'Always . . . Patsy Cline': great music, flimsy drama

Writer Ted Swindley built his 1988 musical Always . . . Patsy Cline on the flimsiest foundation I've seen in a jukebox musical.

Given the genre, that's saying a lot. Given that this production has sold the most advance ticket sales of any show in Bristol Riverside Theatre's history, I'm not sure it matters to any fan of Cline's music.

Swindley based his two-act show on a true story, but even to call it a story is charitable. "Anecdote," maybe, or "single scene in a Cline biopic," or "footnote in music history that would interest no one . . ."

The evening starts with Louise Seger (Jo Twiss) listening to a radio broadcast of a performance by Cline (Jessica Wagner) at the Grand Ole Opry. The remainder of Act One consists of Seger narrating the history of her experiences listening to Cline's music.

"That's the kind of voice I wish I had," she tells us, adding meaningless commentary to each one of the songs Wagner recreates (always dazzling in Linda B. Stockton's historically inspired costumes).

For one night in 1961, Seger meets and befriends her heroine after a concert at Houston's Esquire Ballroom. This event takes up a quarter of this two-hour show, during which Wagner belts out 28 full or partial versions of Cline's hits.

Wagner's voice is remarkable, not only in its resemblance to Cline's odd twangs and rhythms and in how she captures the changes in Cline's style over a decade, but also in its own right. Along with a strident, carousing five-piece band, Wagner elevates this obscure occurrence in music history to a full-blown honky-tonk-style concert.

Otherwise, it's pretty lame. Twiss infuses humor through ad-libs and turns Seger into a likable eccentric who steals Cline away to her Houston home for an evening of one-sided girl talk (Cline's character speaks few lines that contribute to the narrative; the set-up for "Crazy" is particularly thin).

A charitable part of me wants to view Cline and Seger's encounter as an innocent throwback away from our age, when celebrities either overshare on social media or shun fans entirely out of fear of social media. A less charitable part of me felt the same unease I experienced reading Stephen King's Misery.

In any case, Wagner's gorgeous voice made the evening, and her renditions of Cline's songbook is what I expect that anyone is going to Bristol to see.

Always . . . Patsy Cline

Through Feb. 22 at Bristol Riverside Theatre, 120 Radcliffe St., Bristol.

Tickets: $25-$45. Information: 215-785-0100 or www.brtstage.org

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