Cori Cable Kidder reprises her Ovation Award-nominated, Scenie-winning star turn as Patsy Cline opposite SoCal musical theater treasure Ann Myers in Glendale Centre Theatre’s Always … Patsy Cline for two hours of country music memories backed by a live band. Need I say more?

 Writer/original director Ted Swindley could have opted for the easy route and staged Always … Patsy as a traditional tribute concert featuring over two dozen of Miss Cline’s Greatest Hits, and indeed GCT audiences do get treated to a grand total of twenty-seven Patsy classics.

 Instead, Swindley’s late-1980s inspiration was to imagine Patsy’s extensive song catalog through the eyes and ears of real-life Houston housewife Louise Seger (Myers), who met her idol quite by chance in a local honky-tonk one evening back in 1961, struck up a conversation, and ended up inviting Patsy over for bacon-and-eggs, the result of which was a series of letters and phone chats that continued until the star’s untimely death at the age of thirty.

 It’s this up-close-and-personal touch that makes Always … Patsy Cline far more than your standard tribute band show, giving us insight into the woman behind the hits and a friendship that could easily have lasted decades longer had Patsy not taken that ill-fated flight on March 5, 1963.

 Kidder’s Patsy gave Sierra Madre Playhouse their biggest hit three years ago, and lightning could well strike again in Glendale, so captivating and spot-on is Arkansas native Kidder’s recreation of the country music legend, acting the part with abundant down-home charm and belting out Cline hits a country contralto (under Steven Applegate’s assured musical direction) that even the most die-hard Patsy Cline fanatic will award thumbs-up.

And what a series of songs Kidder makes her own, far too many to list here, but they include Patsy’s Top Ten smashes “Walking After Midnight,” “I Fall To Pieces,” “Crazy,” and “She’s Got You,” plus covers of Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” Connie Francis’s “Stupid Cupid,” Bill Haley & His Comets’ “Shake, Rattle And Roll,” and the ‘50s movie classic “True Love.”

 Adding to the magic on the Glendale Centre Theatre stage is Myers’ irresistible fireball of a Louise, a role she gives as much heart as sass, with the added bonus that these two unlikely best friends actually seem to be contemporaries this time round as they were in real life.

GCT’s in-the-round staging has returning director-choreographer Robert Marra going beyond the verve and visual flair of his Sierra Madre staging, this time playing to all four sides of the house.

 Scenic designer Murat Montero makes ingenious use of Glendale Centre Theatre’s arena stage, from Louise’s kitchen in one corner to the upper level bandstand where Mike Flick, Jim Miller, Sean Paxton, and Kevin Tiernan play the heck out of those Patsy Cline hits, to the high-up balcony that serves as Patsy’s recording studio.

 Costume designer Angela Manke gives Patsy one glamorous late-’50s, early ’60s outfit after another, Paul Reid lights Montero’s set and Manke’s costumes with flair, and sound designer Alex Mackyol and sound engineer Trey Douglas ensure a pitch-perfect mix of amped vocals and instrumentals.

Always … Patsy Cline is produced by Brenda Dietlein. Griffin Barr is stage manager.

I concluded my Sierra Madre Playhouse review with the words “You don’t have to be a country music fan to love Always … Patsy Cline. You just have to be smart enough to book your tickets early.”

The same goes at Glendale Centre Theatre, where Cori Cable Kidder’s Patsy Cline once again reigns supreme.

Glendale Centre Theatre, 324 N. Orange St., Glendale.
www.glendalecentretheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
August 31, 2018
Photos: Dennis Stover

Tags: Glendale Centre Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Patsy Cline