Jukebox musical theatre set to wow Revelstoke audience
Ring of Fire, a Western Canada Theatre and Chemainus Arts Festival collaboration, celebrates the life and music of Johnny Cash at the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre on March 15th.
Adapted from the Broadway musical, Ring of Fire is a rockabilly homage to Johnny Cash and brings to life his greatest hits with a multi-talented cast of actors, singers and musicians.
“It’s not extremely heavy on story, but through a series of little interludes and vignettes it takes you through his early life in Arkansas through to the beginning of his musical career in Memphis …Then, as the show progresses, it lightly touches on some of the troubles he went through,” explains Chemainus Theatre Festival musical director, Kraig Waye, to the Cowichan Valley Citizen.
Ring of Fire will bring the music of Johnny Cash to Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre stage. Photo: Chemainus Theatre Festival
A prodigious songwriter, Cash wrote and recorded over 1,200 songs in addition to stories, poetry and two autobiographies in his lifetime. Cash’s music connected with Americans for several decades; his influence and sound are woven into the history of North American rock and country music. In fact, Cash is one of two musicians to ever make it into both the rock and country hall of fame.
Cash started life on the farm, served in the air force and gained a wild reputation in the 1960s. In the 1970s Cash searched for spiritual redemption, remarried, and obtained a degree in theology.
For the production Ring of Fire, producers were tasked with going through Cash’s remarkable amount of music, selecting 30 songs to pay tribute to and tell stories within the production.
It’s really interesting,” Waye elaborates. “You get a chance to touch on all the genres and the different styles that Cash was able to incorporate into his career over the decades. You get a little flavour of his Gospel roots and his early boom-chicka-boom the train chuggin’ country, and then even some features later like the 70s country like ‘Man in Black’.”
Other songs include ‘Ring of Fire’ ‘Boy Named Sue’ ‘I Walk the Line.’
Ring of Fire is sure to be a mostly light-hearted pleaser, as it doesn’t dwell in the dark disillusioned time of Cash’s life. The Chemainus Theatre Festival’s reviews have been rock solid, with reviewers noting the performances to be impressive, the storytelling engaging, and the toe tapping inevitable.
Come and see the highs and lows of singer songwriter Cash in Revelstoke on Wednesday March 15.
Event details:
Canadian Western Theatre and Chemainus Theatre Festival co production Ring of Fire on Wednesday, March 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre on 1007 Vernon Avenue.
Tickets: www.revelstokeartscouncil.bigcartel.com
Or at Art First! or the door.
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