Review: The Ballad of Johnny and June – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

To say that The Ballad of Johnny and June plasters over the cracks is quite an understatement: the warts have been frozen off. What remains is an upbeat hit parade through Cash and Carter’s enviable discographies, with dramatic interludes that convey the gist of their professional and private histories.

It’s not an inherently terrible creative decision on the part of co-writers Robert Cary and Des McAnuff — who also directs this otherwise polished touring production — but if you are going to bet the house on the music, that music has to be perfect.

The music, however, is not perfect.

Sound Design Struggles at the Festival Theatre

That’s not down to the talent on stage, no Sir, it’s down to my good ol’ personal bugbear, the sound mix. Christopher Ryan Grant is obviously great as the Johnny Cash, but it seems the sound design is heavily engineered around his voice. Poor, charismatic Christina Bianco (June) has famously good pipes, but she can’t overcome such woeful underamplification, particularly when the band (sounding great under conductor Connagh Tonkinson) and a stage-full of cracking actor-musos are in full swing.

To say that The Ballad of Johnny and June plasters over the cracks is quite an understatement: the warts have been frozen off.

Now, it might be that the show simply wasn’t designed for a space as big as the Festival Theatre. Robert Brill’s spit-and-sawdust barn of a set captures the Appalachian spirit, but it’s obviously designed for less palatial spaces such as the soon-to-reopen King’s Theatre. Given that the improvements come in the second act, the sound team deserves the benefit of the doubt, but I expect the techs to need less than all 70 minutes of the opening act to make adjustments.

**Ryan O’Donnell (John Carter Cash). Credit – Pamela Raith**

It’s a pity because when the show sounds good, it’s great, whether that’s ‘A Boy Named Sue’ or the immortal ‘Ring of Fire’ itself. There’s more musical talent on stage than you can, or should, shake a stick at, and they enjoy letting rip. Why there’s no fan-service medley to end the show, I have no idea, particularly when the show is so clearly designed to delight fans of the Cash/Carter songbook. Maybe they save one for weekend performances?

Sanitising the Johnny Cash and June Carter Legacy

Turning back to those dramatic interludes, it’s fair to say they are carried off with plenty of character and heartfelt good humour, even if there’s more telling than showing. Sure, Johnny is crotchety and prone to a little mimed stage destruction in the depths of his drug addiction, but as for June, well, we’re just told she has a problem, then she dies.

It’s a pity because when the show sounds good, it’s great, whether that’s ‘A Boy Named Sue’ or the immortal ‘Ring of Fire’ itself. There’s more musical talent on stage than you can, or should, shake a stick at, and they enjoy letting rip.

I don’t know if the involvement of their son, John Carter Cash, had some sanitising influence, or if McAnuff just didn’t think there was time for meaningful character development between the songs. Likeable as he may be, Ryan O’Donnell simply cannot narrate (or sing) depth into the show as John Carter Cash looking back on his parents’ love story.

Jay Osmond’s attempt at making his famously musical family into a stage show had many of the same problems. If there are lessons to learn, it’s probably to leave the narration crutch in the development room…and to trust audiences will enjoy a story more if you populate it with warty, complicated, real human beings. You can still have fun with musical montages to explain the Carter family’s regal musical legacy, and June’s legendary shopaholic tendencies and leave more space for darkness and nuance.

Even so, this is a solid middle-of-the-range musical, flattered by the quality of performers bringing it to life. You, like me, will probably come away knowing that Ryan Grant and Bianco (and a very able supporting cast) were capable of more, but remain grateful they are as good as they are.

Featured Image: Christopher Ryan Grant (Johnny Cash) & Christina Bianco (June Carter Cash). Credit_ Pamela Raith