BANDON — Local community theater shows don’t normally extend beyond their scheduled runs.

But then, normally, there isn’t a compelling reason to do more.

As the declining fortunes of local community theater groups have become the rule over the last decade, there’s been one notable exception: “Always … Patsy Cline,” a Little Theatre on the Bay production last year that is now resurfacing at the Sprague Community Theater in Bandon.

Last year, the show was LTOB’s biggest seller since “Grease” in 1999, according to director Don Williston, who recently retired as LTOB’s business manager.

In addition to its financial success, there was an attachment that many of those involved developed with the show.

“After last year, I wasn’t ready for it to be over,” said drummer Dean Conyers, who had the idea to bring the show to Bandon, convincing Jeff Norris to produce and the Bandon Lions Club to sponsor it.

The plan was to reproduce it exactly, but there was a hitch. Doris Smith, who played Cline, was pregnant and wouldn’t be available this time, which Norris said was the only time the Sprague was available. Her voice was one of the factors that made the LTOB production so special.

So while there’s a lot of continuity — with the same director, same musicians (Janice Kendall, Gina Shaddox and Conyers), same sets and half the cast (Pam de Jong) — it’s also a completely different show with the replacement of the person who sings 27 songs in less than two hours.

That would be Shirley Kintner, who plays Cline in the Bandon production, which also features slightly different costumes.

Kintner said it was a challenge, as Smith left “very big boots to fill.” But Norris, de Jong and others said they were impressed with how Kintner filled them.

Though Kintner has been a regular performer at LTOB’s Opry for 18 years, there’s a big difference between singing for three minutes and singing for two hours, as she and de Jong noted.

“I haven’t done anything like this in years,” Kintner said. “I’ve been a mom raising four kids — the last one’s a senior. This has been nice for me. I’m not used to this kind of attention.”

De Jong said it was not a big adjustment to go from Smith to Kintner. For a two-woman show, “there isn’t a whole lot of interaction. Usually it’s just me yammering at the audience” — or Kintner singing.

The show, which opened Thursday, centers on the night in May 1961 when a Houston single mother and obsessive fan, Louise Seger (de Jong), met emerging country legend Cline. Arriving an hour and a half early for a concert, Louise meets her idol and makes fast friends, managing to corral the singer’s attention for most of the night. And when the concert ends, Louise convinces Patsy to come home with her to eat and continue talking, eventually sleeping over.

It’s a true story but kind of hard to believe — until you consider the force of Louise’s personality. There wasn’t much of a chance of saying no to her.

“This role is not a big stretch for Pam,” Kintner said. “Louise is on the verge of being a psycho, and Patsy’s completely OK with it. But Patsy’s not too different from that.”

The idea that someone who is a celebrity can also be a real person and the real connection between the two women make the show into more than a collection of songs interspersed with a few bits of dialogue.

“She was just as much one of us as we were,” Louise tells the audience.

In a key moment of interaction, Patsy sings “Two Cigarettes in an Ashtray” at Louise’s kitchen table while Louise interjects comments about how she relates to the song. While Louise’s feeling that they’re on the same level comes through, so does a noticeable difference: Patsy has a grace that marks her as a star.

“That’s why I worshipped her, which is why I’m telling the story 30 years later,” said de Jong, shifting in and out of character. “The most important moment of her life was the night I met Patsy Cline. That’s all I cared about the rest of my life. Although Patsy was on her way to this huge stardom, she was a down-home country girl.”

In the LTOB version, because of the age difference between de Jong and Smith, it was more evident that it was the older Louise looking back on a time when she and Cline were the same age. Williston said the relationship plays different with Kintner due to a lesser age difference.

Regardless of the change, the group is confident the show’s success will continue, and Bandon may not be the last stop. The talk of the set at Monday’s rehearsal was that former Sprague manager Sally Ford is looking to bring the local production to Portland, where she now works.

“It’s a real popular show,” de Jong said. “Everyone wants a piece of it.”