‘Staying together is the happy ending’: The Ballad of Johnny and June at the Citadel, a review

By Liz Nicholls, .ca

What happens to a happy ending “when it comes in the middle”?

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The’s what John Carter Cash, the only son of Johnny Cash and June Carter, wonders as he speculates onstage about his lineage and his parents’ famously challenging, tumultuous love story in The Ballad of Johnny and June. The new musical, written by Robert Cary and Des McAnuff (who directs), arrives on the Citadel mainstage from a premiere summer run at the La Jolla Playhouse. And it was greeted with a bona fide standing ovation by the cheering opening night Citadel crowd Thursday.

The story comes with built-in epic dimensions, to be sure, in the historical joining of two great musical stars whose convergence has  something to reveal about how country got to be country. The much-abused term “iconic” doesn’t go amiss here, and the musical comes with an expansive song list, and a famous anecdotal performance history, to match. June of the Carters, a family celebrated for their retrieval of an early folk tradition as much as for their own contributions, meets Johnny, who bursts the gospel buttons of his  harsh evangelical upbringing and erupts into the big bad world of rock and pop … and country.

Patti Murin and Christopher Ryan Grant in The Ballad of Johnny and June, La Jolla Playhouse at Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price Photography.

As I say, epic. But the impact of The Ballad of Johnny and June, dramatically, as conceived by McAnuff and Cary, is on a human scale: an irresistible attraction, a lot of collateral damage, a dangerous drift toward chaos and tragedy (via booze and pills). And this kind of love story, with its happy ending in the middle and before-and-after struggles on either side, is smartly framed by musician/narrator/only son John Carter Cash.

The keynote of Van Hughes’ perfectly judged, and indispensable, performance, captures a wry, worldly, amusing skepticism that filter through The Ballad of Johnny and June, with a title song created by the co-writers and Ron Melrose. And it gives a story plucked from musical history and riddled with gruesome stories of bad behaviour, addiction-fuelled and with a point of view vis-à-vis “family addiction,” a certain (welcome) lightness of touch.

Christopher Ryan Grant in The Ballad of Johnny and June, La Jolla Playhouse. Photo supplied.

The imposing figure of Johnny Cash is well-trod jukebox musicals turf, to say the least: the entertainment repertoire, in clubs and dinner theatres alike, is crammed with clones and anecdotes and the hit song list. And, needless to say, you can’t put Johnny Cash onstage without an actor who can convincingly deliver the four most famous words in country music. “Hello. I’m Johnny Cash” is the “God bless us every one” of the jukebox musical. In McAnuff’s production, with its more dramatic compass, Christopher Ryan Grant goes far beyond that. He provides signature allusions to the celebrated man in black persona, yes. But his grave, intense performance exceeds mere impersonation — and arrives at a dimensional character, in the musical’s most compelling performance.

June Carter is less well defined in the collective consciousness as an individual personality with a known repertoire of physical and musical gestures. With the character created in Patti Murin’s performance, we meet a generically jolly, good-humoured personality (“keep on the sunny side of life!”), broadly comedic in performance, up against an elemental force and paying a price. As John Carter Cash acknowledges, in an origin story he proposes from several points of view, June’s romantic chemistry with Johnny is improbable, and with a considerable cost attached.

Patti Murin and Christopher Ryan Grant in The Ballad of Johnny and June, La Jolla Playhouse production at the Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price Photography

As our genial narrator notes, if there are two sides to every marriage, two marriages add up to four sides. It’s a complicated geometry. And in McAnuff’s expert stagecraft and the assortment of musical collaborators, relatives, and ex’s undertaken by an able nine-member cast, Gabriella Joy stands out as Johnny’s cherished, neglected, then abandoned, first wife Vivian. Drew Wildman Foster and Correy West as June’s ex-husbands Carl Smith and Rip Nix are limited to quick, vivid cameos. The kids from these early marriages are mostly reference points; the only offspring Johnny and June had together is the grown-up guy stage left, sitting on a stool, playing on the guitar, and commenting on contrasting versions of his pre-birth past.

Maddie Shea Baldwin and Gabriella Joy ih The Ballad of Johnny and June, La Jolla Playhouse production at Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price Photography

June’s sister and confidante Anita Carter (Maddie Shea Baldwin) returns to the scene from time to time to remind June, and us, of the hazards of hooking up with a problematic artist who measures the distance to the next city as “two-and-a-half pills.” Anita’s lyrical version of June’s Ring of Fire (written with Merle Kilgore), is the one that started that boisterous hit-to-be on its meteoric way (mariachis to come, thanks to Johnny Cash et al).

Correy West, Christopher Ryan Grant, Drew Wildman Foster in The Ballad of Johnny and June, La Jolla Playhouse at the Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price Photography

With its versatile ensemble and a crack six-member band of mostly local musicians led by musical director Lyndon Pugeda, the musical values of McAnuff’s production are first-rate (kudos to guitarist Joe Payne in particular). The sound and the sound mix (Peter Fitzgerald) throughout are impeccable. So the pleasures of a song list that includes I Walk The Line, Get Rhythm, Folsom Prison Blues, A Boy Named Sue, along with famous covers and lesser known songs from the Carter Family archive, are yours to savour. Periodic returns of Jackson make of its memorable lyric “we got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout,” a sort of recurring chorus.

Maddie Shea Baldwin, Patti Murin, Gabriella Joy in The Ballad of Johnny and June, La Jolla Playhouse at the Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price Photography.

We hear the band before we see them. Our first glimpse comes at the outset through the lighted wooden slats of Robert Brill’s lovely boxcar set. The glints of light, and the play of golden and sepia light in tableaux that speak to an indeterminate past, are all part of Amanda Zieve’s striking lighting design, with its vintage onstage lighting instruments.

It turns out our narrator has an axe to grind, part of his multi-sided family inheritance. The musical gene, check. The predisposition to addiction, check. A certain wariness about marriage, check. “If you want to see God laugh, make plans,” he says. “If you want to see Him do a spit-take, get married.”

The show’s disclaimer on behalf of theatre, though, belongs to the narrator’s dad: never let the truth stand in the way of a good story. And this is a good one, dressed in sin and redemption colours, and with good pipes. Speaking as we are of circles unbroken, the second happy ending, the one that’s actually at the end, is the hardest one: “staying together is the happy ending.” It’s a thought that gives the show its celebratory finale.

REVIEW

The Ballad of Johnny and June

Theatre: La Jolla Playhouse presented by the Citadel Theatre

Created by: Robert Cary and Des McAnuff (book), music and lyrics by Johnny Cash, June Carter, and others

Directed by: Des McAnuff

Starring: Christopher Ryan Grant, Patti Murin, Van Hughes, Gabriella Joy, Drew Wildman Foster, Bart Shatto, Correy West, Paula Leggett Chase, Maddie Shea Baldwin

Running: through Dec. 8

Tickets: 780-425-1820, citadeltheatre.com