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A tale that can never fade away
Oh boy: Steve Dorsett as The Big Bopper, Roger Rowley as Buddy Holly and Miguel ANgel as Ritchie Valens Buddy The New Alexandra Theatre **** YOU would probably learn more about Buddy
Holly glancing through Wikipedia while listening to American Pie – but
it wouldn't be anywhere near as much fun. This is a night of pure nostalgia or, for
younger members of the audience, an evening of discovery of a
singer/songwriter who influenced pretty well every bar of rock and roll
they have ever heard. This show, which opened in 1989, was credited as
being one of, if not the very first of the jukebox musicals w and is
really little more than a vehicle to cram in as many Holly songs into
two and a half hours as possible, linked by a few lines of script. Indeed. by the second half it dispenses with the
story pretty much altogether in favour of party as we join that final,
fateful show at Clear Lake, Iowa. Yes, the basics are there, how Buddy, from
Lubbock, Texas, was signed by Decca but it didn't work out; how he
worked with Norman Petty in his recording studio in Clovis New Mexico
and became a star; how he married his Puerto Rican wife Maria Elena
after dating her for just five hours; how he split with The Crickets who
were happy in Texas while he wanted New York and of course that fatal
plane crash – the day the music died. But there is an awful lot of
poetic licence along the way. But it is a fair few frets up the guitar neck
from being just a mere tribute act and within the limited confines of a
paper-thin script there are some fine performances. Roger Rowley has the advantage that he looks
somewhat like the rather nerdy Holly, the rocker who made glasses cool,
and he manages the slightly gawky and awkward movements that were the
unintentional trademark of Holly when he played – oh, and the lad also
plays a mean Stratocaster. Indeed this is the modern theatre where mere
acting is not enough and half the cast have to be able to turn their
hands equally to keyboards, guitars and drums and if you are not
playing? - well you are backing singers. Rowley produces a likeable Holly, and a
respectful one as when he asks Maria Elena's aunt, played by Katia
Sartini, for her niece's hand in marriage. Felicity Chilver as Maria Elena, as with all the
cast apart from Holly, has to play several roles which makes it more
difficult to be believable and convincing in any one.
We are never quite sure whether we are supposed
to like her or not, the implication being that she perhaps was part of
the reason Holly and The Crickets broke up, which was not true. She was
pregnant when Holly died, incidentally, but miscarried soon after Buddy
was killed in the crash. Gary Trainor as Hipockets Duncan the local DJ and friend of Holly, is also seen as a big shot New York music executive but Trainor really comes into his own as the MC at the Clear Lake concert where he shows a fine turn of comedy as we get some acts which take you right back to small town America of the 50s US Mid-West. Indeed the sets and costumes by Adrian Rees could have come straight from the pages of Norman Rockewell, from the radio ads for washing machines to the huge chrome mics and a world full of mic and guitar leads all over the stage at every recording and every concert. And it is concerts that end each half. The first
sees Holly at the famed Apollo Theatre, Harlem where Buddy was the first
white act to appear there and they loved him. The claim of being first
is much disputed with evidence of earlier white acts but it was still
one of the earliest white performances at the all-black theatre and was
still a brave one in the late 50s, even though in reality it took
a number of appearances there by Holly before the audiences really
started to take to them. It made a lifting finale before the interval
though. The second half ends with that final concert with Miguel Angel as the 17-year-old Ritchie Valens, and Steve Dorsett as The Big Bopper joining Holly for some of their own classics such as the Bopper's Chantilly Lace and Valen's La Banba The plane crash is represented by a darkened
stage empty apart from a microphone and Holly's battered acoustic guitar
to the echoes of True Love Ways. It is so simple, so effective and strangely
moving leaving the mind to produce special effects way beyond the budget
or indeed means of any show. Not that that is the end though as Buddy raves on
with the audience on their feet for another half dozen numbers. It might not be much of a biography but it is
great fun and Holly's music from an age of innocence still has a
freshness and vigour about it that shows what a great talent he really
was. Roger Clarke
**** IT was described as the day music died
when rock 'n' roll legend Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash, aged
just 22. But enthusiastic audiences at the Alex this week
know the songs of the star in specs live on more than half a century
after the tragedy at Clear Lake, Iowa. Holly - born Charles Hardin Holley - made a big
name for himself in a short time, and at the performance I attended Glen
Joseph was excellent, both in the quality of his singing and guitar
playing in the lead role.. You could hardly keep your feet still as he
breezed through such hits as That'll be the Day, Shout, Peggy Sue, Oh
Boy, True Love Ways and Heartbeat. Late in the show he links up with the Big Bopper
(Steve Dorsett) and Ritchie Valens (Miguel Angel) - who died with Holly
in the crash - and that was the opportunity for their memorable hits,
Chantilly Lace and La Bamba, to thrill the customers. There is an amusing section when Buddy and his
musicians perform at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem - where white men
feared to tread - and the audience loved them. The story shows how Holly parted company with his
band, The Crickets, and also how he married music publishing company
receptionist Maria Elena Santiago after proposing to her within minutes
of their meeting. She subsequently warned her husband after suffering
nightmares about him being involved in a tragic accident. A super show in which the pace never dips. to
19.11.11 Paul Marston Buddy is not a
particularly informative show about the life of Holly, and a lot of the
information less than accurate - The Crickets did not appear on the
scene until after the unsuccessful early Decca rockabilly recordings for
example and while True Love Ways was written for his wife it
certainly wasn't knocked off then sung to her as he waited for the taxi
to take him on his final, fateful tour. It was in fact recorded some
four months before he died. Even the details of the fateful plane crash on 3
February 1959 do not give the full story. Ritchie Valens did wangle
himself a seat on Holly's chartered plane on the toss of a coin but much
more interesting was the fact that Holly's bass player, one Waylon
Jennings, nobly gave up his seat not to Richie Valens but to J P
Richardson because The Big Bopper was suffering from a bad cold which
would not be helped by a night shivering on a tour bus. As the group joked after the concert Holly told
Jennings that he hoped that his tour bus froze up and Jennings quipped
back that he hoped Holly's plane crashed. It was an innocent remark in jest that was to haunt Jennings for the rest of his life.
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