As the Arkansas Rep kicks off 2014-2015 with Memphis, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette presents The Rep’s “Pay What You Can Night.”

Patrons can pay any amount they wish for their ticket.  Tickets must be purchased in person at the Box Office located at 601 Main Street the day of the performance. The Box Office will be open from 9 a.m. until curtain.  Tickets are limited to (2) two per person.  Offer is based on seating availability.

Kicking off Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s 2014-2015 MainStage Season is Memphis, an electrifying musical that bursts off the stage with explosive dancing, roof-raising rock ‘n’ roll and a thrilling tale of fame and forbidden love.  With high-energy music by David Bryan of Bon Jovi fame, this hard-hitting story of love is loosely based on Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music on the radio in the 1950s.

Winner of four Tony Awards, including Best Musical, the New York Times says Memphis “evokes the powerhouse funk of James Brown, the hot guitar riffs of Chuck Berry, the smooth harmonies of The Temptations, [and] the silken, bouncy pop of the great girl groups of the period.”

In the Beale Street nightclubs of 1950s Memphis simmers a new sound, born of the blues, gospel and rock ‘n’ roll and birthed in the Delta.  It takes a young white DJ, a white man in a black world, to catapult this new sound to the airwaves of Memphis radio and into the living rooms of white Memphis.  What follows is a love story that pushes the racial boundaries of the times and ignites a musical revolution that grips the entire country.