Ring of Fire

This is going to be a short post because this show was so tremendously awful! I think Kevin had pretty high hopes for this - and I guess somehow I had a small hope for it too. After seeing Jersey Boys and having renewed faith in the "jukebox musical" this show came and knocked those hopes to the ground. Let's say it ranks up there with the likes of Good Vibrations and Lennon - coming out only slightly ahead of each.

What you should know first is that the producers of the show are calling this a Johnny Cash Concert - meaning there is absolutely no semblance of plot. It starts on a slow number - and right away Kevin and I looked at each other knowing we were in store for another bad show. It picks up the pace a little with numbers like "Daddy Sang Bass" and "Get Rhythm" but there are too many boring songs in between. The set actually really bothered me as well. The set designer uses two large panels with digital projections to act as the set. Call me old-fashioned but I'd still rather see a hand-crafted set than something that someone built on a computer using animation.

Lari White was my favorite performer. She carried the country tunes with her velvet voice quite wonderfully. Jarrod Emick is second in the cast, and at times he got close to sounding like the man in black. All of the rest are easily forgotten. I will say that I was impressed by the musicians who also sang and danced with the main cast. Also - in one of the numbers each member of the cast plays a guitar - I found that a bit impressive as well.

There's not much more to say about this show - but if you're going for an entertaining night of listening to Mr. Cash - I say go to a music store and buy his album rather than pay for tickets to this show.