Video: Go Inside Rehearsals for La Jolla Playhouse's THE BALLAD OF JOHNNY AND JUNE

Get a first look at rehearsals for La Jolla Playhouse's world-premiere musical The Ballad of Johnny and June, with book by Robert Cary (SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical) and Playhouse Director Emeritus and two-time Tony Award winner 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.
  
Country music royalty Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash remain to this day one of the most famous couples of the 20th century. Created with the support of the family and told through the eyes of their son John Carter Cash, The Ballad of Johnny and June covers it all: their childhoods, their 1956 meeting at the Grand Ole Opry, the storied on-stage proposal in 1968, and the soaring highs and whiplash lows of fame, life on the road, addiction, arrests, controversies, marriage, family and devotion. This is a whole-hearted and clear-eyed telling of one of the most iconic love stories in music history, complete with a soundtrack of beloved hits, including I Walk the Line, Ring of Fire, I’ve Been Everywhere and many more.ord or Two, Caesar and Cleopatra, The Tempest (all with Christopher Plummer), Twelfth Night (with Brian Dennehy). Opera: Faust (The Met, ENO). TV: 700 Sundays (HBO). Film: Cousin Bette (director, with Jessica Lange), The Iron Giant (producer, BAFTA Award) and Quills (executive producer). He has an honorary doctorate from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), and in 2012, he was awarded Canada’s Governor Generals National Arts Center Award and the Order of Canada. His new version of The Who’s Tommy recently opened on Broadway in March, 2024.
 

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