Friday, January 16, 2009

Buddy the Musical


You can't go to London without attending a show. Buddy was the choice dictated by compromise, availabilty and price. Enjoyable, well staged and well attended by an audience which needed some work before it performed its part as the audience especially at the last Buddy Holly show in Iowa before the plane flight and crash. First act was snappy with plenty of conflict, rock and roll v country especially.

As a stage show the main problem is how is to deal with the death so that's on your mind as the second half proceeds. It becomes a jukebox show towards the end with a recreation of Buddy's final show with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper at the 'Winter Dance Party' in the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa in February 1959. Good performances from all concerned and the audience eventually livened up.

Was there any need for the short "death scene"? Probably not. The show ended with the curtain calls by the performers as performers in 1959 and Buddy wishing us "Safe home".

Wikipedia on the musical here.
The musical's homepage here.

See and hear the real Buddy Holly on YouTube:

No comments: