By Jackie Demaline
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The incandescent Molly Andrews sings the unmatchable Patsy Cline - what's not to love?

Every year you can count on Playhouse in the Park using the holiday slot in the Shelterhouse for boffo box office. This season Always...Patsy Cline has settled in for a 10-week run, which is going to make a lot of theatergoers very happy. Look for another sell-out holiday run.

A lot of Playhouse fans will remember Andrews from her smashing run in Appalachian Strings a few seasons back (as well as a summer go-round in this revue).

If you haven't already had the pleasure, sign up for this Patsy Cline song list. If you caught the show the first time on the Marx stage, it's worth another visit in the intimacy of the Shelterhouse, where the performance is up close, personal and powerful.

Standing on a stage made up like a giant Wurlitzer juke box (a five-piece combo is tucked in back) with the stage floor a series of Decca 45s, Andrews channels Cline's soul through honky-tonk, ballads, heartbreakers, and all of the legend's biggest hits.

Always...Patsy Cline has the thinnest of threads holding it together. Our narrator is Patsy fan Louise (Adale O'Brien) a Houston divorcee who discovers Patsy on TV in 1957, meets her idol in 1961 and corresponds with her until her tragic early death in 1963.

If Andrews is channeling Cline, O'Brien is channeling Houdini to make this material float, but she does it. She acts her heart out as a good ole gal sharing her encounters with Cline and she makes Louise the kind of woman you'd want to share girl talk and make bacon and eggs with.

Two 45-minute sets are packed with a dozen songs each, and there's great work from conductor/piano Scott Kasbaum and company backing Andrews.

The two acts cover the length of Cline's career. Andrews is put through her paces, in a constant whirl of costume and wig changes to mark the passing time and rising stardom.

The show opens at the height of Cline's career, smooth as can be on stage in cowgirl fringe (and boots that spell "Patsy" in sequins down the sides) then back up a few years to a far less assured Cline.

It's great stuff throughout, from "Walkin' After Midnight" through "I Fall to Pieces," "Your Cheatin' Heart," a luxurious "You Belong to Me" on to defining hits "Sweet Dreams" and "Crazy" - Andrews sets toes to tappin' and is met by whistles and hollers as well as applause at the end of numbers.

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Always...Patsy Cline, through Jan. 18, Thompson Shelterhouse, Playhouse in the Park, Eden Park. 421-3888.

E-mail jdemaline@enquirer.com