Being a University of Miami graduate is like being part of a circle of friends, or in this case, a Ring of Fire. The Broadway musical that celebrated the life and music of Johnny Cash also showcased the talents of University alumni.

Ring of Fire, which ran this spring at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City, was not an attempt to dramatize Cash’s life—the Oscar-nominated film Walk the Line does a fine job of that. Rather, a cast of six vocalists and eight musicians performed 38 songs that Cash wrote or sang, which collectively portray the journey of a man in search of his own soul. “It’s an almost mythic American tale,” says director/creator Richard Maltby Jr., whose credits also include Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Fosse.

Shortly after Ring of Fire made its stage debut, The University of Miami Alumni Association and the Frost School of Music hosted a post-performance question-and-answer session with producer Kenneth Greenblatt, B.B.A. ’68, casting director David Clemmons, B.M. ’88, and star vocalist Lari White, B.M. ’88.

“If you put it in terms of football, something our University of Miami audience knows well, it was like getting a top draft choice in every position,” Greenblatt said of the cast.

And Greenblatt’s opinion should not be taken lightly. With two business partners and his wife, Sandra, Greenblatt runs GFour Productions, a company that began producing in 1981 with the Tony-Award-winning Nine, The Musical and is presently running Menopause, The Musical in 14 cities worldwide.

Ring of Fire was a Broadway first for White, a Grammy-winning country singer with five studio albums.