Patsy Cline may have died young, but she and her music still live impressively—for the third time at Florida Studio Theater—in a musical about her relationship to number-one fan Louise Seger. Just as Seger’s enthusiasm for country-western vocalist Cline helped propel her to fame, Susan Greenhill’s Louise acts as an irrepressible conduit to audience appreciation of Meredith Jones’s Patsy. Ted Swindley’s script flashes back from a Patsy Cline on a “Honky Tonk Merry-Go-Round” at the Grand Olde Opry to Louise’s first enthralled listening in her Houston kitchen to an almost-unknown Patsy on TV. “Any Time” and “Walking After Midnight” solidified the impression Patsy made on Louise and the same for Meredith Jones at FST. The musical’s high point is Cline’s first Houston performance that Louise—by then a divorced working mother with two children—promotes to co-workers and via radio call-ins. She meets Patsy and afterward brings her home for the night. It’s the start of a friendship that grows through letters and phone calls until Patsy’s fatal plane crash. Matching many phases shown of the links between the women are Cline’s winning songs. Among favorites: “I Fall to Pieces,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “Seven Lonely Days,” and “Crazy.” Meredith Jones sings with crystal clarity and hints of countrified accent, her lyrics never faking feeling. She adapts beautifully to varying rhythms and tones, to folk to rock to spiritual to pop, for instance. So does her fine—and quite extensive—wardrobe by Susan Angermann. Susan Greenhill is sassy from the start and engaging to the end. On opening night she welcomed a man from the audience into a dance just off the stage in what became a genuine hit. Her energy never flagged. Nor did it detract from needed moments of sadness. The performances perpetuate director Kate Alexander’s reputation for getting the best from women in their FST work. She’s matched musically by Dr. Justin P. Dowan who helps four musicians sound like a bigger band—of BobCats, of course. Sound and light designs are in accord. All invite audiences to, as Patsy sang, “Come on In.”
