The Man in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash books the Fargo Theatre for March 12

Shawn Barker's in-character Cash show lands on Broadway on a Friday night in March, in an 870-seat room that has made a habit of Cash tributes.

Somewhere around the second chorus of "Folsom Prison Blues," a good Johnny Cash tribute stops being an impression and starts being a room full of people singing along. Fargo will get its next chance to find out on Friday, March 12, 2027, when The Man in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash plays the Fargo Theatre.

The date is on the Fargo Theatre's own calendar. The show stars Shawn Barker, whom the venue describes as having an uncanny resemblance to the original Man in Black, and who stays in character for the entire evening. Barker has been touring the production for more than two decades, and it keeps a steady schedule: this month alone it played the Ridgefield Playhouse in Connecticut on Oct. 21 and Penn's Peak in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 23. Fargo sits more than four months out, which gives you the whole winter to decide — but in a room this size, a Friday-night tribute with a built-in audience is not a show to leave until the week of.

Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster, linked from the venue's event page. Check the listing for showtime and ticket prices.

Why this room? Start with the numbers. The Fargo Theatre holds 870, which is big enough to feel like a night out and small enough that the back row still sees the guy's face. For a show built on a single performer's presence — the voice, the stance, the black suit — that matters more than it would for a band hiding behind a light rig.

In an 870-seat room, the back row still sees the guy's face.

The theatre also has form with this material. Earlier this year, on April 10, it hosted the Folsom Prison Experience, a staged recreation of Cash's live prison recording with his band, the Tennessee Three. Before that, the venue's calendar has carried One Night in Memphis, a rockabilly tribute to the Sun Records class of Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. Fargo, it turns out, shows up for Cash. The Folsom show was a theatre piece; Barker's is a concert, a straight run through the songbook with the man himself, more or less, at the microphone.

The Fargo Theatre's calendar in the meantime is a reminder of how wide its net is — podcasts, opera tributes, touring rock bands and first-run film all share the same stage on Broadway. A tribute act on a March Friday fits right into that mix: something to get you downtown in the stretch of the year when nobody wants to leave the house.

So mark it down. March 12, the Fargo Theatre, a man in a black suit and a few thousand miles of train songs. Bring the relative who owns *At Folsom Prison* on vinyl and let them sing the loud parts.

Sources: The Fargo Theatre – event page listing The Man in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash (Mar 12, 2027) (fargotheatre.org); The Fargo Theatre – Folsom Prison Experience (fargotheatre.org); TheaterMania – The Man in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash (theatermania.com); Live Review: The Man In Black (Shawn Barker) (geoffwilburmusic.com); Tickets – Ticketmaster (ticketmaster.com); One Night in Memphis – Fargo Theatre – The Arts Partnership (theartspartnership.net); The Man In Black A Tribute To Johnny Cash Announces 19-Date North American Fall Tour (gratefulweb.com)