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| Photo By Sandy Underwood |
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Molly Andrew embodies country singer Patsy Cline.
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Set aside whether
Always, Patsy Cline at the Cincinnati Playhouse is a play with songs, a concert with some plot or a docu-musical. It's a performance event that fits no niche and doesn't need to, because it is such pure-hearted, sure-footed, satisfying entertainment. The house lights fade. The five-hand, cowboy band led by Scott Kasbaum, zings into life. Lights (Tony Penna) brighten and time melts away. It's the 1960s. Paul Owen's set invites us inside a giant juke box. And there, sadly dead since '63, but alive forever in the yearning hearts of her fans, stands one of the first crossover artists from Nashville, Patsy Cline -- singing her own Country and Pop chart-toppers along with some traditional tunes, a little Gospel and other '50s and '60s hits -- 23 numbers in all.
Playwright Ted Swindley rooted the entertainment in a real event. One night in 1961 the rising star and a devoted fan named Louise met and bonded in a Houston honky-tonk. They visited in person only that night but stayed in cordial, two-way touch with personal letters until the singer's death at age 30 in a plane crash. Louise narrates. Patsy sings. All the signature hits are here: "Crazy," "Walkin' After Midnight," "I Fall to Pieces" -- along with poignant versions of "You Belong To Me," "True Love" and others.
The show's success resides in the magnetic grace of two absolutely assured performers, both returning to roles they created at Actors Theatre of Louisville, then reprised during the Cincinnati Playhouse's summer season in 2000. Adale O'Brien etches Louise with casual intensity, making her earthy, funny and new-penny bright. Molly Andrews is simply stunning as Cline. She embodies the singer's static, unforced, uncluttered presence and employs just enough vocal mannerisms to keep the portrait in focus without turning it into empty mimicry or masking the authority of her rich voice. When they scamper through "Blue Moon of Kentucky" an enchanting evening gets more so.
Frazier Marsh's direction is as graceful as the performances he guided. The designer and operator of the flawlessly transparent sound system is not credited in the program. Grade: A
ALWAYS, PATSY CLINE continues through Jan. 18 at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
