Sally Mayes will be Patsy Cline in a New York reading of Honky Tonk Angel , the second musical from writer Ellis Nassour about the late country star. The event will take place Feb. 8 at 2:30 and 6 PM and Feb. 9 at 4 PM for an invitation-only audience.

Also participating in the reading are Kelli Barclay, Mimi Besette, Annie Chadwick, Steve Cole, Jason Edwards, Julie Foldesi, Susan Haefner, Marc Kessler, Brian Keith Lewis, Laura Schutter, Andy Sich, Randy Skinner, Dorothy Stanley, Brian Sutherland and Jessica Wright. Bruce Lumpkin will direct. Skinner provides the choreography.

Sally Mayes -- who also starred as Patsy in a Sept. 30, 1997, reading of the musical -- has acted in Welcome To The Club and She Loves Me. Nassour is the author of a bio on which Always...Patsy Cline was based. That national hit played New York's Variety Arts Theatre in 1997. Honky Tonk covers the last eight years in Cline's life. Nassour wrote the book and original lyrics to Honky Tonk, while George Leonard composed the original music. The show also utilizes many of Cline's signature songs, including "I Fall to Pieces" and "Crazy."

The musical is aiming at a Broadway engagement in 2000. A previously announced pre-Broadway premiere in early 1999 at the Forum Theatre in Metuchen, NJ, has been canceled.

-- By Robert Simonson