Let's face it. I am not a Country & Western fan. While Patsy Cline was playing Texas Honky-Tonks and the Grand Ol' Opry, I was listening to Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond at the Blue Note or to the George Shearing Quintet at the London House or the Embers. I am just not a fan of so-called Country Music.

What I am a fan of, however, is Joi Hoffsommer. I have watched Miss Hoffsommer for years on several different stages and find her acting to be as peerless as one can find in the Central Illinois Theatre Community. However, I associate her with classic drama, such as her consummate work in the plays by Tennessee Williams. I now have a whole new appreciation for her acting range, having now seen her play, with equal vigor and believability, a down home Texas good ol' gal, Louise Seger, and good friend of the late C&W icon, Patsy Cline in Ted Swindley's Always…Patsy Cline, directed by Rick Orr and currently playing at Urbana's Station Theatre.

In this two-woman show, Miss Hoffsommer is paired with Kathy Harden as Patsy Cline and they pretty much divide up the chores equally, with Hoffsommer being the story teller and Harden providing the musical portions of the play. However, both do tend, for brief periods, to segue into the other's primary responsibilities, with Harden acting and Hoffsommer singing. But for the most part, the chores are pretty well equally divided.

Miss Harden had 26 of Patsy Cline's songs to sing, including such signature tunes as “Walkin' After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces,” and “Crazy.” We also got to hear her a couple of times outside the C&W milieu, when she, as Patsy Cline, sings King/Price/Stewart's “You Belong to Me,” made more famous by Jo Stafford, as well as Cole Porter's “True Love” from High Society, a number that I had no idea Patsy Cline had even heard, let alone sung. Miss Harden has obviously studied Patsy Cline's singing style, and, for the most part, has Cline's phrasing, along with her trademark “sob” in her voice down to where, if she is not Patsy Cline, she is a darned good substitute.

Had I not known that Hoffsommer was in the cast, I could have easily missed her -- until she spoke. Her physical appearance, in a bright Tina Louise red-headed wig and with the exaggerated make-up made her almost unrecognizable. While her distinctive voice was immediately recognizable, she never dropped out of her Good Ol' Girl East Texas accent or attitude. Neither did Miss Harden. And the chemistry between the two, to badly mix a metaphor, was absolutely electric.

Debbie Richardson's costume design kept Hardin busy with numerous quick changes, while Hoffsommer wore the same costume throughout the performance. At first this seemed a tad confusing until the audience realized that Hoffsommer, as Louise Seger, was sitting in her Houston kitchen telling us the story and, of course, she would not be changing her clothes while she did it. Thus, the costumes worked beautifully, as did the unit setting, segueing from Louise's kitchen to various performance venues across the country.

Portraying Cline's back-up band, The Bodacious Bobcats, in the Celebration Company's production are David Butler (guitar), Gene Sterling (drums), Russell Clark (bass), Beth Youngblood (fiddle) and Adam Patrick Moore (piano). While Jordan Kaye's Prairie Dogs had originally been advertised as the band, this group of musicians did a fantastic job of backing-up Harden's singing, but was a little less than good when humming “How Great Thou Art” as the Jordanaires near the end of the play. This, honestly, was the only wart I found in the production and is hardly worth a notice, except to try to point out that there is never an absolutely perfect live theatre production.

At 6:07 p.m. on March fifth, 1963, Patsy Cline's Piper Comanche took off, against advice, from the Dyersburg, Tennessee airport. Thirteen minutes later, it crashed in a forest near Camden, Tennessee, some ninety miles short of its destination. Patsy Cline's wristwatch was stopped at 6:20 p.m., and she passed into musical history.

Always…Patsy Cline is enjoying a spurt of popularity at least in Central Illinois. So far this season, it has played three times, once at Sullivan's Little Theatre on the Square, once at Springfield's LRS Theatre in the Hoogland Center for the Arts, and now at the Celebration Company's Station Theatre in Urbana. Having seen all three productions, I can say that this vehicle plays much better in the intimate confines of the Station Theatre's small, black box where the audience is virtually on the stage than it does in the other large proscenium theatres. This is not to say that the Little Theatre on the Square or the LRS Theatre productions were bad -- they were excellent. What it is to say is that the Station Theatre's production is more intimate and, because of that, more enjoyable.

Always...Patsy Cline will continue to play at the Station Theatre, 332 North Broadway Avenue in Urbana, Illinois through May 8 with an 8:00 p.m. curtain. The theatre is dark on Mondays and Tuesdays. For ticket information and reservations, please call (217) 384-4000. Tickets are going fast, so a timely call for reservations is something you should do, and soon. This one is a keeper, folks. Whether you are a C&W junkie or not, you are going to like this one. I guarantee it!