In FST's first of many local productions, Always...Patsy Cline dramatized the singer's life through her musical performances and her records, as seen through the eyes of devoted fan Louise Seger. Though insistent and sometimes sassy in promoting Cline, southerner Louise was basically nurturing type of woman. After Cline stayed with her one night following a show in her hometown, they became fast friends.
The letters Cline wrote to Louise provided behind-the-scenes glimpses of the star's personal as well as professional life before her fatal plane accident. Only six years earlier, Louise had first heard Cline on Arthur Godfrey's radio show.
Her kitchen setting, with Cline rendering "Anytime," are the same now as in FST's earlier show. So is the cute onstage band of The Bodacious Bobcats, all in white-trimmed black western outfits. Once again, Cline wears a tailored pink suit and white high-heeled pumps at the start of a parade, first of cowgirl clothes, then of modestly stylish, full-skirted dresses. But this time around, FST's production is decidely different.
Louise, as played by Director Joy Hawkins, seems to be right out of "Hee Haw." She makes calls to the local deejay asking for Cline's records a continual harangue. Frantically, she draws attention to herself (while seeming to call attention to Patsy) almost every time Cline sings. At the honky tonk where she meets her idol, Hawkins' vulgar Louise seems more at home than in her kitchen. As she plays maestro over the musicians, she becomes a distraction from Cline's vocals. Too bad, because Christine Mild has a good, clear voice and handles Cline's most demanding songs with seeming ease. Luckily, Louise can't completely ruin Mild-Cline's famous "Walking After Midnight," "I Fall to Pieces," "Crazy," "Seven Lonely Days." She seems to try to dominate, though, with forays into the audience to deliver comments or engage a dance partner. In Louise's kitchen, Hawkins with her stomping, smoking and choking, overpowers "Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray" sung by Mild. Hawkins' style differs so greatly from Mild's (whose name describes her manner) that she seems like a wildly alive person eliciting sounds from a ghost.
When Cline appears at the finale as if a reincarnation of her early self, there's little difference in her looks. In fact, with her stiff posture, faultless makeup, perfect teeth, slick and lacquered black hair, brightly polished nails, she seems throughout not only from a different period but an "other" world. There's little sign of the Patsy Cline who revolutionized the role of women in country-western music. Not even in the script. Apparently, FST is using its current version of Always...Patsy Cline to attract patrons of its Cabaret or fans of country-western per se who seldom, if ever, patronize the Mainstage. As ticket demand had swelled by opening night, the show will be moving to FST's Gompertz Theater as an extended run.
For those who mainly want to hear Patsy Cline's songs, one would hope by then Hawkins will be too tired to make that a chore.
