AMERICAN IDOL's Crystal Bowersox and Annette O'Toole to Lead ALWAYS...PATSY CLINE; Opens on Broadway This August!

Burke-Cohen Entertainment/Jimmy Burke, Jeff Cohen presents American Idol finalist Crystal Bowersox and Oscar and Emmy Award nominee Annette O'Toole starring in the Broadway premiere of Ted Swindley's Always... Patsy Cline, directed by Tony Award winner John Rando. The scenery will be designed by Anna Louizos, who is currently represented on Broadway with "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella." Performances begin in July with an August opening.

Always... Patsy Cline is a fun loving, crowd-pleasing musical full of down-home country humor and a big heart. Based on a true story, the show features nearly thirty classic songs from the Patsy Cline songbook which will be heard for the first time on a Broadway stage. The show tells of the friendship that developed between Patsy and Louise Seger, her most devoted fan. Louise narrates the story of the day in 1961 when she met Patsy at Houston's Esquire Ballroom. Afterward, Patsy kept in touch by writing her long hand-written letters until the day she died tragically in a plane crash. She signed the letters "(Love) Always, Patsy Cline."

2013 marks the 50th anniversary of Patsy Cline's death.

The show features twenty-seven chart-topping songs, including such Patsy classics as "Crazy," "Walkin' After Midnight," "I Fall to Pieces," "Sweet Dreams," and "Back In Baby's Arms." It also features such great Country classics as "Your Cheatin' Heart," "San Antonio Rose," and "Blue Moon of Kentucky," Pop classics like "Bill Bailey," "You Belong To Me," "True Love," and Rock 'n Roll classics like "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "Stupid Cupid."

The center-piece of the show is Patsy's live concert at the Esquire Ballroom - a rollicking, dancing-in-the-aisles performance that shows a seldom-seen side of Patsy at her crowd-pleasing best.

According to the show's producer Jeff Cohen of Burke-Cohen Entertainment: "Crystal is the ideal performer to portray Patsy Cline. In what amounts to a 'life-imitates-art' twist, Patsy Cline was discovered on the Arthur Godfrey Show, the number one TV Talent show of its day. And Crystal was discovered on American Idol, the number one TV Talent show today." Mr. Cohen also spoke about the casting of Annette O'Toole in the role of Patsy's most devoted fan, Louise Seger. "Annette is a wonderful actress (and a native Texan) who will bring the perfect combination of earthiness, warmth and pluckiness to the role. She has humor and heart in abundance and will establish a very special rapport with our audience."

Patsy Cline is one of the best-loved and iconic recording artists of all time and one of the most influential, successful and acclaimed female vocalists of the 20th century. Her voice defined her generation and generations to come. One of the earliest and, perhaps, the most successful cross-over artists in history, Patsy recorded a seemingly endless stream of chart-topping hit songs before dying tragically in 1963 at the age of 30. Among her many accomplishments -

Her first hit record, "Walkin' after Midnight," reached number 2 on the country charts and number 12 on the pop charts, making her one of the earliest country singers to have a cross-over pop hit record.

"Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits" was listed in the Guinness Book of World records for staying on the overall music charts the longest of any female artist of any music genre in history.

Crystal Bowersox was a Season Nine finalist on American Idol and remains one of that show's most beloved and popular singers. After Idol, Crystal released her debut album "Farmer's Daughter" which sold over 200,000 albums and peaked at #2 on the Billboard Rock charts and #28 on the Billboard Top 200. She releases her 2nd album All That For This, today, March 26th.

Diagnosed with Type I diabetes at age six, Crystal Bowersox has played an active role in advocating awareness and education for the disease. Crystal lives with her husband and son Tony, age four in Portland Oregon.

Annette O'Toole plays the role of Patsy's most devoted fan, Louise Seger. Ms. O'Toole, an Oscar and Emmy Award nominee, has starred in such blockbuster films as 48 HRS opposite Nick Nolte, Paul Schrader's Cat People and Superman III opposite Christopher Reeve. Television audiences know her as a regular on Nash Bridges and for her six years playing Clark Kent's mother on Smallville. NY stage credits include Heresy (The Flea), Southern Comfort (Cap21), Kindness (Playwrights Horizons) and The Seagull (CSC). Regional credits include Arena Stage, Old Globe and The Goodman. A native of Houston, Ms. O'Toole was recently elected to the Texas Film & Television Hall of Fame. A songwriter as well as an actress, Ms. O'Toole wrote the Academy Award nominated song "A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow" for the film A Mighty Wind.

Ted Swindley has written, directed and/or produced over 200 plays in a 25 year period. Along with creating the hit musical Always....Patsy Cline, Mr. Swindley has also written such popular shows as The Honky Tonk Angels, Bye Bye Love: The Everly Brothers Musical, Summer of 66, and the Dora Award nominated Swingstep. Mr. Swindley is the Founding Artistic Director of Houston's Stages Repertory Theatre, and has guest directed at theaters across the country including Duke University, San Diego Rep., Denver Theatre Center, Virginia Stage, Ryman Auditorium, York Theatre, and the Pasadena Playhouse. He was named to Esquire Magazine's "Americans for Outstanding Achievement in Arts and Letters," has received an L.A. Dramalogue Award and was nominated for the L.A. Critics Award.

John Rando is the Tony and Outer Critic's Circle Award-winning director of Urinetown: The Musical and recently directed the acclaimed productions of All In The Timing at Primary Stages, Carousel with the New York Philharmonic and the Broadway hit A Christmas Story: The Musical. Mr Rando's other Broadway credits include The Wedding Singer, A Thousand Clowns, and Neil Simon's The Dinner Party. With City Center Encores! he is currently represented by It's A Bird...It's A Plane...It's Superman!, and has directed On The Town, Damn Yankees, Face the Music, Of Thee I Sing, The Pajama Game, Do Re Mi, and Strike Up the Band. His off-Broadway credits include the 2009 Outer Critic's Circle Award winner The Toxic Avenger. Mr. Rando was a Drama League Directing Fellow and in 2010 was the recipient of the UCLA Department of Theater, Film and Television Alumni Achievement Award.

Anna Louizos is the Tony Award-nominated set designer of the Broadway productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella; The Mystery of Edwin Drood; The Performers; In the Heights (Tony nomination) Avenue Q; High Fidelity (Tony nomination); Irving Berlin's White Christmas (also UK, Toronto and multiple US cities); Curtains (Drama Desk, nomination); Baby It's You; All About Me; To Be Or Not To Be; Steel Magnolias; Golda's Balcony; Selected Off-Broadway and regional productions include Sons of the Prophet, The Foreigner, Speech and Debate (all Roundabout); Minsky's (Ahmanson); It Shoulda Been You (George St. Playhouse, directed by David Hyde Pierce); Disney's Aladdin (5th Avenue Theatre); Arsenic and Old Lace (with Betty Buckley and Tovah Feldshuh) and Sarah Plain and Tall (both Dallas Theater Center); Pirates of Penzance (Stratford); Olive and the Bitter Herbs, In Transit (both Primary Stages); Rita Moreno, Life Without Makeup (Berkeley Rep);Vanities, the Musical, Birdie Blue (both Second Stage); Crimes of the Heart (directed by Kathleen Turner); Based on a Totally True Story, (MTC); Altar Boyz (NWS); Jonathan Larson's tick, tick... BOOM! (Jane Street); Disney Live Winnie the Pooh (World tour).Art Direction film/TV: "Sex and the City" (HBO) Feature Film: The Secret Lives of Dentists.