WolfKlain & Donovan Exalt Beloved Singer’s Brief, Brilliant Career

by Lynne Stevens

My knee hurt badly, and I was feeling sorry for myself. I could barely limp to my car. I was ready to call it in and cancel my date with an old friend. But I reminded myself that I only had to get there, and I’d be sitting down. As soon as the six piece “Grand Ole Opry” band struck up, my pain vanished, and I was drawn back to 1961.

Patsy Cline’s songs were playing on the radio when I was a young teenager. We listened to all music, without distinguishing between country and rock and roll. It was all just popular music. As Patsy Cline, Melissa WolfKlain brings us the sounds and emotions of a woman in love with love.

WolfKlain channels Patsy Cline so perfectly in this memory play you would think she  shares  DNA with Cline. Wow, what a versatile actor and singer!

Writer Ted Swindley draws his play from the unlikely friendship between Cline and Louise Seger (exuberant Kimberly Donovan). Seger first hears Cline on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and became an immediate fan.

In the 60s, Seger kept begging the local disc jockey to play Cline’s songs. She couldn’t get enough of her music.

Cline’s music is romantic, mournful, playful, and intimate—especially if you’re a woman. Her voice is powerful and mesmerizing. She is capable of growling or purring, jumping octaves with ease. She is telling us how she feels.

Seger finally meets her idol at a Houston honky-tonk in 1961. The two women connect through the message in Patsy’s lyrics:  One way or another, men have done women wrong.  Men have taken women for granted and then moved on. Willie Nelson’s lyrics make the point:

Crazy, I’m crazy for feeling so lonely
I’m crazy, crazy for feeling so blue
I knew you’d love me as long as you wanted
And then someday you’d leave me for somebody new
                                                                  — “Crazy”

“Always… Patsy Cline” is a love letter to the singer and her legacy of songs. You’ll hear many of her unforgettable hits, including “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces,” and “Walking After Midnight.” It’s a jukebox musical that that stays with us all the way home.

During a couple of the songs, Seger engages the audience in a hootenanny style sing-along. She pulls a reluctant man from the audience to dance with her. We all love the silliness and good vibes.

In fact, as Seger, Donovan has quite a workout talking almost non-stop for two hours, spinning her tale of meeting Cline, bonding, and becoming Patsy’s pen pal. They stayed in touch until Cline’s tragic death in 1963, at age 30, in a plane crash.

Donovan’s antics and physicality make me forget my own aches and pains. I want to get up shake my hips across the stage like she does, when the band strikes up those chicka-boom notes.

Glitter ball moments create the atmosphere for Cline’s more wistful songs. WolfKlain’s Cline dons a different gorgeous costume for almost every song; and Donovan wears the same shirt, jeans, and boots from start to finish. Donovan infuses her role with spunk and energy.

There is no star of this show because both women, singer and fan, are fabulous. “Always…” tells the story of a friendship. And it takes the two of them.

Musical theater magic happens at Hillbarn Theatre with “Always… Patsy Cline.” I think you’ll like it too.

“Always… Patsy Cline” –created & originally directed by Ted Swindley, directed by Dyan McBride, music direction by Rick Reynolds, scenic design by Paulino Deleal, costumes by Stephanie Dittbern, lighting by Pamila Gray, sound by Jeff Mockus—at Hillbarn Theatre, Foster City. Info: hillbarntheatre.org – to September 15, 2024.

Cast: Kimberly Donovan & Melissa WolfKlain.

Band: Rick Reynolds, piano; Steve Cassinelli, guitar; Andrew Lawrence, upright bass; Paula Filseth, fiddle; Larry Chung, pedal steel guitar; Tim Rowe, drums.

Banner photo: Melissa WolfKlain & Kimberly Donovan. Photos: Tracy Martin