“Always, Patsy Cline” will bring the famous country musician Patsy Cline’s relationship with her biggest fan to life this weekend at the Bean-Brown Theatre on Shelton State Community College’s Martin Campus.
Starring Sara Catherine Wheatley as Patsy Cline and Lauren Wilson as Louise Seger, Cline’s biggest fan, “Always Patsy Cline’ will beshown for the second year in a row in Tuscaloosa.
Emily Herring, assistant professor of musical theater at The University of Alabama, has performed in multiple showings of “Always, Patsy Cline” across Alabama. She routinely portrays Patsy Cline.
“Louise is one of her biggest fans. She just represents that housewife that was at home, cooking, cleaning and listening to Patsy on the radio. She found her escape through listening to Patsy on the radio,” Herring said. Louise is telling the story of how her memories of Patsy affected her and also about when the two actually met at a honky-tonk. Patsy actually spent the night at her house.”
The show features some of Cline’s most popular songs, including “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces” and “Sweet Dreams,” among the 27 total songs.
Wheatley, the actress who will play Cline in this series, said she is a fan of Cline’s discography and the show in general.
“I always feel so grateful to be able to sing the music when I have the chance to do this show. The music is pretty spectacular. I never get bored of singing this music,” Wheatley said.
Wilson, who will perform the role of Seger in the musical, is a longtime collaborator with Theatre Tuscaloosa. This will be the fourth time she has played this role.
“Louise is not a hard character to get into when you’ve grown up in the South and you have a lot of colorful relatives and memories to draw on to help build the character for you,” Wilson said.
The story of Seger and Cline also has some relevance to the modern day fan-star relationship, Wilson said.
“I think it’s a very interesting story, because back in the time of Patsy Cline, you really could meet a star of her caliber accidentally like that,” Wilson said. “I think nowadays, this story is so sweet because you get to live through that character as she gets to meet the person she is most fond of in the whole world. It’s almost a fantasy for college-aged kids to think about, ‘Oh gosh, what if that happened to me?’ I don’t think it could even happen these days.”
Wheatley said she prefers not to linger on the end of the pair’s friendship but on the joy it can bring to those who hear the story.
“It’s a lot of fun. It’s really high energy. The audience has a great time. It’s always great to do these shows that bring so much joy to people,” Wheatley said.
