Meet The Bodacious Bobcats

George Sawyn.

Since its inception in 1935, Peninsula Players Theatre has offered variety in its seasons from mysteries and comedies to dramas and musicals. Talented performers have graced the stage with their vocal talent supported by equally talented musicians.

Always…Patsy Cline, a heartfelt musical of an iconic singer, created and originally directed by Ted Swindley, based on a true story, will perform six nights a week through Oct. 19 and features a gifted vocalist backed by a six-piece backup band, bringing Nashville to Door County audiences.

Always…Patsy Cline is based on the friendship Cline had with her devoted fan Louise Seger, a Texas housewife. It features more than 25 songs from Cline’s brief, but stellar career, including “Crazy,” “Walkin After Midnight,” “She’s Got You” and more.

Peninsula Players veteran Karen Janes Woditsch (Murder on the Nile, A Little Night Music, Chicago) portrays Louise, and Christine Mild makes her Players debut as Patsy Cline. Mild has performed as Patsy Cline several times. Her musical theater credits include Les Misérables and Godspell at Chicago’s Marriott Theatre and she was Patti LuPone’s understudy for Annie Get Your Gun at the Ravinia Festival.

Louis Jay Meyers.

Backing Mild are six talented musicians, The Bodacious Bobcats, who will replicate the “Nashville Sound” developed by Cline’s producer Owen Bradley. Bradley created one of the first recording studios in Nashville and had an A-list of musicians he used when recording with Cline.

Bradley added sophistication and innovations in Nashville by taking a week to record instruments in individual sessions before adding Cline’s vocals to a song. At the time about four songs were recorded in a day.

“I Fall to Pieces” was the first single Cline recorded with Bradley. It became a number one hit on the country charts and was her second single to cross over. Harold Bradley confirmed his brother Owen brought in the Jordanaires, Elvis Presley’s backup singers, for support vocals.

Lynn Gundmundsen.

“We had a setup,” Harold said in an interview with National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. “We would work from 10 to 1, 2 to 5, 6 to 9 and 10 to 1 at night. To me, it was like going to a party. A Brenda Lee party in the morning, then a Ray Stevens party in the afternoon. A Bill Monroe party and then end up with Henry Mancini and Patsy Cline and Elvis and just other people. I realized, after a while, that it wasn’t my talent; it was the talent of the stars. Then, I was just glad to be on board.”

Harold is one of the most recorded guitarists of all time, playing on such classic songs as Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man,” Elvis’s “Devil in Disguise,” Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and Roy Orbison’s “Only the Lonely.”

In an interview with Mix Magazine, Harold said that at the recording of “Crazy,” Floyd Cramer was on piano, Bob Moore on bass, Buddy Harman on drums, Cline was facing them with the Jordanaires to her left.

Since the orchestra is an essential element to the panache of a musical, a great deal of attention is made to selecting musicians, as was casting, of Always…Patsy Cline.

Craig McClelland.

“I want the iconic Patsy Cline songs, like ‘Walkin After Midnight,’ to sound as much like the original recordings as possible,” said Malcolm Ruhl, the musical director of Always…Patsy Cline. Ruhl made his Broadway debut in Pump Boys and Dinettes. He has extensive credit as a musical director in Chicago and was recently nominated for a Joseph Jefferson award, Chicago’s version of the Tony Award, for his musical direction of Hank Williams: Lost Highway.

“I want the songs to sound like the records because musically, that’s what will connect audience members who know her songs to the story of the play,” Ruhl said. “And I’m hoping we will create some new Patsy fans in the process. For the songs that were recorded with larger studio production than we can replicate with six musicians (big string sections, for example), I hope to match the sound of many of her live performances, which included some of the best western swing musicians of the period. Familiarity with that sound and style was one of the first things I asked each of the musicians about.”

Making up the Bodacious Bobcats are pianist Ruhl, fiddler and guitarist Lynn Gudmundsen, bassist Craig McClelland, pedal steel guitarist Louis Jay Meyers, percussionist Bruce Newbern and guitarist George Sawyn. They represent a collective musicality of 250 years.

Bruce Newbern.

Gudmundsen, McClelland, Newbern and Sawyn call Door County home. Meyers, born and raised in Austin, Texas, joins the Players from Kansas City, Missouri.

Gudmundsen played violin since age nine and eventually picked up the ukulele and guitar. An Interlochen Arts Academy graduate, she is classically trained and used her fiddle voice by playing folk, blues, country and bluegrass. She has fond memories of playing at the Door Community Auditorium with Willie Nelson, who wrote “Crazy.”

McClelland is heard across the county playing bass, tuba and ukulele with the Vespus Marimba Band, the Sukey Jump Band and the Gazebo Guys. He is also a composer whose works were recently featured at the Phoenix Experimental Arts Festival.

Meyers performed live and recorded on guitar, banjo and pedal steel guitar for more than 40 years and is executive director of Folk Alliance International. He can be heard on recordings of such artists as Willis Alan Ramsey, Bruce Robison, Killbilly, Bill & Bonnie Hearne, The Killer Bees, Jello Biafra, Mojo Nixon, Fastball, Michael Hearne, Tennessee Boltsmokers and many others.

Newbern can be heard playing accordion, guitar and/or banjo as one of the Gazebo Boys when not in the classroom at St. John Bosco School. He plays in various pit bands for local theaters and directs a contemporary music group at Bay View Lutheran Church.

Malcolm Ruhl.

Sawyn is fluent in a variety of musical styles including jazz, rock, country and classical. A guitar player since 1967, he performed and recorded with many of the county’s best musicians and completed session work at Hans Christian’s studio.

Always…Patsy Cline performs Tuesday through Sunday at 7 pm with the exception of two Sunday matinees, Oct. 5 and Oct. 19 at 4 pm. For more information visit peninsulaplayers.com or call 920.868.3287.

Audra Baakari Boyle, the Peninsula Players Business Manager, is celebrating her 20th season as a company member.

Peninsula Arts and Humanities Alliance, Inc., which contributes Culture Club throughout the summer season, is a coalition of non-profit organizations whose purpose is to enhance, promote and advocate the arts, humanities and natural sciences in Door County.