New Review: The Ballad of Johnny and June

                 The Ballad of Johnny and June

I’ve never been a huge fan of country music, so writing this is pushing it a bit for me. But even I have heard about Johnny Cash.

Now La Jolla Playhouse gives me and anyone else who loves, hates or is curious about this country-music phenom a chance to find out what he was all about.

“The Ballad of Johnny and June” plays through July 7 at the Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Theatre.

This Air Force veteran broke into the music scene in 1955, thanks to a deal with Sun Records, and by 1969 was an international hit, eclipsing even the Beatles in album sales.

Christopher Ryan Grant plays Cash, the Arkansas native who made a living singing country music, though his ancestry goes back to Scotland and he served as a Morse Code operator in the Air Force in Germany.

The show is mostly a compendium of songs and the story of how Johnny and June met, sang together and eventually married. Along the way, we’ll meet other members of the Cash family, notably Johnny and June's son John Carter Cash (played by Van Hughes), who sits on stage left for most of the show and tells his side from there.

The show is notable for another reason as well: the Playhouse’s own Des McAnuff not only directs, but is also listed as co-writer of the script, which does not shy away from showing us Cash’s less-attractive sides, such as his addiction to alcohol, amphetamines and barbiturates.

But mostly, this is a musical about one of the most popular musicians in history. Cash got 71 awards and 11 Hall of Fame inductions. Those include Grammys, Country Music awards and Cash’s 2018 induction to the Grammy Hall of Fame for “At Folsom Prison.” Cash died in 2003.

The show is almost as exhausting to watch as it must be to perform, but I doubt it could be done better. If you’re curious about who this guy Cash was, grab a ticket and find out.

The details

“The Ballad of Johnny and June” plays through July 7, 2024 at La Jolla Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Theatre, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive in La Jolla.

Shows Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 1 and 7 p.m,

Tickets: LaJollaPlayhouse.org or (858) 550-1010

Photo credit of cast by Samantha Laurent