ALWAYS...PATSY CLINE Returns To Fountain Hills Theater In June

After a sell-out run this Spring, Fountain Hills Theater is bringing back Always, Patsy Cline! The musical is based on a true story about Cline's friendship with a fan from Houston named Louise Seger. who befriended the star in a Texas honky-tonk in 1961.

Seger and her buddies arrived about an hour-and-a-half early and, by coincidence, met Cline who was traveling alone. The two women struck up a friendship that was to culminate in Cline spending the night at Seger's house - a friendship that lasted until Cline's untimely death. The musical play, complete with down-home country humor, true emotion, and even some audience participation, includes many of Patsy's unforgettable hits such as “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Sweet Dreams” and “Walking After Midnight” … 27 songs in all!

Always, Patsy Cline stars Britt Powell as Patsy Cline and Dyana Carroll as Louise Seger.  The production is directed by Gil Berry, musically directed by Lesle St. John, featuring a live band. LICENSED BY THE FAMILY AND ESTATE OF PATSY CLINE.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM AVAILABLE ON MCA.  *Rated G. 

Patsy Cline was born Virginia Patterson Hensley in 1932. She grew up to be an American country music icon. Since her death at age 30 in a 1963 plane crash at the height of her career, she has been considered one of the most influential, successful, revered and acclaimed female vocalists of the 20th century. When “Ginny” turned 16 she had to quit school to help support her family. She worked odd jobs and began singing professionally at night and on weekends to supplement the money her mother made as a seamstress. She married Gerald Cline in 1952 and began to sing with bandleader Bill Peer, who gave her the stage name, Patsy.

Patsy Cline had been performing for nearly a decade when she recorded her first album, which included the song, "Walkin' After Midnight.” As a single it became a hit, reaching #2 on the country charts and #12 on the pop charts, making Cline one of the first country singers to have a crossover pop hit.

Patsy and Gerald Cline divorced in 1957.  She remarried and moved to Nashville where she joined the Grand Ole Opry as a regular cast member in January 1960.

Her touring schedule included television performances on American Bandstand and the Tex Ritter Show, as well as concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Mint Casino in Las Vegas. By early 1963, she had recorded more than one hundred songs.

On March 5, 1963, while flying home to Nashville after a benefit concert in Kansas City, Missouri, in a plane piloted by her manager, Patsy Cline and performers Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins died in a crash near Camden, Tennessee.

In the decades following her death, Patsy became a musical icon. In 1973, she was the first solo woman performer to be elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.  At the turn of the 21st century, Patsy's recording of “Crazy” remained the song most often played on jukeboxes. She has fan clubs around the world, a United States commemorative postage stamp, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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