NEED TO KNOW

Who: Leisa Way

What: Sweet Dreams: A Tribute to Patsy Cline

Where: Theatre Aquarius Dofasco Centre, Stage Write, 190 King William St.

When: To Feb. 13

Tickets: $35 to $28

Phone: 905-522-PLAY

Leisa Way remembers sitting with her mom listening to Patsy Cline singing She's Got You.

"I was about six years old. Hearing that record of a woman wailing her heartbreak touched me even then.

"I don't know what it was. There was just something that spoke to me about the way she revealed layers of pain.

"Did I think that back then? Not really. After all I was only six. But thinking back on that moment I realize I was connected even then with Patsy's way of finding the heart of a song."

Today, a grown-up Leisa has a much better understanding of the pain Patsy Cline felt.

"The songs she sang are part of my country roots," she says. "And I don't think I found her as much as she found me."

The Sudbury native loves memories of growing up where she could play outside until the street lights came on. She loves the memory of standing between the seats of her dad's truck wailing a country song at the top of her lungs. And she loves the way her life has somehow come full-circle.

Heading for Hamilton with Sweet Dreams: A Tribute to Patsy Cline she's back with music she loves best. Way played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz at Sudbury Theatre Centre in 1981. That led to her cadging the role of Anne Shirley in Charlottetown Festival's Anne of Green Gables.

"I sat in the hall outside the audition room in Toronto and waited for nine hours. I had no agent and no Equity card. 'We won't see you,' I was told. Never mind, I waited. After director Don Harron fell over me a couple of times trying to get to the bathroom he finally let me sing. I got the job."

Way believes a great part of getting anywhere in theatre has to do with believing you're the right person for the job.

"You have to have courage," she says. "And yet the funny thing is I'm more comfortable on a stage in front of a thousand people than I am in a room with two or three."

After six years as Anne, Way went on to play Peter Pan in an American tour. She also played Wendy on tour with Cathy Rigby as the boy who didn't want to grow up.

Other roles followed in American tours of the musicals Crazy For You and 42nd Street. Then came star parts in Oklahoma, Grease, Showboat and Born Yesterday.

Eventually Patsy Cline caught up with Way and she starred in Dean Regan's musical A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline.

"The music, the story of her life, everything about her fascinated me," Way says.

"Eventually I did my own research, listened to everything Patsy ever recorded and decided to produce my own Patsy Cline Concert."

That's where Sweet Dreams comes in.

"Patsy Cline started as a county singer, but she crossed a lot of boundaries. When she died at 30 in 1963 the world lost an important voice in music."

Way brings her own band The Wayward Wind with her and her show features all of Patsy's big hits.

"People come in as Patsy Cline fans or they go out that way. That makes me feel good."

Gary Smith has written on theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator for more than 25 years.