Always Patsy Cline at ISF

Or Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven

Now I’ve heard some cynical souls report that brilliance only shine because of who’s holding the spot light on it. In other words, a great soul or artistic talent only gets that way because someone decides to make it rare and noteworthy, not because of some inherent grace. I will say that one doesn’t need the recollections of Louise Seger (Harmony France) to make one a person fall in love with Patsy Cline (Christina Rose Hall), for the first time or the thousandth, but it sure does help.

Louise (based upon the real life Seger) takes us through her recollection of one magical evening when she went to see her idol. While French sets the scene Hall swans on and off in a dazzling array of costumes (courtesy of designer Dustin Cross, who, fairness, duds Louise up in the the perfect ensemble), to sing her famous song, ranging from the sweet and plaintive to the stomp’n. Hall’s performance is a dead ringer for the original, a Virginian twang that loops and quavers like writing cursive in steel, elegant but strong.

While Hall mostly communicates through lyrics, balancing joy with sorrow (particularly poignantly in “If I Could See The World”) French paints the whole picture; the super fan mouthing all the words unconsciously. While painting the particulars of Patsy’s life, Louise isn’t shy of showing off her own story, and setting forward the kind of spirited and great hearted woman the make up the best of the American South, the kind of woman who’s Cline’s music always brought forward.

It’s a wonderful night of music under a September moon, to sing along with Patsy and fallow Louise’s pangs of pride and sorrow. It really brings a musical treasure to life with a radiance that is all her own, and who’s life was best summed up in her own words: “I don’t want to live rich. I want to live good.”