And like the vocalists employed by Welk and Mitch Miller, these performers have a way of making every song, however different in essence, sound pretty much the same. Like such perky television revues, which flourished in the 1950's and 60's, "Ring of Fire" assembles a team of clean-cut, anonymously personable singers who dance, mime and, above all, smile their way through an assortment of musical numbers. If so, then let "Ring of Fire" transport you to a bygone era - not the vintage years of the Grand Ole Opry or bouncy old Broadway, but the age of "The Lawrence Welk Show" and "Sing Along With Mitch." Personally, I would always pick demons over the cutes for solid entertainment value, but you may feel different.
If the current bio-flick "Walk the Line" portrays the craggy country singer as a man wrestling with demons, "Ring of Fire" wrestles with a really bad case of the cutes. In other words, "Ring of Fire," which opened last night at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, has little to do with the dark, troubled and excitingly dangerous presence that most people remember as Johnny Cash. Cash, who died in 2003, is not himself a character in this latest entry in the jukebox musical sweepstakes of Broadway, his spirit is invoked as a friendly ghost with dimples and a twinkling disposition. The man in black turns sunshine yellow in "Ring of Fire," the show that strings songs associated with Johnny Cash into an artificially sweetened candy necklace.
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