Theatre Three's "Ring of Fire" Sizzles

Theatre Three heats up the Mainstage Winter Season with "Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash," directed by Christine Boehm, with musical direction by Jeffrey Hoffman. This Broadway show, jam-packed with Johnny Cash's iconic songbook, was created by Richard Maltby, Jr. and conceived by William Meade. In 1978, Maltby received a Tony Award for Best Musical for "Ain't Misbehavin'."

Cash grew up dirt poor but surrounded by the comfort of a good family and gospel music. He rose to fame in the mid-1950s as part of the rockabilly music scene in Memphis, Tennessee. Cash's songs have significant crossover appeal, embracing country, rock and roll, gospel, blues, and folk. Cash's musical versatility got him inducted into the Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

"Ring of Fire," a heartfelt tribute to America's legendary "Man in Black," is a nostalgic musical journey of trials, triumphs, love, and redemption. More like a concert than a musical, this show calls for a cast of talented singers who are also accomplished musicians. Theatre Three's production features seven such superstars: Tina Ann Aurora, Kyle Breitenbach, Michael Mandato, Cassidy Rose O'Brien, Dan Schindlar, Ryan Van Nostrand, and Jeffrey Hoffman. Additionally, this music revue featured a precision-perfect onstage band, including Marni Harris, Jeffrey Hoffman, John Dericco, David Grudzinski, Ethan Mascarenas, and Don Larsen.

The tight-knit ensemble delivered crowd-pleasing renditions from Cash's extensive musical catalog. "Ring of Fire" has no plot to speak of, just glimpses of Cash's onstage and offstage life, which left him filled with compassion for others who led hard lives and longed for more but were down on their luck. Music, humor, God, and love were Cash's saving grace, and he expressed all these life-affirming sentiments in the songs he wrote and performed.

The show opened with Cash's songs influenced by his early years working with his Southern Baptist family in the cotton fields of Arkansas. Mandato, accompanied by the other cast members, rocked the song "Country Boy." Aurora, Hoffman, O'Brien, and Breitenbach brought the heartrending tune "Flesh and Blood" to life, and the Company's moving rendition of "Five Feet High and Rising" was one of the show's high points.

There are many comedic moments throughout the show. Schindlar gave an award-worthy performance with "A Boy Named Sue," a tongue-in-cheek song that garnered Cash a Grammy in 1969. Schindlar's facial expressions and body language had the audience in stitches, and it was mesmerizing to watch him strut off stage to inch closer to them.

Who doesn't love scatological humor? The audience roared as a toilet bowl with a ukulele stuffed in it like a plunger was wheeled centerstage. Van Nostrand aced the riotously funny number "Flushed from the Bathroom of Your Heart." A trio of crooning comedians, Hoffman, Schindlar, and Breitenbach, spit and sang their hearts out to "Egg Suckin' Dog." As for gallows humor, Breitenbach's belting out "Delia's Gone" and Hoffman's hilarious rendition of "Cocaine Blues" fit the bill.

The show also has many emotionally charged moments, including Schindlar and O'Brien's passionate delivery of James Timothy Hardin's searing ballad, "If I Were a Carpenter," and Aurora and Van Nostrand's moving duet, "I Still Miss Someone." O'Brien stole the show with her powerful rendition of "All Over Again."

Cash became empathetic with the plight of prisoners after watching the 1951 film "Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison" and was inspired to write songs from their unique perspective. (Not to mention, the Man in Black was arrested seven times!) Throughout his career, he performed in several prisons, including San Quentin, Huntsville State Prison, Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, Cummins Prison, and Folsom Prison. The cast brought edgy realism to their outstanding performances of Cash's jailhouse hits, "Orleans Parish Prison" and "Folsom Prison Blues."

No show about Cash would be complete without his signature songs, "I Walk the Line," brilliantly performed by Aurora and Breitenbach, and Cash's first number-one hit, "Ring of Fire," passionately sung by O'Brien and Breitenbach. Mandato delivered a standout performance with his electrifying version of "Man in Black."

The show closed with a big production number, "I've Been Everywhere," serving as an apt metaphor for Cash's music, which still resonates with today's audiences and continues to play around the globe every minute of every day.

Chock-full of colorful tunes, cowboy hats, and country costumes, this family-friendly show runs through March 30, 2025. To purchase tickets, please call the box office at 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.

Be sure to catch Theatre Three's Twenty-Sixth Annual Festival of One-Act Plays, which runs from March 8 through April 5, 2025, at the Ronald F. Peierls Theatre, on the Second Stage.

Cindi Sansone-Braff is an award-winning playwright. She has a BFA in Theatre from UCONN and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. She is the author of "Grant Me a Higher Love," "Why Good People Can't Leave Bad Relationships," and "Confessions of a Reluctant Long Island Psychic." Her full-length Music Drama, "Beethoven, The Man, The Myth, The Music," is published by Next Stage Press. www.Grantmeahigherlove.com.