Singer Becky Barta returns to ‘Patsy Cline' role

By Richard Duckett TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

It's not as if every time there's a production of “Always ... Patsy Cline” Becky Barta is in it, portraying the great singer with the beautiful voice, appealing but no-nonsense personal manner and tragic fate.

But since Barta is appearing in her 20th production of the musical (“If I've counted right,” she prefaced), there are some constants that probably apply. One is that she's obviously very good in the role, or else she wouldn't always keep getting hired for it.

Another is that she loves the show, which is based on the true story of Cline's friendship with a fan from Houston named Louise Seger. In the musical, the two meet before one of Cline's performances (Cline joins Seger's table and orders a bottle of Schlitz beer), and as songs are sung Seger offers snippets of narration about that evening and its aftermath. “There's so much about it that's warm,” Barta said.

Every production is different in its own way, but the “Always ... Patsy Cline” coming to The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as part of a short tour that started in Stoneham is special to Barta for a couple of reasons.

“This has been, I think one, of the most stress-free productions of the show I've done,” Barta said. Barta and Joy Hawkins, who plays Seger, have a good relationship, she said. Hawkins also directs. Furthermore, “We have a great band.”

Cline, who was born in Winchester, Va., recorded such unforgettable country/crossover hits such as “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Sweet Dreams,” and “Walking After Midnight” before her life was cut short in 1963, dying at the age of 30 in a private plane crash after giving a performance in Kansas City, Kan.

Barta is actually from Kansas City, Mo., (although she said she lived near State-Line Road, and spent a lot of time on the Kansas side), and has a friendly, Southern aspect to her accent. She also has a good sense of humor. Concerning her 20 productions of “Always …” she said at one point, “Is someone gonna give a watch or something?”

She could earn one for each show, since she sings more than 25 songs. “If that's why they (the audience) are there, they'll get their money's worth in Patsy Cline music, but the show is so much bigger. It's a show about a relationship between a fan and the star. Anyone can relate to that. We all look up to somebody. It's just that this other character, Louise, she really did and they became fast friends. It's a play with music.” Barta paused, laughed, and added, “It's a play with a lot of music.”

Singing the music as Cline might strike some people as a daunting prospect, since Cline's voice was so one-of-a-kind in its haunting expressiveness and range.

“I wouldn't say it's intimidating,” Barta said. “Maybe the first time I was certainly extremely conscious of honoring her. Probably in real life I'm as much a Louise as any fan.”

Barta said she has studied every recording Cline made, as well as all the tapes of Cline's live performances that she can get her hands on. She's learned more from the live Cline than the studio Cline, she said. Barta's performance is “not going to be perfect recording studio sound. I have to let that idea go. We're in a live hall …

“Thankfully, my own vocal range is fairly similar. Honestly, beyond that you have to honor Patsy as a storyteller. She could turn each story into a heart-wrenching experience where with a lesser singer or story teller the material will lie flat. If I concentrated to sound exactly like her that would be one way to go. But I don't want to become a robot, and I've never sold myself as an impressionist.”

A recent review in The Boston Globe of the show in Stoneham indicates that Barta indeed knows what she's doing: “She summons an enormous amount of emotion through the songs … She's not expected to be a carbon copy of Cline, but Barta does conjure the qualities that made the singer so inimitable. She's nailed the way Cline could slide into a note before cutting it off with a little catch in her throat or maybe grate it into a nasty growl,” the review said.

The current production originated at the Stoneham Theatre July 8 (concluded July 25) and now has visits to the Rhode Island Performing Arts Center and The Hanover Theatre.

“I'm looking forward to it (coming to The Hanover Theatre), especially working with Mr. Troy Siebels,” Barta said. Siebels, executive director of The Hanover Theatre, was producing director at the Stoneham Theatre earlier in his career, a place Barta has worked previously (including an earlier production of “Always …”). “I think he's a delightful man. He's very smart. He's one of the good ones. When you meet one in show biz you're very grateful.”

In fact, Massachusetts has played a part in Barta's show biz career on more than one occasion.

What pulled her out of Kansas City, she said, was being cast in the national tour of “Les Miserables.” She joined the cast when the musical was at The Colonial Theatre in Boston.

She was also in “Les Mis” on Broadway, has been a regular in the show “Forbidden Broadway,” and spent three seasons as “Mrs. Claus” in the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” in New York City at the Radio City Music Hall. She now lives in New York, but other forays to Massachusetts besides Stoneham have included appearing in seven different productions at the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly.

“I've been very fortunate in my career. I've worked steadily. I've done other things. But I look forward to this show,” Barta said of returning to “Always … Patsy Cline.”

That's been pretty much true, always.