Reviews

A Johnny Cash show without the Man in Black is a contradiction in terms, but it's not quite impossible.

The Dallas Summer Musicals brought Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash to Fair Park Music Hall on Tuesday for a two-week run. Richard Maltby Jr. (Ain't Misbehavin', Fosse) developed the musical revue from a concept by William Meade. Joe Calarco directed this touring version.

It's hard to emerge from the shadow of Mr. Cash's singular style in a whole evening of songs associated with him, many of which he wrote himself.

The performers use the singer-songwriter's own words to recount an outline of his life between the numbers.

The women in the cast of Ring of Fire have an easier time of it, because they're not directly competing with memories of the sound of his voice. Julie Meirick dominates the first act with a strong presence. She's the matriarch mourning a son in "Far Side Banks of Jordan" and bringing the family together in "Daddy Sang Bass." With an even more penetrating voice, Erin Parker gets the sexier songs – mournful in "I Still Miss Someone," taunting in "Jackson."

The men are generally less effective at the beginning of the show, but they grow on you. Scott Stacy sounds the most like Mr. Cash but sometimes projects a slick show-biz persona miles away from what Mr. Cash stood for. Jeremy Wood at first seems lightweight even for the young Johnny, but he's charming in "A Boy Named Sue" and exciting in "I Walk the Line."

Steve Benoit, at least, strikes a good balance between evocation and independence. He has some of Mr. Cash's reserved seriousness, but doesn't resort to an imitation. More than any of the others, he bridges the gap between country and rock in just the way that Mr. Cash himself pioneered.

Ring of Fire comes into its own in the sequence of prison songs that make up most of the second act. Here the revue conveys some of the unvarnished emotion that characterized its subject.

PLAN YOUR LIFE Through May 25 at Fair Park Music Hall. Runs 135 mins. $11 to $71. 214-631-2787, www.ticketmaster.com.