Des McAnuff will direct Cash bio-musical, THE BALLAD OF JOHNNY AND JUNE, at La Jolla (May-July 2024)

This surely has Broadway aspirations...
 

La Jolla Playhouse has revealed the cast and creative team for its world-premiere musical, The Ballad of Johnny and June, book by Robert Cary (SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical) and Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys, The Who’s Tommy); music and lyrics by Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash and others; directed by Des McAnuff.

The production will run in the Mandell Weiss Theatre May 28 – July 7. 
 
The cast features Christopher Ryan Grant (Broadway’s Million Dollar Quartet) as “Johnny Cash,” Van Hughes (Broadway’s American Idiot) as “John Carter Cash,” and Patti Murin (Broadway’s Frozen) as “June Carter Cash,” along with Maddie Shea Baldwin as “Anita,” Paula Leggett Chase as “Carrie,” Drew Wildman Foster as “Carl Smith/Jack Cash/Marshall Grant,” Gabriella Joy as “Vivian,” Bart Matthew Shatto as “Ray Cash/Sam Phillips/W.S. Holland,” and Correy West as “Luther Perkins/Rip Nix,” and understudies Summer Broyhill, Michael Louis Cusimano, Cody Ingram and Baily Day Sonner.
 
The creative team includes Ron Melrose, Music Supervisor, Arranger and Orchestrator; Lisa LeMay, Music Director; Byron Easley, Choreographer; Robert Brill, Scenic Designer; Sarafina Bush, Costume Designer; Amanda Zieve, Lighting Designer; Peter Fitzgerald, Sound Designer; Sean Nieuwenhuis, Projection Designer; Alberto “Albee” Alvarado, Wig Designer; Tara Rubin Casting/Spencer Gualdoni, CSA/Jacole Kitchen, Casting; Dean Remington, Stage Manager; and Vanessa Dodgson-Thomas and Marie Jahelka, Assistant Stage Managers.

Updated On: 4/25/24 at 05:14 PM

Now that I re-read my subject line, I hope the show's LLC is called "Cash" so everyone can make Max Bialystock jokes.

Christopher Ryan Grant was a Johnny Cash understudy in Million Dollar Quartet on Broadway. I happened to be at one of the performances where he went on and he was atrociously bad. Hopefully in the past 14 years since then his Johnny Cash impersonation has gotten better. 

 

FLarnhill said: "Stupid idea. Reese Witherspoon literally won an Oscar for her performance as June. Nobody can ever top what she did."

She eats snow.

FLarnhill said: "Stupid idea. Reese Witherspoon literally won an Oscar for her performance as June. Nobody can ever top what she did."

Angela Bassett gave one of the most iconic of all screen performances in What's Love Got to Do With It and yet that didn't stop Adrienne Warren from garnering universal acclaim for Tina!