Patsy Cline musical tribute brings actors back together

Country singer Patsy Cline died in a plane crash in 1963, but she lives on in a musical play appropriately titled “Always ... Patsy Cline,” inspired by the way the singer signed her letters.

Sporting 27 classic songs — including “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Sweet Dreams” and “Walking After Midnight” — the play has been long established as a surefire crowd-pleaser.

It also can boast a lengthy, robust local history after 15 years of successful runs at half a dozen venues in Sonoma and Napa counties.

Now the show is back in a new production at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse, with homegrown country singer Shannon Rider in the title role as Cline.

Returning in this production is actress Liz Jahren, in her seventh turn as Cline’s real-life fan and friend, Louise Seger. Jahren first played the role in the 6th Street Playhouse production of “Always ... Patsy Cline” in 2008.

Jahren co-starred then with popular Sonoma County actress Mary Gannon Graham playing Cline. During the run, Graham’s understudy — Rider — stepped into the lead role for six performances while Graham was out sick.

“I was singing with a band and I’d done a lot of country songs, so I got called in at the last minute to sub for Mary,” Rider said.

Graham and Jahren went on to do the show at the Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma twice, then at the Blue Note in Napa, the Luther Burbank Center in Santa Rosa and the now-closed Main Stage West in Sebastopol.

“The show is a good money-maker. People who don’t necessarily love plays or theater love this show. They even get up and dance a little bit,” Rider said.

“People love the songs of Patsy Cline, but I think it’s also a beautiful story of friendship,” Rider said of the play. “The two women had a spontaneous bond from the start. You can relate to both of them.”

As Louise, Jahren sings only a little bit here and there. She is the storyteller and serves at the audience’s host for the evening.

“This is my seventh time in this role,” Jahren said. “I have permission to go out and talk to the crowd and ad lib a little.”

Rider believes Jahren’s role as the singer’s best friend broadens and deepens the audience appeal of the show, which features a live country band onstage.

“Liz doesn’t sing, except for a couple snippets here and there, but she gets the crowd singing,” Rider said. “Her character, Louise, becomes the everywoman of the show, beautiful in her own way.”

Cline died at age 30 after a recording career that lasted just eight years but established her as one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century and one of the first country music artists to cross over into pop music.

“She reminds me of my grandmother, because my grandmother was a Patsy Cline fan,” Rider remembered. “She’d put $5 in the tip jar and tell me, ‘Play Patsy for me.’”

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.