Always...Patsy Cline

If you like country music, this "Patsy Cline song revue" is for you. And if you like pop music but think you don't like "country," this revue may make you think again. After all, Cline was a pioneer crossover songstress. She nuked the "sub" in a subgenre, her songs surfing into traditionally country waves such as "Honky Tonk Merry Go Round" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on to sophisticated ballads like "You Belong to Me" and "True Love." They're among two dozen numbers well paced and distinctively rendered by Kyle Ennis Turoff as Patsy Cline. Though Turoff's voice naturally has more of a show-biz belting timbre, she captures admirably Cline's phrasing and emotional tones. Favorites like "Sweet Dreams," "Crazy," "I Fall to Pieces," "Seven Lonely Nights," and "Walkin' After Midnight" aren't neglected. True to their epithet of "Bodacious Bobcats," the excellent onstage musicians collaborate fully, launching into and leaving each number without a wrinkle. Always . . . Patsy Cline avoids being a concert by building its array of songs on a true story, dramatized. It's told by Louise Segar, an early Cline fan who becomes her friend after hearing her on radio, next promoting airing of her records, then meeting and hosting her, finally exchanging correspondence and calls until Cline's fatal plane accident. As a down-home Texas gal as upbeat as her updo, Louise goes "toolin' on" to supply comedy along with information. She's stalwart and positive throughout.

As Patsy's growing fame and status are reflected in costume quality and changes (fringed western two-piecers with wide brimmed hats and tasseled boots are eventually replaced by sleek evening apparel with subtly placed "shine"), Louise sticks with go-to-dancin' buckskin vest, plaid shirt, jeans cinched by thick red-jeweled belt. Whether stomping with audience members or jawin' over coffee on the minimal set, Roberta MacDonald as Louise asserts her own bright star power.