This is the summer of commercially unsuccessful musicals revived and reexamined on South Florida stages. There was High Fidelity at Slow Burn Theatre, and now the Johnny Cash revue Ring of Fire at Theatre at Arts Garage in Delray Beach, followed by Frank Wildhorn’s Bonnie and Clyde at Florida Atlantic University.
Each show ran headlong into the brick wall of Broadway expectations when premiering in New York, but the Cash revue has plenty of audience appeal in the scaled-down “regional reinvention” assembled for more low-key venues like the Arts Garage.
Now directed and choreographed by Sherry Lutken — whose husband David Lutken is one of the two featured holdovers from the original Broadway cast — Ring of Fire doesn’t bother with any biographical data on Cash, preferring to focus instead on his music, both songs he wrote and songs of others he recorded.
Whether or not this approach conveys the essence of The Man in Black, it certainly features an array of musical numbers, often story songs, that collectively capture the spirit of countrified America in the second half of the 20th century.
The troubadour and his music may be the point, but at the Arts Garage they are all but overshadowed by the multi-talented eight-member ensemble. These eight sing with strength and conviction, but it is the group’s skill on a variety of instruments — from fiddles to washboards, guitars to spoons, drum beats to body slaps — that makes the evening so entertaining.
Organized roughly chronologically, from Cash’s earliest compositions through to his far more familiar song hits, the evening comes off as lopsided, with a more potent second half. The first act feels somewhat generic, but after intermission the show hits its stride with an astonishing string of powerhouse standards.
Of course it includes “I Walk the Line,” “Jackson,” “Folsom Prison Blues” and that puckish tale of wry revenge from Shel Silverstein, “A Boy Named Sue.” A lesser list song, “I’ve Been Everywhere, Man,” a tongue-twisting catalogue of towns, becomes a standout of the evening, as the cast — each strumming an acoustic guitar — lines up across the stage, tossing out geographic names like hot potatoes.
David Lutken, who brought the Woody Guthrie show Woody Sez to the Arts Garage a couple of summers back, again impresses with his amiable, understated delivery and harmonica virtuosity. Eric Anthony, the other veteran of the Broadway Ring of Fire, handles the harmonies with a rich, resonant voice. Of the women, Helen Jean Russell (also of the Woody Sez cast) stands out for her bass-slapping authenticity and tiny, chipper Nyssa Duchow is as nimble with her footwork as she is with her fiddling.
There are dark moments in Ring of Fire, but not as many as you might expect from a show that delves into the Cash repertoire. Black clouds certainly hovered over him, yet this trunk of his songs is leavened with plenty of good-time music, well performed.
RING OF FIRE, Theatre at Arts Garage, 180 N.E. First St., Delray Beach. Through Sunday, July 13. Tickets: $30-$45. Call: (561) 450-6357.