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Canberra Today 13°/17° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Arts / Patsy revealed, a letter at a time

AMERICAN singer Patsy Cline died in a plane crash in 1963, aged 30, after giving the world songs such as “Crazy”, “I Fall to Pieces” and “Sweet Dreams” that still pull at the heartstrings today. 

Bendigo actress Courtney Conway in the role of Patsy Cline.

Now a smash hit musical play, featuring no fewer than 27 songs, is coming to The Q.
Created and originally directed in the US by Ted Swindley, it’s been remounted for Christine Harris’ touring company HIT Productions by Denny Lawrence, with Bendigo actress Courtney Conway in the lead.

Late last year I ran into Lawrence, a well-known Australian director who now divides his time between Manhattan and Sydney. He was talking up The Q’s idea of staging the show cabaret style in the Bicentennial Hall, next door to the theatre.
The Q’s artistic director Stephen Pike says the show has played around Australia in all kinds of venues and much smaller halls than the Bicentennial Hall, which he says is undergoing considerable refurbishment. His idea is that people should bring a picnic dinner or nibbles and sit at tables while enjoying the show.

“But it’s still a play,” he says. “A play with songs and a definite story.”

Pike believes the show will appeal to a broad range of people. Obviously country music lovers will be flocking to it – when Deborah Conway (no relation to Courtney) performed her Patsy Cline show some years ago at the Canberra Theatre, it was packed to the rafters. But as Pike correctly points out, Cline broke down the barriers between country music and its more mainstream counterparts, so he’s betting it will hold more general appeal.
The show is based on a true story about Cline’s friendship with a fan from Houston named Louise Seger, played here by Mandi Lodge, who met the star in a Texas honky-tonk in l961, then continued a correspondence with Cline until her unexpected death. The show’s title was inspired by Cline’s letters to Seger, which were signed “Love always…Patsy Cline”.

“Always…Patsy Cline”, at The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, February 15-18, bookings to theq.net.au or 6285 6290.

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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