Along with some excellent acoustic guitar playing by the guitarist Ryan O’Donnell, we are introduced to the backing band– first the double bass, drums, guitar, and trumpeter, then the lively supporters roll on playing and singing ‘I’m going to Jackson’. With only three named players, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash and their grown up son, the cast is filled out with a dream team of ten talented actors who sing beautifully and who also play various instruments – flute, washboard and even orchestral chimes. The musical is presented and framed by the couple’s son, Johnny Carter Cash, who strides around the stage with his guitar giving explanations and description of ‘the greatest love affair of all time’ and setting a timeline, sometimes in rhyming couplets. He says growing up as the son of the king and queen of country music was like a fairy tale, ‘but a fairy tale can get dark.’
I was never a fan of Johnny Cash’s music but came to admire him after his performance to the prisoners of Folsom State Prison in the iconic 1968 concert that revived his career, and again in San Quentin State Prison in 1969. However, this show proves to be a lively enjoyable night out, even if you are not a fan. I warmed immediately to the talented Christopher Ryan Grant putting in a powerful and convincing performance as the larger-than-life Cash, with his bulk, his black clothes set with rhinestones and his extravagant gestures – he gives a real feel of the man. Christina Bianco as the quirky outspoken June is a perfect partner. She exudes a vibrant charm acting as a stoic support in Johnny’s raise to fame, but with her own strength and passion.
A lively effervescent first act runs through their childhood and June and Johnny’s first meeting. The play shows us that the eleven-year old June was already famous singing with her family on radio. Johnny was the less fortunate son of a god-loving drunken cotton farmer in Arkansas who thought music was the devil’s work, unless it was singing in church. Johnny made the charts with his first hit, ‘I Walk the Line’, written as a pledge of devotion to his first wife. The fact that Cash made it at all in show business shows his pure tenacity.
Johnny and June meet behind the scenes at the Grand Ole Opry. Their burgeoning illicit love affair (both are married to other people) is played out in a will-they-won’t-they stand-off. When Johnny proposes, June asks him ‘Who shall we tell first, your wife or my husband?’ Their careers are seen taking off, played out through their songs.
The dark side is represented by Cash’s addiction to pills (in fact Dexedrine and Equanil), which he consumed in industrial quantities along with alcohol. He was overnight in police cells several times in his life, but was never jailed. The production plays out the dispute about whether Johnny or June wrote the hit song ‘Ring of Fire’ though the contribution that ‘I fell into a burning ring of fire’ refers to ‘lady bits’ does imply a more masculine narrator. The production was overseen by Johnny and June’s son so it all rings true.
This is a slick highly professional performance by all those involved and it was wonderful to see so many excellent musicians on stage. Go see.
Venue: Churchill Theatre, Bromley
Cast: Christopher Ryan Grant, Christina Bianco, Ryan O’Donnell
Director: Des McNuff
Authors: Des McNuff and Robert Cary
Music Supervisor: Ron Melrose
Dates: 2-7th March, then on tour UK and Ireland