REVIEW: Buddy, The Buddy Holly Story—Musical Theatre West
- TheShowReport
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 28 minutes ago
"Let's rock and roll!" is the hepped-up battle cry of Will Riddle — the sainted hero of BUDDY, THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY.
Moments later, a Fender Stratocaster reverberates throughout the house at Musical Theatre West’s Carpenter Performing Arts in Long Beach bathing a nostalgia-seeking audience with golden oldies pounded out the way they used to be.
And in its final 40 minutes or so, BUDDY unveils a torrential simulation of a hard-driving yet senior-prom-sweet rock concert of the 1950's in which Mr. Riddle’s Buddy, the Big Bopper (Trent Mills; Nat'l Tour: "Evil Dead, The Musical"), Ritchie Valens (Ali Marquez-Qadiri; "Xanadu," "Something Rotten"), a hyperkinetic band and a fervent choir of backup singers turn back the clock by blasting out tunes like "Chantilly Lace," "Maybe Baby," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "La Bamba" and many more.
For those who remember the 50's — and I do — this self-contained concert is bound to conjure up some delightful deja vu. The director/choreographer, Keith Andrews, and his designers have gotten the details just right, from those thick, black, Faosa-like horn-rimmed glasses to the acres of low-cut satin draped around the bouncing girl singers. And Oh Boy, can they sing!
Flashing back to a late-night fan-based conversation in a bar of the Montcalm Hotel in London's West End in 1988, we find theatrical agent Laurie Mansfield, film producer Greg Smith and writer/producer Alan Janes discussing the possibility of a show about rock and roll legend Buddy Holly. A year later, supported by Paul McCartney (who owned the copyright to Buddy Holly's music), the show opened at London's Victoria Palace, offering a starkly mechanical retelling of the events in Buddy Holly’s short career, and becoming perhaps the first in the now inescapable wave of pop-star jukebox biographies on stage.
Since then, re-mountings have cut the script and made it even tighter, eliminating 40 minutes out of the almost 3-hour original, and providing a 100% better audience experience.
Both acts, as arranged by writer Alan Janes, culminate in extended mini-concerts — the first depicting Holly and his bandmates in the Crickets making their debut at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, and the second the Clear Lake, Iowa show with Valens and the Big Bopper on the night before “the day the music died,” commemorating them forever in the classic early 70’s song, “American Pie.”
That Winter Dance Party at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Feb. 2, 1959, became the most tragic one of rock-and-roll lore. That’s when Buddy Holly (real name Charles Hardin Holley), 22 years old and only 18 months a rock phenomenon, would be killed along with his companions (The Bopper’s Jiles Perry Richardson Jr., 28; and Valens’ Richard Steven Valenzuela, only 17; along with the pilot Roger Peterson, who’s not mentioned in the show), crashing into a cornfield shortly after takeoff while trying to fly through a snowstorm to their next stop on the tour.
Yet, even though we do get some of the details of that calamity (the Crickets had already disbanded by then), the producers find a way to keep its now levitated audience from crashing down at the curtain call. So, Broadway being Broadway, the music is not allowed to die with the leading man.
But how could such a voracious group of young kids mostly fresh out of high school carve out such a fascinating career in music in so little time? Those kudos primarily go to a local Lubbock Texas radio DJ called Hipockets Duncan (David Kirk Grant — remember him in MTW’s “Bright Star?”), who promoted lead guitarist Buddy and his two friends, bassist Joe B. Maudlin (Omar D. Brancato; Boston Court Music Director/Arranger: “American Misfit”) and drummer Jerry Allison (Laura Leo Kelly; Brdwy-Bound: “Regency Girls”) as a Country & Western band called Buddy Holly & the Crickets, endorsing their first recording deal with Decca Records.
After a difficult start in Nashville, they sign a contract with up-and-coming, innovative record producer Norman Petty (Ryan Denardo; Nat’l Tour: “Cabaret”) in Clovis, New Mexico, with a lot of inspiration from his wife Vi (Elizabeth Curtin, who you may have seen in Newsies at Candlelight Pavilion). Within hours, Buddy Holly & the Crickets start to churn out one hit after another from the recording studio built in Norman's home — among them "That'll Be the Day," which will rocket up the charts to number one in a matter of weeks. Suddenly, Buddy Holly & the Crickets are the hottest act in the country and out on national tour.
While recording in New York, Buddy proposes to Maria Elena Santiago/Holly (Mia Sempertegui; MTF: Green Day’s “American Idiot”), the Puerto Rican receptionist of his music publisher, after a courtship of only five hours. Newly married and ambitious, he shifts focus to New York and a rift develops between him and the Crickets. They are not so inclined to move to New York. After a declaration of home truths during a recording session, the band splits and Buddy unexpectedly finds himself pursuing a solo career.
