Reviewing ALWAYS . . . PATSY CLINE

Fiorella slept late again this morning, not because she had insomnia earlier in the night like on Thursday, but because she saw a good production yesterday evening at Georgetown's Palace Theater and rested easy.

Fio says a good production because that's what it was--good, but not great.  Always . . . Patsy Cline featured twenty-six hits of the big-voiced country-pop star put into a pseudo-biographical order.  The singing and characterization of  Ysenia McNett was tremendous, especially for basically a one-woman show.  McNett, who usually sings lyric soprano roles, has great contralto pipes too.  She owned the role, portraying Cline from tender ingenue to swaggering star.   No one could totally  duplicate Cline's unique ability to switch registers with ease, but McNett came as close as you're gonna get.  And her styling was perfect.

The pseudo biography is where the play failed.  Unlike the similar Buddy Holley reprise,  Always . . . Patsy Cline intimates that the Cline's songs reflected her life, that she had experienced the let-down-by-a-man, honky-tonk life she sang about.  To that end, the playwright created a fake character to narrate the play--Louise Seger, a comic-relief fan whom Cline supposedly met along the way. 

But a little Googling tells a different story.  Cline was no shrinking violet tromped on by chauvinistic male arrogance.  Her songs were often the female counterpart to the country-western masculine wails about women who had done them wrong, but she was the one who divorced her first husband because he wanted her to dump her career and settle down to housewifery bliss.  Her second marriage was relatively happy, producing two children. And Cline has no need for a devoted fan to protect her interests.  In fact, she led the charge when it came to country performers being paid upfront rather than after the show, when producers often stiffed them.

But Fiorella quibbles. The minimalist stage setting worked well, and Fio was entranced by the way the band, often stuck off in a corner so as not to distract from the action, was rightfully front and center most of the time, actually part of story.  The costumes were spot on, and, for once, Fio has not a single complaint about the directing.  Needless to say, the theater was SRO and has been since opening night.  Extra shows have been added.

All in all, Aways . . . Patsy Cline was a treat.

CORRECTION:  Louise Seger was a real person and real fan.  But Fio still objects to her as a comic-relief character.