The Origin of Always...Patsy Cline

The year was 1988, and, not surprisingly, it was a very long, hot summer in Houston. The city was in the midst of a severe economic downturn and Stages was barely surviving. Two months before this show opened, the theatre’s air conditioning system had ceased working and performances of our current shows had to be cancelled. It is an understatement to say that it was a very difficult moment in the theatre’s young history, especially it being the 10^th anniversary season.

As the old saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” In this case, “desperation was the mother of creation!” Creator, writer, and founding Artistic Director of Stages Ted Swindley wracked his brain to come up with a small show that might have large audience appeal. He contacted one of Stages’ talented musical theatre performers who, for two years, had been requesting that Stages do a show about Patsy Cline. Knowing the appeal of country music but being virtually void of knowledge about the popular musical genre, Ted asked her,”WHO IN THE HELL IS PATSY CLINE?” a line you that can now be heard in the play.

During that hot and humid summer, Ted sat in his mercifully cool Montrose apartment one weekend and familiarized himself with Patsy by listening for hours to her recordings, and became an instant fan of her remarkable talent. Ted knew that a show about this country music icon was the answer for
which he was looking. But there was only about 3 weeks to put something together and he did not want to do just a musical revue, nor did he have the time to manufacture a complicated biographical musical. So, he asked himself probably the most important question of his lifetime: “Did Patsy Cline
ever perform in Houston?” And with very little research, found this wonderful true story of Louise Seger’s chance meeting with Patsy in 1961 at the Esquire Ballroom, a honky tonk on the Hempstead
Highway, and their subsequent close friendship.

At the close of the published interview with Louise in a Patsy biography, she shares the first letter that she received from Patsy in what became a regular and intimate correspondence between the two until Patsy’s untimely death in 1963. Patsy’s letter, read at the conclusion of the play, shows the country star’s wonderful humanity and touched Ted greatly, as did the powerful friendship that developed between these two strong women over one evening in our city, which inspired the creation of the show that you know now.

The play opened on July 22, 1988 and was a sell-out hit which ran for 5 wonderful months! The show literally saved Stages! Now all these years later, as a testament to the brilliance of the timeless music and voice of Patsy Cline and to the power of true love and friendship, as well as the belief in the simple word “always”, it is Ted’s hope that this little musical which belongs to our magnificent city will bring you as much joy as it did to those audiences who first saw it way back in 1988.

This blog was adapted from a letter by Ted Swindley in the playbill for Always…Patsy Cline in 2023.