By Meg Hibbert
Contributing Writer
Mill Mountain Theatre’s fall presentation will be a rollicking presentation that features jukebox music and portrayals of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.
The theatre has ties to Salem in numerous ways, including board members who are Salem residents – Linda Garbee, lawyer Nancy F. Reynolds, musician J.T. Faber and Broadway play designer Mark Nayden.
From Sept. 17-Oct. 12 Mill Mountain Theatre’s production will be “Million Dollar Quartet,” which has been described as “transporting audiences straight into the legendary 1956 recording session at Sun Studio in Memphis.”
That’s when Elvis, Cash, Perkins and Lewis got together for an impromptu jam session that became rock-n-roll folklore.
The Mill Mountain production features “That’s All Right,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “Hound Dog” and others those music greats made famous.
Actor and singer Joe Boover as Elvis has a career encompassing national tours and performances on cruise ships.
Reasons people will want to attend, Nayden said, are “It’s live history in the making, and experience with Elvis and there is a foot-stomping soundtrack.”
Mill Mountain Theatre’s next presentation will be the perennial favorite, “A Christmas Story” from the movie of the same name. It will be performed Nov. 28 through Dec. 21 a Youth Audience tour of “Don’t let the Pigeon Drivve the Bus!”
The theatre has quite a history itself. It began as Mill Mountain Playhouse in 1864 when it was housed in an old resort on Mill Mountain, the highest geographic point in Roanoke. After the original Playhouse was destroyed by fire in 1976, the not-for-profit theatre company company moved to the historic Grandin Theatre movie house in the Grandin neighborhood of Roanoke. After Center in the Square was established in downtown Roanoke, the Playhouse was renamed Mill Mountain Theatre and became the anchor in the Center.
Mill Mountain Theatre is a professional year-round theatre that uses local talent and brings in nationally known actors. The theatre also has Mill Mountain Theatre Conservatory for students pre-K through adults who receive education in acting, singing, dancing and theatre tech.
Ticket prices for productions range from $15-45. They can be purchased through millmountain.org or in person at the Center in the Square box office.
There are 17 board members including the four who live in Salem. Nancy Reynolds is immediate past president of the Virginia Women Attorneys Association and has widely published law articles. Her primary area is insurance defense.
Fauber and his family, pianist wife Rachel – who played in the pit for productions – and their children Caroline and Kyle have been involved for years. The young adults acted in numerous shows at Mill Mountain Theatre. J.T. has played drums for 28 Mill Mountain shows. Kyle was the lead role of Willy Wonka and at Salem High School he was The Tin Man in “The Wizard of Oz.”
Caroline is now the band director at Elkton Middle School and plays tenor horn with the Massanutten Brass Band. Kyle works with Thumbwar, a live broadcast production based in Los Angeles.
