‘Always… Patsy Cline’ a jukebox gem at Actors’ Summit

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics

A country-western song can take you from hello to heartache in just under three minutes. 

So it is little wonder that the songs and story of country singer Patsy Cline can be covered in just two 45-minute acts in Ted Swindley’s “Always… Patsy Cline,” currently on stage at Actors’ Summit in Akron.    

Actually, this jukebox musical is more about the performance of the songs (including such hits as “Back in Baby’s Arms,” “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces” and “Crazy”) than the story.  Nothing is learned about the music itself and little is learned about Patsy Cline (Jennifer Browning) outside of the 24 hours she spends with the show’s direct address narrator, Louise Seger (Chanda K. Porter).

Seger is a fan who happens to befriend Cline before a performance at the Esquire Ballroom in Houston in 1961, just as Cline is getting famous and two years before the singer would die tragically in a plane crash at the age of 30.

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