That’s when Buddy joins the fateful Winter Dance Party of 1959, a bus tour through the Midwest quenching the teenage thirst for that "new music called Rock 'n' Roll" The tour is hard work, the weather conditions appalling and the performers are alternating between sleeping in the luggage racks and dropping into the hospital to be treated for frostbite.
The cast is simply brilliant. And could there be a better Buddy Holly than Will Riddle (an MTW legend as Carl Perkins in Million Dollar Quartet)? I don’t think so. The passion of a bespectacled young man in his teens and early twenties, whose youth refuses to believe in boundaries, is perfectly exemplified by the beautifully authentic performance of Mr. Riddle. His all-in performance will definitely stick with you – you’ll be talking about this one for many days ahead. And also, what many people did not expect is the technical skill of this cast. All are excellent musicians and singers, and all more than capable of carrying out this hit parade.
Additionally, there is Chase Ramsey (Brdwy: “The Book of Mormon”) as Tommy Allsopp; Janaya Mahealani Jones (MTW’s “Grease”) is Marlena Madison. Brian Wallis (Geffen: “Louis & Keely: Live at the Sahara”) is Murray Deutsch; Lauren Han (FTR: “Tarantino Pulp Rock”) is Mary Lou Sokolof; and Justin Marriel Boyd (Disney Cruise Lines) is Tyrone Jones. They are truly rocking. And they are having fun. It is raw. It is exciting. And it is great theater.
Musical highlights of the show are “That’ll Be the Day,” “Peggy Sue,” “Johnny B Goode,” “Chantilly Lace,” “Words of Love,” and the simple “Everyday” sung by Mr. Riddle’s Buddy. Other standouts include “La Bamba” by Mr. Marquez-Qadiri’s Ritchie Valens, “Chantilly Lace” by Mr. Mills’ the Big Bopper, and Ms. Jones’ “Shout,” by the deliciously sassy diva from The Apollo, Marlena Madison, accompanied by Mr. Boyd’s dressed up to the nines Tyrone Jones.
So clearly is Holly identified with a kind of embryonic Tex-Mex version of rock'n'roll, a music full of sunlight, dust and outdoorsy zest, the sound of two-lane blacktops and small-town drive-ins, that it seems incongruous to think of him immersing himself in the late-50s bohemian milieu of Greenwich Village, mingling with abstract expressionists at the Cedar Tavern, attending jazz and poetry sessions at the Village Gate, and getting drinks at the Kettle of Fish and the Gaslight.
As we know, Buddy wouldn't be there long – but long enough to commit a series of songs to a tape machine that he had bought from his first producer, Norman Petty, which accompanied him on the journey from Lubbock to New York. Those solo recordings, of voice and mostly acoustic guitar, is the sound of a man, in his second year as an international pop star, stripped of all the pioneering instrumental arrangements and studio devices that had helped to make his successful recordings so distinctive. Those recordings in the newlyweds' apartment are what drag the ear, the heart and the imagination back, time after time, to a boy who just wanted to play rock and roll … his way.
You can almost see him now, plugging in his Stratocaster into that Fender valve amp and turning up the reverb, while adorning a simple blues pattern with a wonderful mix of sounds that bring to mind greats like Pop Staples, Hank Williams, Lonnie Mack, Chuck Barry and Elvis Presley. Perhaps his natural inquisitiveness might have even taken him to many other levels had fate not stepped in with other plans for him.
MUSICAL THEATRE WEST & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PRODUCER PAUL GARMAN PRESENTS, BUDDY, THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY; Written by ALAN JANES; Directed and Choreographed by KEITH ANDREWS; Musically Directed by RYAN O'CONNELL; Scenic Design by KEVIN CLOWES; Lighting Design by PAUL BLACK; Sound Design by DANNY FIANDACA; Costume Design by GREER GARDNER; Prop Design by MIRANDA VAZQUEZ; Wig Design by GARRETT RUIZ; Production Stage Manager BRIGHAM JOHNSON.
STARRING: WILL RIDDLE; OMAR D. BRANCATO; LAURA LEO KELLY; CHASE RAMSEY; DAVID KIRK GRANT; RYAN DENARDO; ELIZABETH CURTIN; MIA SEMPERTEGUI; TRENT MILLS; ALI MARQUEZ-QADIRI; JANAYA MAHEALANI JONES; JUSTIN MARRIEL BOYD; BRIAN WALLIS; LAUREN HAN.
Performances are at CARPENTER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, LONG BEACH. Running time 2 hours, 20 minutes with one intermission. Tickets start at $20 and are available for purchase by phone at 562-856-1999 or online at musical.org.
Chris Daniels
Arts & Entertainment Reviewer
The Show Report
Photo Credits: TAKE
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