On Wednesday, “Million Dollar Quartet” started its final run at Stolp Island Theatre in downtown Aurora. But for two of its stars, the music is just beginning.
Madison Palmer, who has played Elvis Presley’s girlfriend Dyanne since the Paramount’s smash hit opened in July of 2024, got engaged a couple months ago to Corey McKinney, who takes on the role of “The King” in this musical.
And the couple is set to tie the knot Oct. 1 of next year in a big family-focused wedding near Palmer’s hometown of Pittsfield, Illinois.
When I caught up with the excited bride-to-be – trust me, she’s indeed pumped – Palmer was in between the first and second show of this last MDQ run, which ends Jan. 3.
“It was pretty much love at first sight” for both her and McKinney, declared Palmer, who would be performing her 700th show that evening. “The more we hung out,” after he took on the role of Elvis a year ago, “the more I wanted to be around him every day.”
Equally enthusiastic when we spoke in between Wednesday’s two performances was Sean McGibbon, the self-described “ADHD” actor and musician making his Aurora debut, who “wanted to work with (the Paramount) for years” because of “its reputation in musical theater.”
And in this intimate 98-seat venue that replicates Memphis’ original Sun Records studio, McGibbon says his first performance was truly an adrenalin rush, especially when “the audience got to its feet and danced.”
“If all the shows are like that,” he surmised, “then it will be great.”
Trust me, they will … and it will, I told him.
By the way, McGibbon is taking over for Garrett Forrestal who, like Palmer, had been with “Million Dollar Quartet” since its opening, as has bass player Jake Saleh in the role of Brother Jay.
Replacing a cast member, even one as popular as Forrestal, gives a show that’s been around this long a different temperature, and that’s a good thing, noted Palmer, who certainly got to know the former Jerry Lee but describes his replacement as “so good” and “so fun.”
He and his predecessor “have very different vibes,” insisted McGibbon, who grew up in musical theater in Austin, Texas, where he got encouragement at an early age from multi-Grammy winner Floyd Domino, who happened to be in a music store when the young boy was “hammering away” on a piano, and ended up giving young Sean lessons because he saw something exceptional.
McGibbon’s entire bio is also special. The actor – who has taken on Jerry Lee Lewis roles before, including on a Broadway National Tour – is not only a musician but a magician, juggler and chess player. He also once played on national table tennis and national kayak polo teams, which he describes as “catnip sports” because they are “easy to pick up and difficult to master and with no chance of ever making money from them.”
McGibbon, who had hoped to make a career out of tap dancing and describes himself as a nerd with “Labrador retriever energy,” says he’s even more energized by this show, where the audience is just a few feet away and every move can be closely scrutinized.
“You have to stay in the moment in a way that is unique,” noted the actor, now based out of London after marrying a “British lady” six months ago. “So I am always thinking about what Jerry Lee would do next.”
Even with 700 shows behind her, Palmer agrees that being present in this Stolp Island production can be challenging because “you know everyone so well” yet must pretend the opposite. That’s especially true when it comes to working with her husband-to-be who, as Elvis, has only been dating her character Dyanne a couple weeks.
Which is why, Palmer admitted, “I have to reel it in sometimes.”
In case you were wondering (as was I), the groom will not be singing “Can’t Help Falling in Love” or any other romantic Elvis songs to his new bride on their wedding day. As much as her finance loves playing The King on stage, “he gets nervous” if asked to sing any other place.
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She and McKinney, who is from Jacksonville, Florida, plan to continue living in Chicago after the show closes in January. But this city and the theater on Stolp Island, no doubt, will always be a special place for this young actor, where her personal life was not only all shook up, but so was her career.
“I am a completely different person now. Not a lot of actors get this many reps on a stage,” Palmer said. “I can’t imagine not having this job and being in Aurora every day.”