The Man In Black, the Johnny Cash story. Set list.

Yes, I am a trainspotter. Here’s the set list from The Man In Black, in which Tex Perkins stars as Johnny Cash. It opened last night.

Act 1

1. I Walk The Line
2. Hey Porter
3. Get Rhythm
4. Big River
5. Five Feet High And Rising
6. Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)
7. Don’t Take Your Guns To Town
8. Sunday Morning Coming Down
9. Help Me Make It Through The Night (duet with Rachael Tidd)
10. It Ain’t Me Babe (duet)
11. Jackson (duet)

Act 2

1. Folsom Prison Blues
2. Busted
3. Cocaine Blues
4. Dirty Old Egg-Sucking Dog
5. A Boy Named Sue
6. 25 Minutes To Go
7. Greystone Chapel
8. Starkville City Jail
9. Man In Black
10. Bird On A Wire (Leonard Cohen cover)
11. If I Were A Carpenter (duet)
12. Hurt (NIN cover)
13. Ring Of Fire



Encore

1. Darlin’ Companion
2. Folsom Prison Blues (this time sung by Tidd) and medley


The Man In Black, the Johnny Cash story. Starring Tex Perkins, Rachael Tidd and “the Tennessee Four” (Peter Luscombe, James Black, Steve Hadley and Ashley Naylor). Athenaeum Theatre until September 12.

UPDATE: my review...

After a thundering version of ‘I Walk The Line’ -- so deep it would make a sub-woofer quake -- the black-suited singer steps up and delivers the trademark opening line: “Hello, I’m...”

It’s a shock and a relief when he says: “... Tex Perkins.”

As rich and deep as the voice is, as impressive as the figure-eight gee-tar strumming is, Tex is smart enough to know that a little modesty goes a long way. This man in black has a white shirt on. For now.

The first half of the show sketches Johnny Cash’s childhood and early career. It’s clumsy, but informative and often fun. And it takes us from the first number one hit (‘I Walk The Line’) to Johnny’s first number two with June Carter: ‘Jackson’. (They never quite hit the top together, though they made it back to number 2 a few years later with ‘If I Were A Carpenter’... which features in the second half.)

Interestingly enough, the selection of songs in this half (‘Hey Porter’, ‘Get Rhythm’, ‘Big River’, ‘Five Feet High And Rising’) is smarter than the banter. The renditions are conservative and rock solid. And the focus is firmly on Perkins.

After interval, the show kicks up several notches. This time, Tex opens with a “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash,” his white shirt replaced with a black one. And the band fires off the opening songs from the legendary 1968 Folsom Prison concerts: ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and ‘Busted’ which they follow with another four songs that featured in the Folsom concerts.

Just when the show is barrelling along like an express train, the narration brings the show to a crunching halt. But not for long.

Covers of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Bird On A Wire’ and Trent Reznor’s ‘Hurt’ (which Cash released on two of his ‘American’ recordings, in 1994 and 2002 respectively) lend the show an unexpected complexity. For a moment, we hear how Cash might have sounded if he had sung these songs as a young man, in rude health, not an ailing man in his 60s.

Perkins is as close as we’re likely to get to Johnny Cash in Australia. He makes Walk The Line star Joaquin Phoenix sound like an anaemic karaoke singer. His speaking voice is uncannily like Cash’s. More could be done in the sound mix to thicken up the mid-range of his voice to match it with Cash’s unique timbre, and Perkins needs to concentrate less on mimicry and more on character.

Still, Tex is Tex. Captivating and entertaining. And so is the show.

It will satisfy hardcore fans of both men. And that’s no mean feat.