Johnny Cash deserves to live on in collective nostalgic imagination

By GLENN DOBBS
A Seat on the Aisle

I have finally reached the demographic where nostalgic entertainment is increasingly appealing. Theaters have taken notice. There is a plethora of legacy musicians whose music has been fashioned into “Jukebox Musicals.” Everyone from the Beach Boys to Michael Jackson have had Broadway runs.

In the last two decades, there has always been at least one such show on the boards at any given time. The reason is simple enough. The music has broad nostalgic appeal, and the shows are much cheaper to produce than traditional musicals.

So it is with Ring of Fire, which now is enjoying a long run at Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre. The notes in the program declare, “Ring of Fire brings the story of the musical icon Johnny Cash’s story of love, faith, struggle with success, rowdiness, redemption, home, and family to the stage.” All of that ambition and 30 songs from the Cash songbook!

Sounds good. Let’s see it.

Director Jeff Stockberger has assembled nine very talented performers who, over the course of the show, each play an astonishing number of different instruments. The musical virtuosity of the different cast members was a real pleasure to experience. I counted one actor playing six different instruments!

It was a challenge to distinguish one performer from another. Individual characters are not identified by design. It allows the cast, as they move through the phases of Cash’s long career, to assume different roles. They constantly flowed from one vignette to the next. So it was difficult to note one performer over another. Long-time Beef and Boards veteran, Sarah Hund, was delightful in her turn as Minnie Pearl at the Grand Ole Opry.

Sarah Hund performs “Flushed from the Bathroom of Your Heart” as Minnie Pearl. (Photo by Rob Slaven / IndyGhostLight.com)

Luke Darnell functioned as an avatar of Cash and served as a loose narrator of sorts, bringing gravitas to pivotal scenes. I did note Tyler Breeding, who channeled a young Johnny Cash in his prime. It was mesmerizing how well he looked and sang like Cash. I should stress that all of the actors were uniformly terrific singers and performed Cash’s hits with joyful exuberance. Together, the cast made a delightful tribute band.

And therein lies the crux of the matter. Ring of Fire is not really a play in a traditional sense. Although some songs were explained with light narration, there is no drama here. Johnny Cash was a notoriously mercurial man given to swings between religious ecstasy and dark violence. He fell from grace and rose to redemption again and again. It was these internal conflicts that made his music so compelling. Cash never tried to hide his many flaws. It was his openness that made him so authentic. This production glosses over such issues and coats his story with a sugary sweetness reminiscent of a Disney film. The real Johnny Cash never shows up.

To be fair, I am not sure how you could do a biopic about such a complicated man and perform 30 of his songs as well. I suppose this is the point. How do you capture a performer who could be both deeply empathetic and capable of self-immolation at the same time?

Johnny Cash deserves to live on in our nostalgic imagination. His music is deeply embedded into the American consciousness. It is easy to imagine Cash in his 1953 convertible Cadillac, top down, traveling down a two-lane highway somewhere in Middle America to his next gig. His trusty Martin dreadnought guitar riding in the back seat, and the horizon ahead bright and full of promise. For many, as we age and our memories become increasingly gauzy, it is what we like to imagine America was like back then. When music was good, and the world less complicated. God, it seems like yesterday.

“I’ve been everywhere, man.” – Johnny Cash

Bottom line: Recommended. Although this show is not really a biography of Johnny Cash, the music alone is worth the trip. It is not often you get to experience live music of such outstanding caliber and should not be missed.

Ring of Fire continues at Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre through Oct. 4. Tickets are available at BeefAndBoards.com.

Read more great play reviews from A Seat on the Aisle at asota.wordpress.com.