The fourth of December 1956. Record producer Sam Phillips makes musical history by uniting four rock’n’roll icons at his Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Inspired by an astonishing real-life event, Million Dollar Quartet brings to life on stage the legends that are Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

Following successful runs in Vegas, the West End and on Broadway, this smash-hit musical is visiting Malvern Theatres and Birmingham Hippodrome this month as part of a new UK tour directed by Ian Talbot. We spoke to Talbot to find out more.

“What I've tried to do with this version is make it less like a concert and more like a play with music,” he says. “In previous productions on Broadway and in the West End, they've had stand mics down the front, which they'd go to every time they came to do a number. They don't do that in this version - it's more about exploring the relationships between the four singers and Sam Phillips. One of our cast members has been in the show in Vegas for four years, and our Musical Director, John Mayer, worked on it in London, and they both say that this production is entirely different.”

By placing the relationships between the characters centre stage, Talbot is able to explore each one individually in greater depth, drawing out the personalities behind the public personae.

“What I've tried to cultivate is distinct personalities. Carl is kind of the moody one, Johnny is the silent one, Jerry is really bumptious and never shuts up, and at this point in his career, Elvis is still an extremely polite, shy young man. It's almost hard to believe it when you think of all those pictures of him at the end of his career, bloated and addled with drugs and so on. But that's what he was like at this point. Sam Phillips I see as quite a grisly, tough guy who wants to control them all. He's very possessive.”

It might create moments of inspiration or even genius, but to some extent, putting four megastars together in one room is bound to lead to clashes. For the most part, this is a laid-back jamming session where all of the musicians get their chance to shine, but it's certainly not without its tensions.

“I actually didn't know until I came to direct the play that Blue Suede Shoes was originally written and recorded by Carl Perkins, and that he'd already had a hit with it before Elvis did. One day, when Carl was on his way to perform the song on The Perry Como Show, he got caught in a really bad car accident. Later, while he was still lying in hospital, he was watching television and up came Elvis singing Blue Suede Shoes on The Ed Sullivan Show. Pretty much from then on, whenever Carl sang it, everybody thought he was covering Elvis. So there’s quite a bit of animosity between them.”

Nevertheless, if there's one thing to unite people, it's a common grievance, and even Carl and Elvis are brought together by their mutual irritation with another member of the quartet.

“I think all of them would quite like to bump Jerry Lee Lewis on the head,” laughs Talbot. “He's just so cocky - any opportunity, he'll pop up and say, 'Oh, shall I play you another song?' or 'I've done this...' or 'I'm gonna be the best!' And indeed he was, but he creates quite a lot of the humour in the piece.”

Nicknamed ‘The Killer’, Lewis was once described as ‘rock & roll's first great wild man’ and is widely acknowledged to be one of popular music's most influential pianists. At the age of 80, he's now the one surviving member of the quartet, and remains musically active to this day.

“Apparently he's still as erratic as ever. I think he's cultivated that. From what I hear, he's quite deaf, and when he's waiting to give a performance he just sits in a corner quietly, until somebody comes and says, 'Okay Jerry, you're on'. Then suddenly this miracle happens and he leaps to the floor, plays the piano and then scuffles back and sits in his corner again.”

Lewis might ruffle a few feathers in his way, but there's deeper trouble brewing at Sun Records. As an independent producer with relatively limited resources, Sam Phillips made himself the envy of the big guns like RCA and Colombia with his talent-spotting ability. Unfortunately, his work was such a soaring success that it wasn't long before his boys became too big for him.

“The story really revolves around how Sam Phillips built Sun Records. At this point, he's hoping to get Johnny Cash to renew his contract, but what he doesn't know is that both Cash and Perkins are going off to Colombia  Of course, we also know that Elvis left Sun Records too, at which point the Colonel took over his career, and he started making what many people see as pretty awful movies - a lot of people would say that he sold out.

“Sun Records is very small in comparison with RCA and Colombia, but Phillips hangs on to it like a terrier with a bone. He really did discover all these stars, and during the play he also mentions that he's just signed up a guy called Roy Orbison, so he obviously had this great knack for spotting people. All the big record companies want to know how he does it, and of course he won't tell them, which amuses him no end.”

In addition to the five men, there's also a sixth, female character - Elvis' girlfriend who, within the context of the show at least, is a singer called Dyanne.

“Dyanne has come with Elvis because she's going to meet his parents, and my take on her is that she's the most sensible of the lot of them. When you get these five men together, there's an element of them all behaving like overgrown schoolboys, whereas she's got a wise head on her shoulders. It's her that's able to get Sam Phillips to calm down, and when Jerry Lee tries to come on to her, she gives him this withering put-down and he immediately sits down and feels rather silly. But she's still 'one of the boys' in the sense that she's got a fantastic voice, and she sings two hit numbers, Fever and I Hear You Knocking.”

This isn't strictly true to life. In reality, the girlfriend Elvis brought with him to the recording session was a dancer from Vegas called Marilyn Evans.

“I think she was probably more of a showgirl than the play indicates, but she stayed very quiet and never used the publicity. There's an iconic photograph of her sitting on the piano, but after that she just sort of disappeared.”

But if Million Dollar Quartet takes some liberties with the truth, it's all in the name of good storytelling and creating an exhilarating live experience that has thrilled audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. It might not be the first jukebox musical of recent years, but it might just be one of the most irresistible.

“I think a lot of [the rise of jukebox musicals] is about nostalgia - I know I love Jersey Boys because that was my era. But I think when they fail is when they take all those songs and try to pin them to a story that isn’t very good. This show has a great book, but also every song that's sung is a huge hit. There's a great sort of mega mix at the end which is in the form of a concert, culminating in Jerry Lee Lewis doing Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, and I defy anybody to stay in their seat by the end. Above all, this is the sort of show that you can't help coming out of with a big smile on your face, which I think is quite a nice thing in this time we live in.”

Million Dollar Quartet is showing at Malvern Festival Theatre from Monday 17 until Saturday 22 October, and Birmingham Hippodrome from Monday 24 until Saturday 29 October.