IN THE tradition of the hugely successful show Buddy, in at least its
fifth year at the Victoria Palace, the Whitehall Theatre now offers a
similar tribute to the life and music of country music immortal Patsy
Cline. The evening offers lots of songs and little in the way of
scenery: a curtain rises from time to time to reveal the Grand Ole Opry
stage and the odd neon sign descends from the roof. That's about it.
The celebrated country star George Hamilton IV ambles on from time to
time to fill in a bit of narrative and sing the odd song himself. The
show focuses on Patsy Cline's songs, with a sideways look at Loretta
Lynn and Brenda Lee -- one-time backing singers to the great Miss C.
She was born Virginia Patterson Hensley in 1932. She stood no nonsense
from any man -- for long. This has made her a feminist icon, but Patsy
might not have understood the term. She rose above her first song, A
Courtroom And Then Goodbye, to score a huge hit with Crazy and a shoal
of others which were usually covered over here by other artists like
Alma Cogan.
She achieved her life's ambition to sing at the Grand Ole Opry, she
was married twice, and led a very uninhibited life until she died in a
plane crash on March 5, 1963, along with a group of other country stars.
All of this is faithfully recorded in an uncomplicated show that
abandons all pretence of narrative in the second half and offers an
uninhibited concert of crowd-pleasing numbers performed with assurance
and led by the pleasingly high-spirited Sandy Kelly as Patsy Cline
herself. This is a simple and undemanding show with much to offer
country and western devotees.
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