings of rock ‘n' roll than a bio-musical like Buddy.

But will it work on Broadway? That remains to be seen. The show could use some tightening, but economic realities may play a bigger role now, especially since the past few months have seen a record number of Broadway shows being forced to close. The show's producers hope they can open on Broadway this fall; stay tuned.

[Photo Credit: Chris Bennion]