By Michael Buckley
10 Apr 2006

Before directing the new Broadway musical Ring of Fire, was Richard Maltby, Jr., interested in Johnny Cash’s music? “Not particularly,” he tells me, “anymore than I was interested in Thirties jazz when I did Ain’t Misbehavin’ [the 1978 Tony-winning Best Musical, for which he received a Tony as Best Director]. That’s sort of famous for being the first show to put jazz, effectively, on the stage. It was an equal cliché that country music couldn’t work on Broadway. But we send out very, very happy audiences.”

The show, insists Maltby, “was all about authenticity, about being true to the country world. It’s about a simplicity that Johnny Cash felt deeply, about a kind of life that he lived, that he wrote about. It’s not about the life he described in his autobiography, which is largely what the movie is [referring to “Walk the Line”]. A lot of people were surprised and, I think, some people were discouraged when [the musical] first opened—because it was not the movie. We got a lot of that. I think we’ll get less and less of it, as [the film] goes further away.”

It’s possible to view the musical as a companion piece to the movie. Notes Maltby, “It’s been called a mirror image. The Johnny Cash family thinks that this show shows more of the real Johnny and the real June [Carter Cash] than the movie did. That was a very early part of his life. They lived together for thirty years after [the film ends], and they both had a tremendous sense of fun. They really held onto their roots, to where they came from. That’s what we attempted to put on the stage.”

Maltby has high praise for the cast. “They’re having a great time. They own this show. They’re really into it. We’re getting wonderful audiences. A lot of people come out in tears, very moved. If you get on the train [with the show], you have a terrific time.”

Among Maltby’s credits are Starting Here, Starting Now (as director/lyricist); Closer Than Ever (director/lyricist); Baby (director/lyricist); Song & Dance (director/ co-lyricist); Miss Saigon (co-lyricist); Big (lyricist); and Fosse (for which he was a Tony nominee as director). Does he have a favorite? “Well, Ain’t Misbehavin’ is a perfect piece of craft, and I’m very proud of that. But in terms of emotional centrality, Baby is my heart and soul.” Is there a chance that the 1983 show, for which frequent collaborator David Shire composed the music, might be revived? “There’s always talk about that. We [recently] did a reading with Victoria Clark and Anika Noni Rose, and it looked liked the Roundabout was going to do it, but it didn’t work out.”

Working out is a project that he started “about thirteen years ago”: the movie “Miss Potter,” starring Renee Zellweger. “I had young children, and they had a collection of Beatrix Potter stories,” explains Maltby. “I read a small biography of her on the back of a book. She was a spinster in her thirties, writing little stories. She fell in love for the first time with her publisher’s son. Wonderful things happened; tragic things happened. After her marriage, she didn’t publish any more stories. I wondered why.”

Originally, he envisioned it as a movie musical. “Of course, in those days, if you wrote a new musical, you were kicked out of the office before you even opened the door. So I took out the songs. It’s a very adult love story, even though it’s about someone who wrote stories for children. Along the way, [the project] attracted some interesting directors [including Bruce Beresford], and different producers [among them, David Brown] and stars [such as Cate Blanchett and Kate Winslet], but the package never came together. Everyone loved the screenplay, but nobody made [the movie]. I thought: Love it a little less and make it.

“Finally, it got to Renee Zellweger, and I was sure that she was the one to play the part. Renee’s also executive producer. Ewan McGregor and Emily Watson are in it. Chris Noonan, who did ‘Babe,’ directed. We have a top-of-the-line production crew: Anthony Powell, costumes; Martin Childs, sets; a fantastic director of photography, Andrew Dunn, of the ‘Harry Potter’ movies. If ten percent of the people who go to ‘Harry Potter’ movies come to ours—thinking it’s another ‘Harry Potter’—we’ll have a tremendous box office. [Laughs] It was originally set for release at Easter, but it’s been bought by the Weinstein Company, and has been moved up to Christmastime for Oscar consideration.”

Currently, Maltby’s working on “a musical version of Mask [the 1985 film], and The 60’s Project, which my wife Janet wrote [with Ken Levine]. We’re doing that at Goodspeed this summer [at the Norma Terris Theatre, August 10-September 3, with Maltby directing].” Mrs. Maltby is writer Janet Brenner, and he has five children: “Nicholas and David are in their thirties; Jordan’s seventeen, Emily is fifteen, and Charlotte’s twelve.”

Maltby’s many talents include creating “English cryptic puzzles for Harpers Magazine. Open an issue; I’m on the last page. It’s therapy for me. I do it for the relaxation part of it. It takes up an enormous amount of time—considering that I don’t have that amount of time. I think Sondheim introduced the cryptic puzzle to America in the Sixties. When he left, I took over.”

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Michael Buckley also writes for TheaterMania.com.