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Final Farewell to Patsy
August 24, 2009
The End of an Era: Marlane O’Brien bids a Fond, Final Farewell to Patsy Cline
There was an audible gasp in the Guild Theatre on August 2nd when, during the second act of “With Love From Patsy,” Marlane O’Brien announced that “this summer series will be my last Patsy Cline tribute concert. I say it with love and great fondness but it’s time...it’s been seventeen years since I was first hired to play the country legend in The Charlottetown Festival’s “A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline”...I mean, I’m old enough to be her mother!”
Marlane has stated before what an enormous influence Patsy Cline has had on her life in those seventeen years. “She brought me here to the place that would eventually become my home, she introduced me to so many wonderful people, she’s helped me pay the bills in a pinch, and, perhaps most wonderful of all, she finally brought my sister, Virginia, and I together on stage for the first of many wonderful shows, not just Patsy’s music, but Christmas, jazz, folk, gospel, country, you name it we’ve sung it together, and yet, before the Patsy concerts we had never worked together before.”
Marlane has been making the announcement every show since and the result is always the same; the gasps, the attempts to dissuade and the outpouring of love and support. “It’s overwhelming, really, and very humbling. One kind soul told me not to give up singing, and I hurry to assure everyone I am not doing that at all. I’ll keep singing and concertizing and I’ll be keeping a few Patsy tunes in the repetoire that have become as much associated with me here on the Island as they are with Patsy, plus I have a couple of favorites that I’ll hang on to as well. With the passing of my parents whom I’ve been caring for for the past decade my career is moving back into film, television and theatre and, by necessity away from the Island. But my home and my heart is here.”
There are two performances of “With Love From Patsy” left, both at The Guild, on Sunday, August 30th and Wednesday, September 2nd at 7:30pm. Marlane invites all who haven’t been in this summer yet to join her in bidding a fond, final farewell to Patsy Cline.
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