Gaslight Dinner Theatre presents Always... Patsy Cline May 23-June 28

Release Date: 5/13/2003. Expired: 6/28/2003

Forty years after her death near Camden in a tragic plane crash, the legend and music of Patsy Cline lives on as the Gaslight Dinner Theatre presents Always... Patsy Cline in The Renaissance Center’s Performance Hall May 23-June 28.

Always... Patsy Cline will be presented Fridays and Saturdays with the option of tickets for dinner and the show or just the performance each night. The show is sponsored by Tennsco, manufacturers of metal office furniture and industrial shelving for more than 40 years.

The Patsy Cline Sound-Alike Contest Release Date: 5/13/2003. Expired: 6/28/2003 There will be a Patsy Cline Sound-Alike Contest in the Performance Hall from 4-5:30pm on Saturday, June 28 during the Celebrate America Day event. Contestants will be charged a $5 entry fee.

“We are presenting Always... Patsy Cline in the Performance Hall for two main reasons,” said Pacer Harp, managing director of the Gaslight Dinner Theatre and director for the show. “First of all Patsy Cline’s popularity has continued to grow in the four decades since her untimely death and this show has proved to be extremely popular everywhere it is presented. The 450-seat Performance Hall gives more people the opportunity to see what we expect to be a very popular show.

“Secondly, we are putting together a live band of professional musicians from Nashville to play for the show and the sound will be much better in the acoustically balanced hall instead of the close, intimate setting of the Gaslight Dinner Theatre,” Harp said.

Patrons will have the option of attending Friday or Saturday night performances and can still enjoy a delicious buffet dinner prepared by The Renaissance Center’s catering staff. Dinner will be served in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre at 6:30 p.m. before each show. Dinner and the performance are $25 per person.

There also is the option to see just the 7:30 p.m. performance either night for $15.

Always... Patsy Cline, which is based on a true story, tells of a Texan named Louise Seger (played by Kim Leavitt) and her friendship with the then-quickly rising country music star (portrayed by Elaine Sherrill). After hearing Cline sing on the Arthur Godfrey Show in 1957, Louise becomes a fan, requesting her local country western radio station to play I Fall To Pieces several times each day.

Through a chance meeting before a 1961 show in Houston the two women become fast friends and share their joys and sorrows throughout the two-year period prior to the legend’s death in an airplane crash.

The play focuses on the fateful evening of March 5, 1963, at Houston’s Esquire Ballroom when Louise hears of Cline’s death in a plane crash along with Grand Ole Opry stars Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas.

“The show combines humor, sadness and reality,” said Harp. “It offers fans who remember Cline while she was alive a chance to look back, while giving new fans an idea of what seeing her was like and what she meant to her many original fans.”

Always... Patsy Cline was written and originally directed by Ted Swindley and is licensed by the family and estate of the late singer. The script incorporates as many as 27 songs recorded by Cline, including top hits such as Walkin’ After Midnight, I Fall to Pieces, Sweet Dreams, Crazy and many others.

“I’ve been singing Patsy’s songs all my life but I never tried to sound like her,” Sherrill said. “Her music is timeless and classic. One of my goals with this show is to come as close to her style as I possibly can. I am extremely excited about the band we have for the show.”

The musical director for the Gaslight Dinner Theatre production has performed the show before and has been performing on the road for more than 15 years.

“My goal is to make the songs sound as close to the original recordings as possible,” Sherrill said.

For more information on Always... Patsy Cline, call The Renaissance Center at (615)740-5600. To reserve tickets for dinner and/or a performance, call (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Gaslight Dinner Theatre page for more about dinner theatre.

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