ACE

Cashing Out
Uneven showcase of Johnny Cash songs at ACE
By Chuck Adams

Inside the campy, country-fried restaurant set that decorates Actors Cabaret of Eugene, the lights turn up onstage and out walk 11 actors who proclaim, one by one, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash!”

The moment is quite touching, echoing both the refrains of “I’m Spartacus!” from Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus and Todd Haynes’ critically acclaimed film on the life and songs of Bob Dylan, I’m Not There, which uses six actors to portray the rabble-rouser in various incarnations. The scene that opens Ring of Fire is supposed to be in tribute to Cash, who began nearly every concert with this greeting. But Ring of Fire is not a tribute to Johnny Cash; it is a tribute to the story in the songs he wrote.

This distinction is important, for it sets the parameters. This is not Walk the Line: The Musical, nor is it a strictly biographical telling of Cash’s life through musical numbers. Ring of Fire, which recently ended its run on Broadway, takes 38 songs from Cash’s repertoire and arranges them in somewhat thematic order, from “Country Boy” farmer’s son to “I’ve Been Everywhere” internationally touring country legend. ACE has decided to trim five songs from the Broadway production; sadly, one of the five includes Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nail’s “Hurt,” a fragile, heartbreaking late-career masterpiece. But cutting “Hurt” is in keeping with what appears to be ACE’s intent, which is to put a happy face on a terribly pained musician’s songs. The effect should offend serious Cash fans.
(click on the video below to watch Johnny Cash's video for "Hurt")

Cash’s youth spent in the Arkansas fields with his family, the trauma surrounding his brother’s death, his wooing of June Carter, his time spent in prison and his own personal redemption, as sung in “I Walk The Line,” are all noted here, sure enough. But the backstory is not. When Act Two opens up with the male actors in a prison setting, the story between the songs is scrapped. Without knowing Cash’s own biography, his struggle with drug abuse, alcoholism and marital strife, the songs become empty vessels for drama. This same strategy was employed with Beatles songs in the recent film Across the Universe. Like the songs in that film, the cover songs in Ring of Fire only spurs a desire to hear the originals.

And how about the music? Recorded by Don Kelley (who is both the musical director and part of the acting ensemble) and then piped in from backstage, the instrumentals (which sound fine enough) are kept quiet they don’t trump the actors’ singing voices. Normally I’m not a fan of microphones, but they would have helped this production. Some actors had trouble with projection while others simply did not have the vocal talent to convincingly deliver Cash’s songs (performer of “Ring of Fire” and “Man in Black,” I’m looking at you).

Nevertheless there are fine performances from the female actors, particularly Amanda Fackrell, who nails down the Southern accent required for Cash’s country songs but also the deep down soul of Cash’s entire enterprise. Fackrell’s voice is crisp in the intimate space at ACE, and more of her genuine theatrics could be spread around the rest of the production.

A pit band was also badly missing from the show. Removing the Man in Black himself from the production is one thing, but also to remove the auditory delight of his music performed live is to leave only his lyrics coming out of the lips of actors on a stage. A majority of the songs come out cold when they should be energetic. The show does briefly pick up steam during ensemble songs like “Daddy Sang Bass” and “I’ve Been Everywhere,” the latter probably the first time when both actors and audience are having a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it’s also the final song of the show.

Ring of Fire runs through Feb. 23. Tickets available at www.actorscabaret.org or 683-4368.

Like a good performing arts editor, I let my freelancers pick which shows they wanted to review for the holidays.

That left me with the Broadway version of the holiday classic.

Before you read the review, know that I loved Beauty and the Beast, and I can sing all of the songs cold. I like musicals. I even like Gilbert & Sullivan. Also, I like the lights people put on their houses for Christmas. I like lights. And greenery. Oh, and children. I like children.

OK, enough ...

*UPDATE: I have changed the ending of the story because I just got an update from Jim Roberts about what they ARE doing as a benefit. So you won't see the original ending anymore, but just for the Internet, I did a strikethrough:

Why, Ebeneezer, Why?
No, you cannot resist the spectacle of ACE’s Christmas Carol
By Suzi Steffen

Costumes glitter, lights twinkle, high school students affect English accents and the juggernaut of a tricked-out Dickensian Christmas sweeps up everyone in its path.

