Hunter Semrau performs as Jerry Lee Lewis in Million Dollar Quartet Christmas. (Supplied Image/Million Dollar Quartet Christmas)

By Chris Brown

Million Dollar Quartet Christmas show

Medicine Hat’s Hunter Semrau gets million-dollar role as Jerry Lee Lewis

Dec 14, 2022 | 4:20 PM

Performing as a musical icon on a national tour is a priceless gig. But if you had to put a price on it, a million dollars is a good starting point.

On Dec. 6 in Florida, 2017 Crescent Heights High School grad Hunter Semrau made his national tour debut as Jerry Lee Lewis in Million Dollar Quartet Christmas. The musical is set during the famed homecoming of Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley at Sun Records in December 1956.

“I think this has to be the highlight of my career this far in terms of the show. It’s such a fun experience,” he says. “At the very end I clamber up on top of the piano hitting all the keys with my feet and I just get the audience involved and get them to roar. And on my opening day in Florida, just hearing the roar of the crowd as I leapt off the piano is a memory I will always have with me.”

Semrau first played Lewis in Million Dollar Quartet a few years ago with New West Theatre in Lethbridge and says the Christmas show is written as a continuation to that show. In the real-life meeting between the four, they played a lot of Christmas music and that along with some of the quartet’s own hits form the basis of the show, Semrau says.

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Semrau plays piano throughout the show on a total of 28 songs and says it’s been incredible to play someone with so much personality and style as Lewis. He built his performance by watching as much of Lewis performing as possible.

“You can find him jumping on the piano and walking like a penguin; you can see him throwing piano benches and all the different styles that he plays in. I’m trying to be as true to his style of performances with his head banging and his flippy hair and playing the piano with his feet, butt, everything, as I possibly can.”

Semrau, who has a BM in Musical Theatre from Oklahoma City University, says he wouldn’t be where he is today without the Crescent Heights High School drama program and director Jennifer Davies. He played the lead in the Bonnie & Clyde and The Addams Family musicals among a long list of credits at the school.

He says until Grade 11 he thought he was going to have a career as an engineer. Then he realized what a passion musical theatre is for him.

“We did so many shows at Crescent Heights that were so impactful for me about formulating my talents and opinions on musical theatre in general,” he recalls, adding everything was cemented for him in his senior year. “We did Bonnie & Clyde, which is one of the highlights of my performing career as well, and that really sold it for me and I knew that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life after that show.”

For more on Semrau and Million Dollar Quartet Christmas, visit broadwayworld.com.