PLAYBILL AT OPENING NIGHT: Ring of Fire : A Night at the Opry
By Harry Haun
13 Mar 2006
Young Cash, seconding Hank Williams Jr.’s motion that the scions of country-music
icons always come in the large economy size, was pleased as all-get-out with the show.
“Definitely so,” he said, “and, most of all, I believe my parents would have been very
happy to hear the crowd’s reaction and see the way the songs were portrayed. The
performances were done with such heartfelt compassion. It’s a unique show, something
my parents would be proud of, something that’ll bring joy to audiences for a long time.”
Another lantern-jaw chawing on Cash’s songs, Jason Edwards , felt at times he was
preaching to the converted. “It was kind of an out-of-body experience at the beginning,
y’know. It wasn’t like going out there and doing the show. It was a thrill! What a great
audience! We feel really blessed. Hopefully Johnny Cash and June are smiling on us.
That’s what it was all about for me, just trying to be honest and entertain this crowd.”
A quick scan of the Playbill bios gives the impression that the cast was recruited from
three grassroots shows: Pump Boys and Dinettes , Frank Wildhorn’s The Civil War and
Comden & Green & Coleman’s The Will Rogers Follies . Indeed, a founder—if not the
mother of Pump Boys —was present and accounted for on opening night: Cass Morgan ,
bouncing back radiantly from her recent surgery. “I am perfectly healthy,” she beamed. “I
have a clean bill of health. I recuperated very fast. It was scary there for a while, but I’m
perfectly fine now. I feel just great. In fact, I feel better than I’ve felt in a long, long time.”
The audience’s welcome was a tonic. “Were you out there tonight? It was so much fun.
The audience was so joyful and with us. It felt like we were all part of the same thing.”
Another authentic country touch was a tall drink of Bolgeresque water named
David M.
Lutken , late of
The Will Rogers Follies, The Civil War and
Woody Guthrie’s American
Song . He and
Randy Redd fall somewhere between the actors and the band on stage, “a
great spot to be in in this particular show,” he insisted. “There are 38 songs in the show,
and Randy and I are really responsible for about four of ‘em, and then we just get to play
the other 34.” (He plays six instruments.) “Since I was in this show from the very
beginning at the workshops, I sorta got to write my own ticket because it’s my kind of
music. Cash did rockabilly and country music, but he also did a lot of traditional
American music, and that’s kinda where I come in—to help with that aspect of the thing.”
You couldn’t come up with a more eclectic cross-section of first-nighters, certainly. In
the audience and at the party: CBS Newsman Harry Smith , mini-series diva Jane
Seymour (who became friendly with the Cash family when her husband, James Keach ,
produced Walk the Line ), Vincent Pastore (presumably establishing a very public alibi
while Tony Soprano gets whacked on HBO), Max von Essen (bracing to play Patrick
Dennis to Christine Baranski ’s Mame next month at the Kennedy Center), Liz Larsen
(who dubbed Emick “Shoeless Joe From Hannibal, Mo.” in Damn Yankees! ), celebrity
chef Mario Battali and Jennifer Love Hewitt , whose mom was one of the show’s
investors.
Larry Gatlin , who backed up Cash as one of The Tennessee Three, attended with a
30-year-old hour-gauge: his son, Joshua Cash Gatlin . “John and June were the first two
people at the hospital when he got born.” (The three were writing songs for a religious
musical at the time, called Gospel Road .) Gatlin hasn’t been back to Broadway since he
replaced Mac Davis in The Will Rogers Follies , but he’s not averse to the idea. “When
people pay me, I go work. I’m a working man. I’m singing with my brothers on the road,
and I’m writing a musical of my own about Quannah Parker, the last Comanche chief.
“I had a wonderful time, and so did John and June. They were looking on from on high.”
It was the perfect party for some penny-pinching producer to post a Cash bar, but none did. It was an evening of dear hearts and generous people. And the spirits flowed free . . .
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The cast gives their opening night curtain call.
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