Yep, the Actors Cabaret of Eugene’s A Christmas Carol, Broadway musical version, will leap into your brain, and you’ll leave the theater humming the song “Christmas Together” — that is, unless you run into one of the several Jewish members of the cast, and she or he sings you the special rewritten Jewish version of the all-too-catchy tune. Then you will laugh, remembering there’s a world outside of greenery and ribbons, a world where bells don’t jingle all the time and where grandparents aren’t always bedecked in Santa hats and flashing LED displays.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

For a couple of hours, ACE’s over-the-top celebration of the holiday classic definitely entertains. How you are entertained, exactly, depends on your attitude toward large helpings of schlock — though admittedly it’s schlock with a sweet attitude and a joyful sound. One is not supposed to laugh at the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Be, but did the ghost come from Mordor by way of a rave? And oh, the jacks-in-the-boxes. However: There’s so much to enjoy that Christmas Carol should woo anyone, even Grinchy performing arts editors (and if not, there’s whiskey for sale during intermission).

In the program, director Joe Zingo writes that this version is sure to remind audience members of the first time they saw A Christmas Carol. True. I remember my mom taking my sister and me, dressed in holiday finery, to the Missouri Rep’s annual Carol: Victorian-costumed carolers entertained us in the lobby; The Ghost of Christmas Present seemed three stories tall; Scrooge was mean; the graveyard scene was scary. In short, I remember spectacle. And that means ACE’s show is as it should be. The story can be a bit more realistically bleak, as in the WillRep’s currently running Carol, but for young families wanting a ritual holiday celebration, this Broadway version should work marvelously.

Anyone familiar with Alan Menken’s music will hear echoes of his other musicals (“A Whole New World” from Aladdin, the opening town scene from Beauty and the Beast). Lynn Ahrens’ lyrics stick mostly to the text but deviate enough to provide a Les Miserables-like reference to stars and compassion that leads to the signature line of any Christmas Carol — “God bless us, every one.”

This ACE production celebrates the various families entertwined in the theater’s frequent productions. Did we see some of these same people in Seussical? Did we see them in Bat Boy? In A Christmas Carol, 2006 version? How about in All Shook Up? Yes, yes, we did.

The delightful Ashley Apelzin appears in several roles (including the Ghost of Christmas Past in a wintery wedding-like costume), and Tyler Holden turns his focus from the Cat in the Hat in Seussical to a rather amusing Bob Cratchit here. The two young Cratchits (Maggie Clark as Martha and Bryce Walters as Tiny Tim) charm away, and the ubiquitous Marc Innocenti makes Marley’s Ghost look like the monster in Young Frankenstein. As kind Mr. Fezziwig, Rob Olson stands out, and Kevin Boling uses his knowing countenance to excellent effect as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Other repeat performers fill the stage with lovely tableaux, freezing when the various ghosts speak to a goofy Ebeneezer Scrooge (Bruce McCarthy). The lavish production with its gorgeous costumes and incessant soundtrack showers decorative holiday scenes upon Eugene.

At the end of the recent UO/LCC production of The Threepenny Opera, cast and crew took up a collection for St. Vinny’s, trying to stay true to the play’s message of honoring the poor. If Christmas Carol is about nothing else, it’s about changing the behavior of the wealthy in order to benefit the downtrodden. Perhaps ACE could don that mantle; Roberts and Zingo could easily ask the audience to donate to charities like Amigos Multicultral Center, the Relief Nursery, Looking Glass or other social services ACE dons the mantle of giving with a "Tiny Tim's Food Drive" for FOOD for Lane County, something that a reformed Scrooge would no doubt support. Whether audience members are warm from the glow of alcohol or “Christmas Together,” they'll happily pony up and make the season that much brighter. Without LED lights, at that.

ACE’s A Christmas Carol continues Dec. 7-9, 14-16 and 21-22. Go to www.actorscabaret.org or call 683-4368 for tix.