Get ready to relive a night of rock and roll royalty and music history, as the No. 1 tribute to legendary musicians Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley, called “One Night in Memphis,” comes to Williamsport for a one-off performance, Friday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m., at the Community Arts Center, 220 W. Fourth St.

“One Night in Memphis” is a rocking concert tribute to legendary Sun Records recording artists Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley, created and directed by John Mueller, well known for his long running and successful “Winter Dance Party,” a tribute to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper.

“One Night in Memphis” tributes a night in rock and roll history that still lives on today. On December 4, 1956, Carl Perkins, along with his brothers Clayton and Jay, booked a recording session at Sam Phillips’ Sun Records studios in Memphis, Tennessee. What ensued was a jam session that seemed to have happened by pure chance. What survives today is a recording of an event that is a momentous eavesdropping on American musical icons in their prime – all having the time of their lives singing country, gospel, and rock ‘n’ roll songs.

“‘One Night in Memphis’ is a unique show for the Community Arts Center, with equal parts performance and music,” said Steven Ault, manager of marketing communications at the CAC. “‘One Night in Memphis’ brings together amazing performers playing the roles and music of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. We are excited to bring to life that amazing night that lives to this day in rock and roll history.”

John Mueller performs as Carl Perkins, one of the musicians whose music he got hooked on at an early age. Not to mention it helped to be raised in a musical family as well.

“My parents played music – my dad played piano and my brother was kind of a child prodigy on guitar – so that influenced me,” he recalled. “The records that I got passed down to me were from the mid ’60s.

Mueller loved The Beatles and remembered Paul McCartney saying he was a big Buddy Holly fan.

“I thought, ‘I’ve got to check out Buddy Holly’s music,'” he said, “and then I just fell in love with ’50s music.”

Mueller said his friends in high school made fun of him because he wasn’t listening to the music that was current and popular at the time. It was artists like Perkins, Chuck Berry, and The Everly Brothers that he migrated to.

“I just fell in love with their music,” he said. “I think there was something about the immediacy of it. It was for the fun of it, and the beat. That’s kind of how I got hooked on it.”

“One Night in Memphis” features over 90 minutes of pure rockabilly, country, gospel and rock and roll, including the hits “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Hound Dog,” and many, many more.

“It’s an encapsulation of what rock and roll was created from with elements of gospel music, country, and rhythm and blues – it’s all mixed in,” Mueller added. “It’s kind of a nice time capsule of how rock and roll became what it is today. People seem to really get into it, even though the music is over 60 years old.”

Mueller previously had success with the show “Winter Dance Party,” a tribute to the final tour for Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper. Soon after, Mueller’s agency approached him with an idea for another show – a show that was more than music and had a story to tell.

“I loved the whole story behind that night that they all got together and jammed,” Mueller said. “We have anecdotes in the show and improvise with the audience a bit, so it’s not just a concert. But it is more about the music.”

On that evening in 1956, Perkins had booked a recording session for a song he was working on called “Matchbox.” Lewis was hired to play piano on the song and Perkins’ brothers filled out the rest of the band. Then, Elvis just happened to show up.

“He was in town and just got back from a performance in Vegas,” Mueller said. “He just dropped by to say hello to Sam, because he had literally been away from there for about a year and had signed with RCA.”

When Presley saw Perkins, they started hanging out together and goofing off during the session break. Finally, Cash came by – and that’s when this legendary recording session began.

“They started horsing around and Sam left the recording tape on,” Mueller said. “It would’ve been really cool to be a fly on the wall for that session – to hear what they liked to sing.”

When the four musicians got together in the studio that night, Lewis was Sam Phillips’ hired studio musician at the time and had not yet had a hit record. But Mueller knew they couldn’t do a show and have a Jerry Lee Lewis performer not do “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire.”

“We do all of the hit songs that those guys had, whether they were released yet or not, or whether they did them that night,” he added. “We felt we’d be cheating the audience if we didn’t do their hit songs. We mix it up with the songs they actually did that night and their hit songs.”

Mueller said their shows have been getting a mixed demographic of fans, with more than half of them being people from the generation who grew up with the music, or people whose parents grew up with it.

“I’ll tell you what – they get very loud, very vocal,” he said. “They respond so well that I don’t feel like it’s a crowd of older people. It brings back great memories for them and they really get into it.”

Mueller sometimes wonders if a one-night studio session of big-time performers would work in the music business today, as it did on that night nearly 67 years ago.

“This was just happening at that time, and people hadn’t seen anything like that before – going crazy on stage with all of the moves,” Mueller said. “So people remember that, which seems tame by today’s standards. But it was really wild back then.”

For this show there will be two Elvis performers, one being Travis LeDoyt, whom Mueller calls phenomenal. LeDoyt has been referred to as the best young Elvis performer in the United States today.

“He goes out into the audience and interacts with them and has a great sense of humor that a lot of Elvis performers don’t have,” Mueller said. “A lot of Elvis performers forget that Elvis had a great sense of humor. He was always joking during recording sessions, and when he was performing on stage he would always joke around. Travis just does that to a T – he’s really great!”

In addition to Mueller and LeDoyt, the show also features Brandon Bennett as Elvis, Neil Morrow and Shawn Barker as Johnny Cash, and Blair Carman as Jerry Lee Lewis.

“One Night in Memphis” started something new last year, adding some venues for a Christmas presentation and performing Christmas songs that Presley, Lewis, and Cash recorded in the ’50s.

“We had a two-week tour of it last year in December, and people seemed to respond very well,” Mueller said. “We’ll probably be doing more of those this December. Other than that, we’ll just keep the show going like we have and hitting as many new places as we can.”