Emick Headlines Ring of Fire, Opening in Buffalo on Sept. 2

By: Sep. 01, 2005
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Casting has been announced for Ring of Fire, a new show directed and co-created by Richard Maltby Jr. that will draw upon the songbook of the late country music Johnny Cash.  Subtitled The Johnny Cash Musical Show, it will begin a test run at the Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, NY from September 2nd to October 9th before playing San Francisco's Curran Theatre in January 2006 and moving to Broadway in March 2006.

The cast will include Jarrod Emick (The Boy from Oz, Tony Award-winner for Damn Yankees), Cass Morgan (The Capeman, Beauty and the Beast), Jeb Brown (Aida), Pat McRoberts (Miss Saigon), Jason Edwards (Off-Broadway's Johnny Guitar), Beth Malone, gospel/country star Lari White and Gail Bliss (also from the gospel/country world).

Conceived by Richard Meade, the small-scale show will employ six actors and eight musicians who "will bring to life through words and music the stories made famous in Johnny Cash's songs. The show features 38 of the music legend's songs such as 'Country Boy,' 'A Thing Called Love,' 'Five Feet High and Rising,' 'Daddy Sang Bass,' 'Ring of Fire,' 'I Walk the Line,' 'I've Been Everywhere,' 'The Man in Black,' and his final hit, 'Hurt," according to production notes. 

Ring of Fire will feature choreographry by Lisa Shriver (assistant choreographer for Good Vibrations, Amour) and musical direction by Jeff Lisenby, as well as sets by Neil Patel ('night, Mother), lighting by Ken Billington (Dance of the Vampires, Chicago), sound by Peter Fitzgerald (La Cage aux Folles) and Carl Casella (A Raisin in the Sun) and costumes by David Woolard (All Shook Up). 

The versatile Maltby is a practiced hand with musicals that showcase the songs of famous composers and lyricists, as well as choreographers; he staged and conceived the Fats Waller revue Ain't Misbehavin' (winning a Tony Award in the process), and directed and co-concieved the Tony Award-winning song-and-dance tribute Fosse.  An acclaimed lyricist, he co-wrote Miss Saigon's lyrics and with regular collaborator David Shire, he has penned the lyrics to the revues Closer Than Ever and Starting Here, Starting Now as well as the musicals Baby and Big; Take Flight is a new Maltby and Shire work currently in development.

"Taken together, Johnny Cash's songs seem to tell an almost mythic story of America," Maltby mused of the singer/songwriter, who passed away in 2003.  "I think the humanity, the humor, the sexiness, the emotional depth will be a revelation to most theatre audiences."

Tickets for Ring of Fire in Buffalo can be ordered at the box office located at 710 Main Street, by calling the box office at (716) 856-5650 or (800) 77STAGE or online at www.studioarena.org.
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