Review: Anna Blair's sweet and funny Patsy Cline tribute is always Anna Blair

"Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same." The quote is usually attributed to composer Franz Schubert, but it could just as well have been the theme for Anna Blair's new cabaret show "Always...Anna Blair" at the Blue Strawberry Thursday night (January 16).

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Anna Blair and her band

Ms. Blair has been appearing for many years as a Patsy Cline impersonator as well as an independent actor/singer, so it's not surprising that songs associated with the late country star figured prominently in her show. But, as Ms. Blair noted, this wasn't an impersonation evening. "Tonight," she declared, "I want to sing her songs the way that I want to sing them." That meant using her own voice, which remains a strong instrument with an impressive tessitura that served the material well.

Ms. Blair's appealing stage presence and strong sense of humor served the music well also. A lot of Cline's hits are about the footprints on the heart being made by hobnail boots, which could get cloyingly sentimental without the wry sensibility Ms. Blair brought to them.

Perhaps the best example of that was a version of Willie Nelson's "Crazy" with new lyrics by Ms. Blair and her director Dan Kelly. It turned that weepy lament of unrequited love into a hilariously snarky commentary on that subspecies of American man who suddenly reverts to the age of 15 when he hits age 50 ("You're crazy / Crazy for buying that sports car").

I was also much taken with a revision of Stanley Lebowski and Herb Newman's "The Wayward Wind" (a No. 1 hit for Gogi Grant in 1956) that changed the sex of the character "born to wander" from male to female, so that "I'm now alone with a broken heart" became "he's now alone with a broken heart." That made it a song about both female empowerment and a reflection of Ms. Blair's love of travel. "Not all who wander are lost," she reminded us in her introductory patter.

Anna Blair

There were also country classics that were just great fun all on their own. Ms. Blair opened the show with one of them: V.F. Stewart's bouncy "Come On In," sung as Ms. Blair entered from the back of the house, bidding a cheerful hello to the audience as she made her way to the stage. Howard Greenfield and Neil Sedaka's "Stupid Cupid" (sung by Cline on stage but not issued on records until after her premature death in 1963 at the age of 30) got a spirited comic treatment that offered a nice contrast to (in Ms. Blair's words) "the 'love is not fair' part of the show."

That's not to say that we didn't get the requisite number of "he cut out my heart and stomped on it" numbers, but Ms. Blair's heartfelt delivery and obvious emotional connection to the lyrics prevented them from becoming maudlin. In fact, old-fashioned weepers like "Sweet Dreams" (a big hit for songwriter Don Gibson in 1955 and later for Patsy Cline) and Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard's "I Fall to Pieces" (Cline's first No. 1 hit on the Country charts) felt more moving to me in Ms. Blair's performances than the original versions ever did.

Maybe that's just because I have never been a country music fan. Or maybe it's because Ms. Blair's voice and acting skills just make them mesmerizing.

I'd also like to put in a few words about Ms. Blair's excellent use of patter, those small monologs that performers use to set up their songs. While Ms. Blair was up front about the autobiographical intent of some of her song choices, she did so in ways that touched lightly on her own rich life experience without giving the audience too much information. She consistently gave us just enough background to make her subtext clear without putting big flashing lights on it. Singers doing a "this is my life" cabaret far too often fall into that trap. She didn't even come close to it.

Throughout the evening, her backup band provided solid accompaniment with the requisite country twang. Ms. Blair's long-time artistic collaborator, pianist Royal Robbins, led the combo, which included guitarists Michael Amoroso and Bronson Hundley. Ms. Robbins' playing had a nice touch of that "slip note" style associated with "Nashville sound" architect Floyd Cramer. The band sounded a bit under-rehearsed at times, but not distractingly so.

Bottom line: I don't even like Patsy Cline that much, but I really enjoyed this sweet, funny, and touching evening, as did the capacity crowd. Ms. Blair has been an important figure on the local theatre scene for many years now, and a raft of familiar performers (and even a few of my fellow critics) showed up to join the rest of the audience in welcoming her long overdue return to the cabaret stage.

I have known Ms. Blair for quite some time myself, going back to when we both appeared in a production of the musical "Smoke on the Mountain" a couple of decades ago, but it was pretty clear from the audience response that you didn't need to know her to love her latest show.

"Always...Anna Blair" played the Blue Strawberry on January 16th. Information on upcoming shows at The Blue Strawberry, St. Louis's only dedicated bar/restaurant/cabaret showroom, is available at their web site.

Chuck's Choices for the weekend of August 15, 2014

As always, the choices are purely my personal opinion. Take with a grain (or a shaker) of salt.

Share on Google+:

Photo: Phillip Hamer

The Muny presents the classic musical Hello Dolly Monday through Sunday at 8:15 PM, August 11-17, in the outdoor theatre in Forest Park. "Mrs. Dolly Levi makes her grand Muny return in the classic musical, Hello, Dolly!. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Broadway opening, this award-winning musical features the irresistible story of matchmaker extraordinaire Dolly Levi as she “meddles” her way from Yonkers to New York City. Full of familiar tunes and plenty of big dance numbers, Hello, Dolly! promises an evening of classic Muny fun!" For more information, visit muny.org or call 314-361-1900.

