BWW Exclusive: Interview with Jason Edwards, Director and Star of RING OF FIRE: THE MUSIC OF JOHNNY CASH

MM: Jason Edwards, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with BroadwayWorld and me. We are really excited about the regional premiere of RING OF FIRE at the Denver Center!

JE: My pleasure! Great to be here!

MM: First off, I see that you have done a show here before with the Denver Center called Mama Hated Diesels. Have you done any other shows here in Denver?

JE: That was the first one. I was offered a couple of shows years ago out at Country Dinner Playhouse. A long time ago, like 20 years ago with Bill McHale, but Diesels was my first show here in Denver.

MM: So what do you think of Denver and its theater community?

JE: I think it's top notch! I love it. I love the town. I think the Denver Center Theater Company is probably the finest and most versatile theater company in America. That’s my opinion.

MM: Thank you. That's very kind of you. Can you tell us a little bit about RING OF FIRE?

JE: Well, it's sort of a celebration of Johnny Cash's work. Richard Malby, who conceived the show and created it, didn’t want someone impersonating Johnny Cash, though he did want people who understood the material. So what we are trying to do with the show is get beneath his image and down to his words, what he was trying to say. Just be as true and honest and authentic as we possibly can.

MM: How many hours of research do you think you have done in preparation for this role?

JE: Research?! Oh God, I’ve been researching for this role all of my life, basically my whole career. This has come full circle for me, from where I grew up and the music that I listen to and love – the region where it’s from and the people we are talking about. I'm originally a Southern guy. I live in New York City now, but the thing for me, not only as an actor and a character actor, is just to try to portray the people that we're talking about with respect and honesty. That’s what I try to achieve.

MM: Where are you from originally?

JE: I’m from western North Carolina, near Ashville NC. It’s where the Blue Ridge and the Smokies come together. It’s about an hour across the mountains from where the Carter family is from – June Carter, BP Carter, Mother Maybelle Carter.

MM: Any funny or odd thing that you discovered in your research of Johnny Cash?

JE: He had a great sense of humor, I can say that. I don’t think the image that he had covers what he was all about. Obviously, he was one of the inventors of rock and roll. Not only was he a great storyteller and great songwriter and musician, he was really a patriotic and spiritual guy, and the thing about him that I just can’t talk enough about was that he had a voice for the forgotten and overlooked people in the world. That’s where my respect lies. And it’s great music.

MM: I wholeheartedly agree. Any special technique that you have to do to transform into Johnny Cash?

JE: Well, you know, no one is trying to do an impersonation of Johnny Cash or June Carter, but what we are trying to do is get beneath the skin of who he was and what he was about and bring what we know and what we have learned in life and where we come from and try to relate it. I think as actors and musicians that’s really what our job is. We’ve got a great group of people who can relate to where Johnny Cash was from. I grew up in the same type of terrain, out in the country like he did, and as did everyone in this cast. We have a great group of people trying to tell this story. Researching and reading and looking at videos, I’ve learned so much about him that I didn’t know, just from being involved in this show since 2005.

MM: So, given its short run on Broadway, what do you think caused the show’s limited success?

JE: I think any subject set in the south is a tough sell. Country music is a tough sell in New York. It was really hot and audiences loved it, but when you are talking about Broadway and millions and millions of dollars, I don’t know. I know that audiences really loved it, but I don’t think it fit in any category that they could pinpoint, whether a musical, or a concert, or a review. The great thing is that Richard Malby thought outside the box, and when you do that you are always running a risk. He didn’t play it safe and I respected that and that’s what really appealed to me about it.

MM: Do you think it translates better into a touring show with smaller more intimate audiences?

JE: No, not this version, because we just played in an 1800 seat theater north of LA and other large theaters. This past season we played Arkansas Rep in a 400 seat theater. We had a great response in Arkansas, where Johnny Cash was from. And that was exciting and challenging. I just figured if you can go to the place where someone is from, before he was famous, and if you can get their approval of their native son then that is a good thing.

MM: Well, it is good to see you are getting such a good response in the tour.

JE: We're thrilled. We just dig into the material and try to make it as true and honest as we can and try to entertain the audience. The rest is out of our hands as long as we are just trying to do the best we can. And we have a great team here that’s producing the show at The Denver Center. So we’re all excited about it and we love it and I couldn’t think of a better place to do it than the Denver Center.

MM: Well, thank you!

MM: Do you think the genre that Johnny Cash is – the classic country/rock and roll – do you think it’s more for a specific audience, or does it translate to people from all walks of life?

