Broadway musical "Memphis" arrives in Riverside, Calif. tonight

My story originally appeared at sbsun.com and dailybulletin.com.

A forbidden love story and the birth of rock ’n’ roll are at the heart of “Memphis.”

Arriving in Riverside, Calif. on Valentine’s Day weekend, the musical ran nearly three years on Broadway and won multiple Tony and Drama Desk awards in 2010. And unlike such jukebox shows as “Mamma Mia,” “Rock of Ages” or “American Idiot,” which use previous hit songs as the score, “Memphis” is entirely original.

Set in 1950s Tennessee, “Memphis” revolves around how rhythm and blues influenced popular rock ’n’ roll music. At the center of it all is Huey Calhoun, a white radio deejay who falls hard for a rising female African-American singer during a time when interracial romance was taboo. He faces many obstacles in shepherding her career.

The Calhoun character is loosely based on real-life DJ Dewey Phillips, known for his influential Memphis radio show, “Red Hot & Blue,” which was also simulcast on TV. Phillips was first to play Elvis Presley’s music on air.

Daniel S. Hines assumes the lead “Memphis” role full-time this year, having already served as understudy on a previous tour. He saw a Broadway preview and was immediately “blown away,” he said.

“I thought it was amazing. The dancing was out of this world, the music was fantastic and the story is excellent. I fell in love with the lead role of Huey right off the bat.”

Getting into the mindset of a crazed Southern character was no problem for Hines, who attended high school in Virginia and college in North Carolina.

His musical theater background helped in preparation for “Memphis,” but it is “definitely more challenging than most roles I’ve had in the past,” admitted the performer.

“Huey is such a tour de force-type role,” he said, adding that during the two-and-a-half-hour performance, Huey is off-stage for less than 10 minutes.

“When he’s onstage, he’s always ‘on’ and babbling up the wazoo,” Hines said. “He’s loud and brash and high energy and never really slows down for the full show.”

While acting in college, Hines realized he “liked sticking out in a crowd … My dad is very outgoing and incredibly charismatic. As a kid, that always embarrassed me, but as an adult, I have found myself becoming more like him every year. That’s something I can definitely relate to in Huey a lot.”

It also helped that Hines grew up hearing Elvis music (thanks to his dad, a lifelong fan). “Before last year’s tour, I got into reading about it, listening to some early rock and getting the feel for what rhythm and blues was like at the beginning.”

The love story in “Memphis” has been compared to the one to “West Side Story.” Hines agrees.

“In this case, it’s the racial tension between black and white America in the South in the ’50s. It is definitely about star-crossed lovers and that feeling. It certainly was a hard love story to make happen in a very important time in our country’s history. I think it’s an important story to share for that reason.”

David Bryan won several accolades for co-writing the music, lyrics and orchestrations. The Bon Jovi keyboardist/backing vocalist approached the production as “entertainment with a message” and once said he was proud that people who saw it in New York City “maybe walked out hating each other a little less and understanding that we’re all different.”

“The idea that humanity can come together is certainly a strong and important theme,” Hines added. “If you use rock ’n’ roll as a metaphor for that sense of humanity, that sense of heart and spirit and life, I think that’s kind of the feeling we want to get.”

Where: Fox Performing Arts Center, 3801 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, Calif.
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 13, 1 and 7 p.m. Feb. 14 
Information: 951-779-9804, www.riversidelive.com
www.memphistour2015.com
Upcoming shows: Feb. 15 (Bakersfield, Calif.), Feb. 17 (Butte, Mont.)