“Ring of Fire : The Johnny Cash Musical”

In this tribute,, we meet two Johnny Cash portrayers. Johnny, who is also our storyteller/narrator is played by Chicago favorite Ron E. Rains. While I have always enjoyed his work and know he reeks of talent, this may not have been the best role for him. His singing voice is not deep or raspy enough to allow us to close our eyes and feel that Johnny is on that stage. However, Rains is able to keep all the story segments together and hold our eyes to the stage. The younger version, J.R. is played to perfection by Michael D. Potter, who looks and sounds just like the man he is bringing to life. The two men should also have been more physically alike which would have helped the audience members understand that there were indeed two Johnny Cash players on the stage.

In this production, all of the music is handled by the cast members, so the ensemble is made up of multi-talented folk. Without them, there could never have been a production like this. Aja Wiltshire is a powerful June. She shines in making her character truly real and when she does “Carpenter/Lady” you will have a smile on your face. Elleon Dobias as Viv, who is an amazing fiddle player, and also handles drums and more is vivacious and highly energetic. I found myself drawn to her from the very start. I am not a big C & W fan, but her zest grabbed me and brought me in. Both of the other musicians, Erik Hellman and Bass player Roy James Brown, who showed some great pipes with his solo number about a love gone bad ( the comic number in the show) are perfect in being in the right place at the right time with the right sound.

While there are a great number of songs that are familiar to most, there are a great many that are there to help move the story along. You will love “I’ve Been Everywhere”,  “Country Boy”, “Circle in the Sky”, “The Ring of Fire” and of course, after the curtain call, you will hear “A Boy Named Sue”. The show moves quickly and the story makes sense, Doing a bio piece is not always easy and often the creators try to add far too much dialogue. This show allows us to hear the music, get the “gist” and have a fun night at the theater.

The tech aspects of the production were right on! The revolving set (Angela Weber Miller) allows us to see the lows and highs and the lighting (Lee Fiskness) and sound ( Ray Nardelli) were perfect as always. The costumes (Izumi Inabi) were  of the period and of course, most of what Cash wore was BLACK ( he was known as “the man in black”).

 Cassy Schillo handled the properties and Megan Pirtle did the wigs and hair styles.

If you are a Cash fan, you will say my rating is too low, but as I see it, this is indeed a fun night out and one that  will take you back in time. I am unsure as to where today’s young audiences will place this type of music or story, but if they grew up with this music, or they truly enjoyed “Million Dollar Quartet”, they might just find this one of their new favorites.