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Stage Review: 'Buddy Holly' full of energy and rockin' sound
Wednesday, July 26, 2000 By John Hayes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
If this were a rock review, I'd probably whine that the impersonation act was too tame. If it were a drama review, I'd complain that it wasn't very dramatic, and if it were a musical review, I'd nit-pick that the songs come out of nowhere and don't propel the story.
But this review is none of the above. It's about an ambitious melding of entertainment genres, nearly as ambitious as the country-western and rhythm and blues train wreck that exploded into rock 'n' roll.
"Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story" finds the balance that documentary musical writers have been looking for for years. It's a fairly honest account of a celebrity life with neither misleading, made-up drama nor boring transcript accuracy. It's both a rock concert that doesn't cheat older theater subscribers and theater that can bring young faces into the house.
"Buddy" is a touring import that executive producer Van Kaplan slipped into CLO's season to give the company more time to work on its own stuff. Originating in London's West End, Alan Jane's musical-play-concert picks up the story as the polite Lubbock, Texas, boy and his buddies are infuriating hard-core country fans with their newfangled race music.
Van Zeiler balances Holly's youthful exuberance against his stubbornness to create a three-dimensional character that audiences can believe in. With the spotlight on Buddy, literally and figuratively, The Crickets are little more than wallpaper until they start to rock 'n' roll. There's no orchestra in the pit. This is real rockabilly, a little less edgy than you'd find at the 31st Street Pub, but beboppin' enough to start the wingtips tapping among the opening night theater crowd. The live music goes all over the dial with some good bluegrass finger-picking, smooth a cappella doo-wop and inspirational R&B.
Christopher Bloch and David Sinkus, as industry insiders who help and hamper The Crickets, provide great contrast to Buddy's energetic naivete. Sean Nugent has one terrific scene as the emcee at the Apollo Theater where the band breaks racial barriers, and Victoria Stilwell stands out as Buddy's sweet Hispanic wife in an intolerant white world.
A clever and efficient design by Andy Walmsley facilitates quick and colorful scene changes, culminating in an abbreviated re-creation of Holly's last show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Feb. 2, 1959. Performances by Travis Turpin as The Big Bopper, Rob Langeder as Ritchie Valens, Vin Parker as Dion and Holly with a bigger, brassier band explode like the fireball that lit up the night sky a few hours later.
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Where: Benedum Center, Downtown