Ring of Fire

Our date night at our local dinner theater last night was wonderful. Our local dinner theater is only one of two in the country that has performing waitstaff. I had my friend Jimmy all the way in Des Moines call the theater a couple hours before we left to set up a surprise for Adam. Adam has only been to Circa 21 once before and it was for an afternoon children's matinee so he has never had the whole experience of the buffet dinner and big musical production. He also had no idea that the waitstaff could come to your table and sing to you for your birthday/anniversary. This is what I had Jim set up for us. I tried doing it all day but Adam was always around so I couldn't get it done. Adam was so surprised. He was the first person they came and sang to because our waitress was afraid, based on something Adam had asked her earlier, that he was going to leave and go outside to smoke. After we were done eating here came our waitress with another waitress in tow. She was carrying a little cake with a candle on it. She said, "Ok, Adam? It's Adam, right?" The look on Adam's face was priceless. It was like he was thinking, "How the HELL do you know my name???" The two of them sang Happy Birthday to him and it was awesome. Classic surprise.

The buffet always goes with the theme of the play. Since Ring of Fire is about Johnny Cash's life, our buffet had a southern cooking feel to it. It included Carved Carne Asada Beef, Whiskey Pork Chops Sante Fe, Chicken with Corn and Black Beans, Cajun Style Catfish, Vegetarian Lasagna, Southwestern Potato Bake, Red Beans and Rice and Folsom County Sweet Mustard Greens. It was all pretty good though I didn't try the Chicken with corn and black beans, the vegetarian lasagna or the mustard greens. Well, I did eat a small bite of Adam's greens because I'd never had them before and they were fine.

The musical was different, I liked the way it was set up. There was something about the way the beginning of the performance was done that reminded me of Rent, my all time favorite musical. It wasn't done in a way you would think. It was basically 6 people that performed Johnny Cash's songs and told the basic gist of his life. No one dressed like him. In fact no one dressed in all black at all. For the 2nd half of the second act everyone wore black but not Johnny Cash style. The entire cast all wore different outfits that were somewhat similar, like in color. For instance one wore a velvet skirt and satin vest-type top and then maybe one of the guys was wearing a white t-shirt, black jeans and a black vest. The show ended with all of them wearing different red and black outfits.

The weird part was they killed him off half-way through the second act. Even weirder was if you look at Circa's website it says that this musical is the only show of it's kind that Johnny Cash personally endorsed before his death. Do you think if he saw it they kinda stopped right at that point and said, "Ok Johnny. Here's where we're going to talk about you dying. You know, once it happens."

The whole show was packed with probably around 30 songs and it was cool to hear some of them performed by women. All of the musicians performed too and didn't just sit there and play music. They had a female violinist who ROCKED the house. She was so good. I don't remember everything about her bio that was in the program but she looked to be in her 20's and has performed all over the world. I believe it said she graduated from Berkley in 2008. She made me wish I paid more attention in orchestra class during my own violin/viola/cello days.

The play also went by rather quickly, I think because it was more of a showcase of Johnny's music as opposed to a story of his life. The last play I went to at Circa, "The Full Monty" didn't get out until 10:45. With this one it was done just before 10:00.

Anyway, if you live in this area and can get tickets to this show before it closes on March 21st, do it. Even if you don't enjoy country music, like me, you will know a lot of the songs and the performance of them.