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“Ring of Fire”, a new Broadway show featuring 38 songs by Johnny Cash, is opening tonight at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall and will be playing through Sunday, January 27th.

A musical celebration of Cash’s life, the show is guaranteed to provide a unique look into the pivotal events and key moments that transormed the boy from Arkansas into one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

Julie Meirick, cast member of “Ring of Fire” was born and raised in rural Iowa, but nowadays calls Nashville home. The youngest of nine children, she fell in love with Johnny Cash’s music at a very young age and still considers the man in black one of the greatest music legends of all times. In this interview she explains what she loves the most about his songs, why she thinks he is a very atypical country star and how “Ring of Fire” differs from the movie “Walk the Line”.

Coastalbeat: Have you always been a Johnny Cash fan?

Julie Meirick: Yes, since I was a little girl. My dad’s best friend was a big Johnny Cash fan so I started listen to his music when I was about six or seven years old. He played Elvis and Johnny Cash for us… I guess those are good things to start listening to when you are a little kid!

CB: You grew up in rural Iowa. Did you use to listen to a lot of country music?

Meirick: Yeah, I really loved classic country singers like Hank Williams and Patsy Cline. Of course, you know, when you get to your teen years you get a little more rebellious and country all of the sudden seems a little too tame… even though when you are listening to Johnny Cash is not tame at all! In high school I started doing some musical theater and that is sort of what led me to “Ring of Fire”. I live in Nashville now and they did auditions for it in Nashville and in New York… I had been very active in the theater world in Nashville so when I saw the audition announced in the paper I showed up and I got a part.

CB: Speaking of musical influences, did you ever listened to the Carters?

Meirick: To tell you the truth, I never was a big Carters fan. I guess June’s daughter Carleene was my biggest exposure to the Carters, but she was a whole different thing from the Carter family.

CB: How long have you been on the road with “Ring of Fire”?

Meirick: We started in September, we went to Amarillo for a month to rehears the show, then we took off at the beginning of October and hit the road. We had a break at Christmas, but other than that we have been performing non-stop. We don’t have another break until March. But it has gone really well… the cast is phenomenal, everyone is so great… it makes it a lot easier to be out on the road with people whose company you really enjoy. And it’s so evident, I think, when people come to the show they can tell how wonderful the cast is… not only they are talented, but they are also warm with each other, kind of like a family. It’s neat to see that.

CB: I’ve read that the show is not structured like one would expect. Can you tell us more about its unconventional structure?

Meirick: “Ring of Fire” is what we call a musical event. It’s not really a tribute concert or anything like that, but there are dramatic pieces to it. It’s basically a series of sequences of music and dialogue that tell the story of Johnny’s life. It’s kind of interesting to watch because if we play a certain song to represent a moment of his life it doesn’t mean that he wrote that particular song about that specific moment… but somehow it fits. We don’t tell the story moment by moment, this is not like “Walk the Line”. That’s the biggest misconception about “Ring of Fire”.

CB: So how does Ring of Fire compare to Walk the Line?

Meirick: The biggest thing about “Walk the Line” is that it’s mostly about June, it’s really about Johnny’s relationship with her. Although we talk about that in “Ring of Fire” it’s not the main focus of the show. The focus is really on the music, the whole show is a celebration of his life and his music. That’s the biggest difference between the movie and the show. “Walk the Line” is a very dramatic, very dialogue-driven movie. “Ring of Fire” is not a dialogue-driven show at all. We fill in the blanks with a little dialogue, but it’s mostly the music that speaks about his life.

CB: Is there a song you particularly enjoy performing?

Meirick: I really love “Jackson” at the end of the first act. We all do. It really shows what a great sense of humor Johnny had… everyone think of him as dark, “the man in black”… but he really had a fun sense of humor and “Jackson” is one of the songs in the show that make it very evident.

CB: Do you and the other actors dress, act and modulate your voices so you sound like Johnny Cash and June Carter?

Meirick: No, not at all. There’s no look-alike or sound-alike, it’s not an impersonator show at all. We were not directed to look like him or act like him, we were directed to put ourselves in the situation and react as we would, being more ourselves. I think that that’s what is charming about the show: there isn’t a big dramatic edge to it, everyone is being themselves, loving the music and it’s really evident when you watch the show that our main goal is to stay true to the music.

CB: Do you feel like with Ring of Fire you are reaching out to a younger generation that otherwise would have not known much about Johnny Cash and his music?

Meirick: I think that that process started with the “American Sessions”, the last five CDs that were done, and we definitely are reaching out to teenagers and people in their 20s. What this show does is adding something different, something more. We don’t cover many of the most popular songs, we don’t really do those that have been on the news and on the radio a lot. We perform a lot of the older songs, the lesser known ones that most people don’t know about.

CB: So who’s this show for? Cash aficionados and country music newbies alike?

Meirick: Absolutely. Either way, you’re going to find out new things about his music. But you don’t need to know a lot about Johnny Cash to enjoy this show. This is what I love about Johnny Cash: he loved great songs and he wasn’t afraid to sing about things that weren’t necessarily politically correct. I don’t necessarily relate on a personal level to all of them but I still enjoy them and get what he had in mind. A lot of contemporary music is all about universal themes that everyone can relate to and sometimes that’s just boring. It’s fun to hear things that are a little different and that’s what I like the most about Johnny’s music. He was like “this is what I feel, this is what I like right now… see if you like it too. And if you don’t, listen to something else.”

IF YOU GO:

What: “Ring of Fire”

When: January 22 – January 27

Where: Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall

Cost: $25-$60