My take: As I write in my review for OnSTL.com, this is a big, flashy, polished production of a good, old-fashioned Broadway musical comedy. It's the sort of thing the Muny has always done well, and it's a tremendously entertaining finale for a generally very strong season. Go see it and smile. Doll's lookin' swell and the Muny's got her.

Held Over:

Photo: Peter Wochniak

Stages St. Louis presents the musical Always..Patsy Cline through August 31. "Jacqueline Petroccia and Zoe Vonder Haar star in the return engagement of the show critics called 'exceptional, must see entertainment.' The touching and true story of Country music legend Patsy Cline and her friendship with Texas housewife Louise Seger returns to STAGES this spring. Combining down home country humor, heartache and 27 of Patsy Cline's unforgettable hits such as 'Crazy,' 'Walkin' After Midnight,' and 'Sweet Dreams,' Always... Patsy Cline endures as a piece of genuine Americana." Performances take place at The Playhouse at Westport Plaza. For more information, visit stagesstlouis.org or call 314-821-2407.

My take: Call this a qualified recommendation. If you're a lover of Patsy Cline or country music in general, I think you'll have a great time at this show, which is really more of a celebrity impersonation review than a book musical per se. Jacqueline Petroccia captures Cline's voice and manner so accurately it's eerie and Zoe Vonder Haar is a hoot and a half as Louise Seger, the real-life Houston fan who became a close friends and correspondent of Cline. With over two dozen Patsy Cline hits performed to perfection by Ms. Petroccia and a six-piece band, the show is a real feast for fans. See my KDHX review for more information.

Photo: Peter Wochniak

Stages St. Louis presents the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying through August 17. "Big business means big laughs in this delightfully clever lampoon of life on the corporate ladder. A tune-filled comic gem that took Broadway by storm winning both the Tony Award for Best Musical and a Pulitzer Prize, How to Succeed...boasts an exhilarating score by Frank Loesser including “I Believe in You,” “Brotherhood of Man,” and “The Company Way.” Bustling with humor, romance and song, this swingin' 60s send-up of Madison Avenue charts the spectacular rise (in record time!) of an ambitious young window washer to VP of Advertising!" Performances take place in the Robert G. Reim Theatre at the Kirkwood Community Center, 111 South Geyer Road in Kirkwood. For more information, visit stagesstlouis.org or call 314-821-2407.

My take: It's a sad commentary on the state of the nation that the cheerfully cynical satire of the mendacity, mediocrity, and Machiavellian backstabbing of corporate America that makes up the book of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" is as relevant now as it was when the show opened back in 1961. The Stages production is, as I write in my review for KDHX, a big, bright, hilarious technicolor cartoon that keeps the action firmly in the "Mad Men" era, so its sexism feels funny rather than creepy. The cast is wonderful, headed by Ben Nordstrom as perhaps the ideal J. Pierrepont Finch.

Photo: John Lamb

Max and Louie Productions presents Doug Wright's Quills through August 17. “This wickedly witty, erotically charged play is about the conflict between the imprisoned Marquis de Sade (infamous, irreverent literary bad boy of 18th Century France) and the keepers entrusted with silencing the perverse tales that drip from his ink-laden quill. De Sade's only sword is his pen; his opponents are armed with far deadlier weapons. Quills explores the delicate and often malleable line between morality and personal freedom, while satirizing the hypocrisy and convenience of censorship and sexuality.” Performances take place at the Wool Studio Theatre at the JCC, 2 Millstone Campus Drive. For more information, visit maxandlouie.com.

My take: If this sounds like in intriguing idea, that's probably because it is. In her review for 88.1 KDHX, Tina Farmer says "Quills" is "a deliciously inventive play weighing our decidedly human fascination with social and sexual mores against the lengths society will go to in the attempt to stifle the works of artists who push the envelope or in other ways make us nervous...Brooke Edwards' direction is clear and small details, such as having the stage crew dress as patients in the asylum, show a thoughtful approach to storytelling. When accompanied by as talented and committed a cast as in this current production, the result in an engaging, thought-provoking play."

Joe Hanrahan

The Midnight Company
presents Eric Bogosian's Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll through August 17. "Bogosian's solo shows, which also include DRINKING IN AMERICA, WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE and POUNDING NAILS IN THE FLOOR WITH MY FOREHEAD, are scorching social commentaries on the urban and suburban scene - presenting portraits of contemporary men, from the homeless to possession-crazed millionaires to fading rock stars - “scabrously funny ” (Boston Phoenix) and “combustibly funny” (Newsday) monologues exposing their hidden fears, hypocrisy and rage." The performances take place at Herbie's Vintage 72, 405 N. Euclid in the Central West End. A special pre/post-theatre menu will be available before or after the show, cocktails will be available for the performance, and live music will follow Sunday performances. For more information: midnightcompany.com

My take: Joe Hanrahan has become the king of the one-man show locally and has quite an affinity for Bogosian's dark, funny, edgy work. The location has a lot going for it as well; Herbie's has been a Central West End institution for decades (I recall going there fairly often back in the 70s and 80s), with a high-end food and wine list and a French bistro atmosphere.

