Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash opens this Wednesday, August 10 with three preview performances – Wednesday at 2:oopm, 7:30pm & Thursday at 7:30pm before the “official” opening night on Friday, August 12 at 8:00pm. There will be a reception with the cast after Friday’s performance.
The musical takes for its marquee the title of one of the hit tunes of American singer-songwriter Cash. But the show, conceived by William Meade and created by Richard Maltby Jr., drawing on a cache of Cash songs, is not a biography of The Man in Black.
In 38 musical numbers, a mosaic of American experience is pieced together in Ring of Fire, the creators say. There’s a scene about keeping the love fires burning in middle age (“While I’ve Got It On My Mind”), there’s a scene with generations of a family sharing a meal (and sharing music) in “Daddy Sang Bass,” there’s the second-act opener about life travels (“I’ve Been Everywhere”), even a section with a chain gang (“Folsom Prison Blues”).
Maltby said, “It’s about home and family and getting together and loving somebody and having a backyard and generations living together, it’s about what holds you together in the face of a hard life, it’s about the really basic family values.”
The show’s song list includes Cash’s “Country Boy,” “A Thing Called Love,” “Five Feet High and Rising,” “Daddy Sang Bass,” “Ring of Fire,” “I Walk the Line,” “I’ve Been Everywhere,” “The Man in Black,” and his final hit, “Hurt.”
Don’t miss this special production – the second in our summer musical series. Tickets on sale at the Playhouse box office (open 12:00noon – 8:00pm) or on-line. Or call 860.767.7318 to book tickets over the phone.