Her hair is bouffed, her lips pursed, bright red. Her face is full and powdery; she’s wearing an ankle-length brown skirt and a big-shouldered cowboy shirt with brown trim. She’s pacing up and down the halls of the Fine Arts Building humming “Crazy,” and she wants to be Patsy Cline.
In the lobby, another Patsy is practicing. “I’m back in ba-bee’s arms…” echoes down the hall. The tall Patsy heads for a pay phone and places a collect call to Tennessee.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
It’s Monday afternoon, and about 100 women are auditioning for Always–Patsy Cline, a biographical musical being staged this summer at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the stage that once housed the Grand Ole Opry. Auditions are being held in Los Angeles and Nashville later this month. The Chicago Patsys range from about 18 to 60. Some are professional singers and actors, others are not. Some are done up in full Patsy, others look vaguely country, while the rest remain basically city.
Jamie Miller, who looks more like Patsy than most of the others, has been doing a Patsy Cline tribute show in Minneapolis for the last four years. She has flown into town for the day. Miller is wearing a red dress studded with stars and a jet black wig. Each person auditioning gets one song to prove her Patsyness, but Miller has brought an extensive playlist that shows she has an hour and a half of Patsy in her repertoire. The list reads, in part:
LONELY STREET E-flat
The audition begins, and the first Patsy takes the stage. She reads the lyric sheet while she sings “Sweet Dreams.” A woman in a green-and-purple cowboy shirt and a cowboy hat sways along in the audience, mouthing the lyrics. “Boy, she’s got a good voice,” she says.
After about 15 contenders the audition starts to drag, and the people running it start to speed things up. Patsys are cut off in the middle of their numbers now, their sweet dreams shattered. They are lined up three abreast on one side of the stage. Outside Patsys mill around, looking for something to do. The air is full of song fragments and sweet perfume.