JE: Well, I think that his works would go out to people from all walks of life and that's why he is universally revered. But I think that my goal as director, too, is that you have the theater base and theater patrons and then you have another contingency out there that may not normally go to the theater who are musical and musicians. What I always like to do, and what we are trying to do with this show, is to appeal to everybody out there, whether it be a lawyer or a farmer or a musician or whoever. That is what Johnny Cash was trying to do. He was out there writing what his heart told him and what he knew, and that’s what we’re doing in some small way
with this show.

MM: With Duncan Sheik, Green Day, and even rumor of a Queen musical hitting Broadway, what is Johnny Cash's appeal?

JE: I think it’s his lyrics and just the whole hip-ness of who he was. He was an honest guy and it’s amazing the kind of sound they came up with back in the ‘50s that birthed all of these rock bands and country bands. I don’t think Nashville could put Johnny Cash in a box and say he’s just country. I think that’s why his music appeals to people that may not be interested in country, or even rock and roll. His words are well worth looking at. It’s another form of theater. I’ve done some shows that are rock and roll and country and stuff like that, but nothing has appealed to me like this show has.

MM: We have a couple of questions from the readers at BWW. What differences did you implement in this production as compared to the original?

JE: Well this is Richard Malby's concept and I am trying to be true to that as well, but it’s a smaller cast and there’s about half a dozen songs that were in the Broadway show that are not in this and there are a half dozen songs that we have added. It’s a little more autobiographical than what we did in New York. But, like I said, that it is my interpretation of Richard Malby's concept, and I have all the respect in the world for him. He's a brilliant conceiver of musicals. One thing about Richard Malby is that he didn’t shy away from the spiritual element of Johnny Cash. The rock and roll stuff and the outlaw stuff is there, but he didn’t shy away, which is a risk even in New York to try to expose in small amounts everything that Johnny Cash was about – his spiritual side, his patriotic side, as well as his rebellious side. I think we touch on a little bit of that in the show. But we only have a certain amount of songs that we can use through the Cash estate and we’re trying to tell
the story through that. So it’s similar to the Broadway [show], but there are different songs and actors and musicians. Also, the concept is close to what the original was.

MM: What is left out from his life in this presentation?

JE: It’s hard to tell everything he was about in two hours, I can tell you that. There are some great songs that I wish we could do, especially from later in his career. There are a couple of songs we did on Broadway that speak volumes about what he did and what he wrote. The song Man in Black really tells everything that he was about – what he was trying to say come across. I really don’t think anyone can portray or impersonate Johnny Cash, any more than they could Will Rogers or Elvis Presley. You just try to take a stab at it and be as respectful and truthful with the material as you can.

MM: Does the music in the show stay true to his style over the years?

JE: I think so, yeah. What we’ve tried to do is strip it down to the studio-authentic sound that people are familiar with, but there are some really good arrangements of his songs. One thing he did was he took other songwriters’ material and he made it his own in his way. We’re doing the same thing, to tell the story that we tell. The main thing here is that if Johnny Cash were watching a scene (I hate to call him Johnny Cash, I want to call him “Mr. Cash” ‘cause that's how much respect I have for him) about his works that it’s [authentic]. Whether it be Country Boy or Folsom Prison, I think there are some really good songs in this that aren’t that famous with the general public and it’s great to take the songs we’ve got and put the words out there.

MM: What do you hope the audience will take away from this experience?

JE: I hope that they take away a little bit more than they knew about him through his image and his fame, what he was trying to talk about as an artist and a storyteller. If you took the music out of his songs and just read his lyrics, he was a great songwriter. The thing that was so great about him was that he had this whole background, coming from this dirt cotton farm and then becoming one of the greatest stars in the world. I hope they will be entertained and hear some really great tunes. We have some great musicians that play this style as well as anybody out there. Just that they would be entertained and that they took away a little more about him than they knew when they came in.

MM: What’s next for you after this show? Do you have any projects you are working on?

JE: Well, I’ve had a couple of projects come up since working on this version of RING OF FIRE, but this thing has appealed to me so much that this has been a priority for me. Just dedicated to this and I’ll see what happens, but right now my aim is to focus on Denver and entertain the audiences here.

MM: Again, thank you so much for talking to BroadwayWorld and I look forward to seeing you on the big stage!

Burn, burn, burn! RING OF FIRE: THE MUSIC OF Johnny Cash is playing at the Denver Center now through May 13th. For tickets or information, contact the Denver Center at 303-893-4100 or online at www.denvercenter.org.

 

 

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