Stevie Vallance
A collection of projects by Stevie Vallance's production company.
Calgary Herald
by Martin Morrow
"Patsy Cline Lures Stevie Vallance Back To Atp's Stage"
"It wasn't the road to Damascus, it was the highway to L.A. And it wasn't the voice of God, it was the voice of Patsy Cline. But it did come like the classic bolt from the blue.
Stevie Vallance was driving south from Vancouver to her second home in the San Fernando Valley, having just turned down an offer from Alberta Theatre Projects that she reprise her starring role in a revival of "A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline". As she sped along, Cline's unmistakable voice came across the car radio, singing her 1961 hit Crazy. Suddenly, in her mind, Vallance heard the country legend's Virginia drawl. "It was like Patsy spoke to me," she recalls. "She was telling me off. She said 'Gawd, what're you thinkin' of, hoss? Do this show!" "I pulled over at the next rest stop, literally, and called Richard, my agent in Vancouver, and said "Call them and tell them I'll do it!"
Now Vallance is back in Buckskin and boots, once again playing the Patsy clone in ATP's popular honky-tonk musical, which opens Tuesday at the Martha Cohen Theatre. Why was she reluctant to impersonate Cline, as she did so successfully at ATP and Vancouver's Arts Club Theatre in the early '90's? Since that time, the actress/singer has been busy building a new career as a jazz vocalist and, as she says, "jazz is sometimes a bit snobby when it comes to doing other music." But Patsy isn't put off easily. Ever since doing the Cline tribute show - which ran twice at ATP, in the winter of '93 and again in the summer of '94 - Vallance has felt a strong connection with the dead country star. "I feel very akin to her," she says. "I completely understand her. She was very vulnerable and shy and insecure, actually, but she protected that with a real bawdiness." At the same time, she adds, "I'm 10 years older than she was when she passed away at 30, but I feel like I'm still a child compared to her. She seems like she was such a wiser, older woman."
The production features Vallance singing 22 tunes, backed by a five' man country band, in a retrospective that traces Cline's career and re-creates her performances at the Grand Ole Oprey, Las Vegas and Carnegie Hall. Vallance knew almost nothing about Cline when she first agreed to do the show, written by old friend Dean Regan, six summers ago in Vancouver. All that has changed. Now she speaks of Cline as a kind of mentor/older-sister figure, whose determination and no-nonsense attitude are a source of inspiration. "She really straightens me out and puts life in perspective when I do her," Vallance says. "She was always saying to people not to believe your own publicity, don't become bigger than your own britches."
Vallance credits the Cline show with encouraging her to refashion herself as a vocalist. Although she started out singing and dancing in her hometown of Toronto, she had switched her focus to acting after moving to LA. in the late '70's and getting much TV work. "Patsy woke me up to the fact that I could handle a one-woman show," she says.
"But country is not my thing, personally. Jazz is a little closer to home, I guess because a lot of my background is in cabaret and revue. The songs of Cole Porter and Gershwin are my roots." Part of the career makeover included a minor name change. "My full name is Stephanie Louise Vallance," she explains. "I was named after my father, Stephen, and I used to be nicknamed Stevie. The fellow I've been with for the past three years started calling me Stevie again. That was shortly after my father passed away, which was right around the time I started doing jazz seriously. So I guess I changed my name partly in his honour."
TV still provides Vallance with her bread and butter - mostly via voice work for animated series. "Cartooning pays for the jazz addiction," she says. She initially came to Vancouver in '93 to direct the series Madeline and play the voice of Miss Clavel. Today, kid viewers know her as the voice of the sexy mercenary Mouse on YTV's ReBoot. She calls her animated alter ego "a real tough cookie with a digitally perfect rear-end." Vallance is content to let acting pay the bills. She considers her singing career "a love thing" that she pursues for pleasure, not profit. "I share some philosophy with Patsy that way. She said, 'I don't wanna get rich, I just wanna live good. That's where I'm at."