• Patsy Cline, with a Beacon Twang

  • Jul 19 2024
  • Length: 5 mins
  • Podcast

Patsy Cline, with a Beacon Twang By cover art

Patsy Cline, with a Beacon Twang

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  • Bannerman Island to host tribute to country singer The production Always . . . Patsy Cline is a staple on the regional theater circuit in large part because it requires only two actors, a small band and a director. The talent marshaled to present the musical play on Bannerman Island seven times beginning Wednesday (July 24) includes its author, Ted Swindley, who moved to Beacon in February, and director Neil Caplan, who is the founder and executive director of the Bannerman Castle Trust. The stage director, Sue Regan, is from Kingston and the music director, Tom McCoy, from Fishkill. Jessica Welch, a Beacon resident who portrays Cline, has performed the role more times than anyone. She sings 27 tunes in each show, from deep cuts to all the hits. Emily Clare Zempel, who plays Cline's pen pal, Louise Seger, nails the Southern accent, although she hails from Wisconsin. Swindley followed Welch to Beacon. "Jessica is like a daughter to me, so why not move here?" he says. "I wanted to get out of Houston anyway." There are plans to take the show off-Broadway in 2025. During a recent rehearsal, Swindley sat in a padded, high-backed chair and tweaked the script. "It's not the Constitution," he quips. Unwittingly, Swindley helped create the "jukebox musical" - an easy go-to for Broadway producers. When his Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston faced financial woes in the late 1980s, Patsy saved the place. "A member of our troupe wanted to sing Patsy Cline songs and I was looking for a 'review-sical,' not a biography or straight-up song showcase," explains Swindley, who grew up in South Carolina. "This all started with a simple question: 'Did Patsy Cline ever play in Houston?' " In fact, not only had Cline performed at a local honky-tonk in 1961 as she was gaining traction on the pop and country charts, that night she met Seger, a divorced housewife who had arrived early and started a conversation. Cline came to the gig by cab. After the show, Seger offered her a ride to the hotel. Instead, they stopped at Seger's home and talked about life and love for hours. The rising star stayed the night and dropped by a radio station in the morning before heading to a show in Dallas. This relaxed encounter, where the two strangers bonded over troubled marriages and motherhood issues, makes up most of Act Two. Cline wrote many letters to fans relating her loneliness on the road and connected with Seger, who was a single mother of two. After the night in Houston, they spoke on the phone and exchanged a volley of letters until Cline's death in a 1963 plane crash. The title adapts Cline's signature ending to her correspondence: "Love always, Patsy Cline." Toward the end, the play includes a reading of the first missive Cline sent to Seger, in which the singer writes about having to iron a pile of clothes. Welch has performed the role more than 3,000 times. She also performed in South Pacific, Annie Get Your Gun and Pump Boys and Dinettes. Despite missing out on the Broadway run of Always . . . Patsy Cline, she took a long ride on the first national tour in 1995. The Arkansas native, who scrubbed her Southern accent, ticks off longstanding residencies in major markets, including a stint at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. She met her husband in Cleveland. Cline, the first woman inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, battled with record company executives over touring, repertoire and other issues. "She worked in a man's business back then and had to kick doors open," says Welch. "She lived hard and fought hard for what she wanted." Over the years, Welch immersed herself in Cline's world, visiting the singer's hometown (Winchester, Virginia), studying her songs and reading everything she could about the icon, who died at 30. "If I ever get kidnapped, I could just keep talking about Patsy Cline and they'd let me go," she says. "Beekeeping, too." Welch's goal is to narrow her wide vocal range to a husky alto and sing the melodies in Cline...
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