Review of The Ballad of Johnny and June By Lynn Carroll

May 27, 2026

It wouldn’t be surprising if not many people today had heard of Johnny Cash, let alone his music. He was born in 1932 and by the time I was born he had already reached, in the early 50s, what might be described as stardom, though bigger things were yet to come. However, in my younger days I was aware of him and his music but not so much that of his wife, June Carter, who was apparently ahead of him in the music game.

This show did an excellent job giving us a potted history of both their lives but a couple of hours could not do justice to the full story of a man raised in the great depression and his later battles with drug and alcohol addiction. Despite this he survived five decades in the music business, country and folk, and died in 2003 just four months after his beloved wife June. She stood by her man through it all and their relationship is portrayed as being one of the great love stories of the time. My personal belief would not go so far as to use the prefix of ‘great’ as they certainly had many trials and tribulations along the way.

The story was staged in a quite unusual way with their son as an adult narrating and participating, at times telling us how old he was during various scenes and playing his older self as his parents aged and finally passed. Readers may like to know that Johnny Cash figured quite prominently in a recent film ‘A Complete Unknown’, a biopic starring Timothy Chalamet as Bob Dylan.

Before touching on the actors playing Johnny and June I have to say I found Ryan O’Donnell as their son (John Carter Cash) an extremely charismatic character and thoroughly enjoyed his role switching between narration and acting in scenes as the couple’s son. It worked very well and quite rightly assumes that many not familiar with his parents might need the further explanations he supplied.

Although Johnny Cash only figured in the periphery of my life I knew enough to realise that Christopher Ryan Grant could not have been better at portraying the man known for his deep gravelly voice and flamboyant guitar style, even the way he looked. His rendition of favourites like Jackson, a Boy Named Sue and Ring of Fire were particular highlights and many modern singers have released their own very good versions of the latter which seems to be the one he is most remembered for.

Christina Bianco also deserves a mention for her excellent interpretation in the role of June Carter. I say interpretation as I have no knowledge of June, how she looked or sounded, but only as a vague recollection of her being the wife of Johnny Cash. Both had been married previously, June twice, and had several children already, though I believe John was the only one they had together after, I think, seven girls.

Lead actors will always be picked out for special mentions but no show would be complete without a whole raft of other actors to make it complete. I could find no fault with any as each played their part to perfection. Costumes were of the time, music was great and we could see glimpses of the musicians behind the scenery who often do not get a share of the limelight.

All in all this was a great night out and I would recommend it to all age groups whether you know nothing, a little or a lot about Johnny and June.