Honky Tonk Angels

Photo: Peter Wochniak

Share on Google+:

Who: Stages St. Louis What: Always...Patsy Cline
When: April 25 – June 22, 2014
Where: The Westport Playhouse

I should state up front that I was never a fan of the late country singer Patsy Cline. I didn't dislike her music; I was indifferent towards it.

When I was growing up, the soundtrack of our home was a mix of the European classics, vaudeville, the Great American Songbook, and the Big Band era. I was a city kid, and country music just didn't resonate with me. So when I say that I found the Stages production of "Always...Patsy Cline," as polished and entertaining as it was, to also be ephemeral and not very memorable, you'll understand that this is partly due to the fact that I didn't come to the show pre-sold on the music.

Largely, though, I think it's due to the fact that "Always...Patsy Cline" is not so much a book musical as a celebrity impersonation revue. The slight story line is based on a real-life 1961 incident in which Houston divorcee Louise Seger befriended Cline during an appearance at a local dance hall. The two became fast friends, and Ms. Seger's correspondence with Ms. Cline became the basis for the show's book by Ted Swindley. Louise clowns around, chats with the audience, and generally fills time between segments of Patsy singing over two dozen of her better-known songs. Neither character is written with much depth, which makes it hard to become truly involved in their story.

Photo: Peter Wochniak

Fortunately the show is short—two hours, including intermission—and beautifully done, so it doesn't wear out its welcome. Jacqueline Petroccia, reprising the role of Patsy Cline from the original Stages production of the show in 2012, looks and sounds so much like the real Patsy Cline that it's sometimes startling. Lou Bird's costumes can take part of the credit for the look, of course, but Ms. Petroccia gets the lion's share of the praise for her unerring ability to capture Cline's vocal style and performance mannerisms. Close your eyes, and you'd swear it was Ms. Cline herself doing that characteristic semi-yodel in "Stupid Cupid" or that "cry in the voice" vocal break in songs like "Your Cheating Heart."

Yes, it's essentially a celebrity impersonation, but that makes it no less a brilliant piece of acting. In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest that a truly successful impersonation is in many ways harder than portraying a fictional character. If you're playing Hamlet, for example, there isn't going to be anyone in the house thinking, "hey, the real Hamlet didn't sound like that." Just saying.

As noted above, most of the narrative heavy lifting in "Always...Patsy Cline" falls to the actress playing Louise. That would be local favorite Zoe Vonder Haar, also reprising her 2012 role in fine style. Ms. Vonder Haar's Louise is a big, bawdy, engaging good ol' girl, from the top of her red period wig to the bottom of her cowboy boots. It's impossible not to like her, and there seems to be real chemistry between her and Ms. Patroccia's Patsy. It takes a pair of strong singing actresses to carry this show, and Stages certainly has them.

Photo: Peter Wochniak

Interestingly, the real-life Louise Seger was not entirely happy with her stage persona. “I’ve never had red hair," she said in an interview for Country Weekly magazine in the 1990s. "I don’t wear tacky clothes or have that accent.” Stage Louise's devotion to Patsy and overall good-humored decency, though, are apparently true to life.

Musical and (occasionally) vocal accompaniment comes from a solid six-piece band headed (the night we saw the show) by the ever-reliable Justin Smolik on keyboards (subbing for Musical Director Lisa Campbell Albert). The other principal band members are John Higgins on pedal steel guitar, Jon Ferber on electric lead guitar, Kevin Buckley on fiddle and acoustic guitar, Vince Corkery on electric bass, and Don Drewett on drums. They sounded great and the vocal/instrumental mix was perfect.

James Wolk has put together a colorful and convincingly period set, with Louise's kitchen and living room in front and a raised stage for Patsy Cline's singing engagements at the back, behind a scrim. The set stretches across a wide but shallow stage that appears to take up about half of the Playhouse's auditorium, turning the original "in the round" space into a semicircle with the audience seated in a rectangle. That probably makes for some odd viewing angles if you're seated down front; from where we were in the back, though, sight lines were fine.

Stages Artistic Director Michael Hamilton has done a fine job putting everything together into a seamless whole, with clear, character-driving blocking and brisk pacing. The bottom line is that "Always...Patsy Cline" is an entertaining tribute to a singer who was with us all too briefly (Cline died in a plane crash in 1963 at age 30) and certainly a "must see" for fans of Ms. Cline and country music in general. Performances continue at the Playhouse at Westport Plaza through June 22nd. For more information: stagesstlouis.org.

P.S.: Am I the only one who thinks Merle Haggard's 1969 hit "Okie From Muskogee" is almost a note-for-note copy of "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels"? Just wondering.