The Ballad of Johnny & June – Richmond Theatre review

Christina Bianco as June Carter and Christopher Ryan Grant as Johnny Cash with the cast of The Ballad of Johnny & June

A story of love and pain with great music

Johnny Cash’s story is familiar. The legendary singer-songwriter published two autobiographies 20 years apart which documented his career from the early days at Sun Records with Elvis, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis to his iconoclastic status as one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

The powerful story of his love affair with country music star June Carter, which lasted nearly 50 years, and his battles with addictions to alcohol and amphetamines was introduced to a new audience in 2005 by the multi-award winning film Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

Anne-Marie Wojna as Cash’s first wife Vivian Liberto, with Ryan O’Donnell as John Carter Cash and Christopher Ryan Grant

What makes The Ballad of Johnny and June fresh is that it is told as much from June’s perspective and from that of their son, John Carter Cash, who performs the role of the narrator as it is from Cash’s.

Christopher Ryan Grant and Christina Bianco bear a strong resemblance to the music stars they play. They are totally at ease with the music, which is most of the show, Grant capturing both Johnny Cash’s egotism and his calm, humble stage persona, and Bianco the livewire energy and fun June Carter brought to her quirky, though now somewhat dated comedy-country routines.

First meeting at the Grand Ole Opry in 1955

Juke-box musicals can feel quite awkward and contrived as they lurch from one hit to the next, ticking them off the score sheet, but The Ballad of Johnny and June flows. The music is integral to the story and the hits, all 36 of them – Walk the Line, Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, A Boy Named Sue front and centre – segue naturally as the story unfolds.

Their backing band of musicians upstage is very tight and the cast of six who double as friends and family, record promoters and TV producers and Johnny’s long-term bandmates, the Tennessee Three provide strong and versatile support.

Christopher Ryan Grant as Johnny Cash with the cast of Johnny & June

Appreciation of country music has been a slow burn in the UK, the sincerity and sentimentality too saccharine for British taste. We’ve never had the same gospel tradition here to give us that country hinterland.

READ ALSO: A great night out at Chiswick’s Lil’ Nashville

That is changing – country music is now the fastest growing genre, having more than doubled its share of the UK singles market in the past few years.

(L) Chomba S. Taulo and (R) Christopher Short with Christopher Ryan Grant as the Tennessee Three

Seeing the instantly recognisable Johnny Cash hits set in the context of their narrative, with the hardship his family endured as cotton farmers in Arkansas, the importance to them of religion and punishing strain of his life on the road away from his family helped me at least to appreciate them more, understanding literally where he was coming from.

The show is produced by Trafalgar Theatre Productions, the production arm of Trafalgar Entertainment. I recently had the pleasure of talking to its joint CEO Rosemary Squire.

READ ALSO: Interview with theatre impressario Dame Rosemary Squire on the occasion of Chiswick Cinema’s fifth birthday

Photographs Pamela Raith Photography