"Buddy: the Buddy Holly Story," show #940

One of the earliest jukebox bio-musicals in our modern era is Alan Janes’s Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, a show that brings so many highlights of the era and titular singer with his band, The Crickets, to stage. The show really knows no version of “medley,” which expedites the running time in favor of the audience's attention span to hear the hits while not sitting through a full presentation of the artist’s life. However, director Mark Standriff has helmed a production that allows you to appreciate the nostalgia or, for my generation, the assumed nostalgia, one gets from hearing these hits of the 1950s. 

(Daniel Montgomery (Buddy Holly); Photo source: Good Company Players)

Daniel Montgomery is a terrific Buddy, giving audiences that notable Buddy-sound with true musical theatre earnestness. He’s consistent through scene and song and does mightily well in delivering the hits, complete with guitar playing and physical nuance. Backed up by a swell band, Rex McTeer and Stephen Michael Niewind deliver superb vocals and support as The Crickets’ Joe and Jerry, respectively. Eric Bako is a featured standout as Buddy and The Crickets’ early manager/producer, Norman Perry, as he nails the cadence and supportive reality Perry exuded for the group. Ken Stocks does well as Hipockets Duncan, radio announcer for Lubbock, TX’s local station, with many-a-monologue supported by an expositional drawl that moves the timeline along with a southern charm that translates well. 

(T to B: Stephen Michael Niewind (Jerry), Daniel Montgomery (Buddy Holly), and Rex McTeer (Joe); Photo source: Good Company Players)

Diego Sosa, Izsac Valencia, and Khari Somerville are featured standouts as Ritchie Valens, Big Bopper, and Tyrone Jones. Sosa has the hip-shaking, gyrating charisma to stop the show with his “La Bamba;” Valencia is a fantastically entertaining and energetic Bopper in his turn at “Chantilly Lace;” and Somerville nails the comedy and charm as Tyrone, leading a great “Shout.” The featured and ensemble company are used well, serving as other musicians, hosts, and guests of the stars’ performances. Malinda Asbury’s choreography is period-specific and varied enough for visual appeal, while Michael Fidalgo’s vocal direction is on-point in letting these actors give their own interpretation while honoring the hall-of-fame voices audiences expect. 

(Diego Sosa (Ritchie Valens) and Ensemble; Photo source: Good Company Players)

What makes shows like this work are certainly the talent, certainly the design, but most definitely a moment of connection that assures the audience this musical exists beyond just tribute. The cast has not a weak link among it, and David Pierce’s 1950’s aesthetic set design does the job, in compliment to Ginger Kay Lewis-Reed’s superb swath of costumes popping with color and personality. But in Act Two, Standriff finds the moment. Montgomery’s Buddy has just married the eager and dedicated Maria Elena (played with excellent ingenue vigor by Juliette Frediere) and he’s about to go out on that fateful tour. Maria has had nightmares about a tragic ending, and she’s with child. Buddy calms her to the best of his ability, culminating in an intimately played and sung “True Love Ways.” It’s in this scene and song where the show slows down in the best of ways, the audience can see why Buddy sings: not for glory, not for money, but for his family. Frediere’s adoration towards Montgomery’s romantic side of Buddy is infatuating, a moment that shows where the heart is: Buddy sings for his love. It redeems his ignorance, his boorishness, and his ego in the most touching of ways.

(Khari Somerville (Tyrone Jones); Photo source: Good Company Players)

A triumph for a show like this is making what is lying beneath truly revealed, and Standriff and company triumphed their way through what is sure to be a very entertaining evening at the theater.