Ring of Fire
Friday night, I took my wife out to a show. We haven't done this in a long time, so I got tickets to the Broadway "Johnny Cash musical," Ring of Fire, for her birthday.
Ring of Fire was a lot of fun. It features 30+ of Cash's songs -- an eclectic collection of music, from silly songs like "A Boy Names Sue" to some of his more serious stuff about drug addiction. The songs are performed by a group of great singers and musicians, and the whole evening is sort of just toe-tapping fun. There's no "story" to the show -- essentially, they use the songs to tell Cash's story, with bits of narration/dialogue thrown in between songs to place them in their historical context in Cash's life. It's an interesting concept that mostly works (though there some places where it flags a bit, probably simply because certain songs weren't as good as Cash's best stuff.
Ring of Fire was a lot of fun. It features 30+ of Cash's songs -- an eclectic collection of music, from silly songs like "A Boy Names Sue" to some of his more serious stuff about drug addiction. The songs are performed by a group of great singers and musicians, and the whole evening is sort of just toe-tapping fun. There's no "story" to the show -- essentially, they use the songs to tell Cash's story, with bits of narration/dialogue thrown in between songs to place them in their historical context in Cash's life. It's an interesting concept that mostly works (though there some places where it flags a bit, probably simply because certain songs weren't as good as Cash's best stuff.
posted by Chris Hansen at 3:50 PM
2 Comments:
Glad you enjoyed "Ring of Fire." It sounds a bit like "Across the Universe" except using Beatles songs instead of Johnny Cash. But a major difference is that "Across the Universe" definitely has a plot and characters (although they are not as deeply developed as they might be in a drama). And there are no DIRECT references to the Beatles, in that the word "Beatles" is never said, nor is there any image of them. But there are tons and tons of indirect references to Beatles songs or moments in their career. I think you'd like it.
BTW, I just finished four amazing days at the VFF. I have 14 pages of private writing about it which I need to whittle down into something more formal and coherent for my blog and for my Chizfilm column. Too bad you couldn't make it this year--it was really fantastic.
I'm definitelyw anting to see Across the Universe. The footage I've seen from it looks amazing, and I've liked the director's previous work....
Glad VFF was good -- not surprised. Richard always puts on a good show!
Post a Comment
<< Home