I STUDIED Glen Joseph’s character like a falcon eyeing its prey, waiting to pounce on the slightest perceived discrepancy.
One by one, I mentally ticked the boxes as only a Buddy Holly anorak can… the hiccupping sob at the end of a line, the little back-kick, that lop-sided stance. Yes. They were all present and correct.
But could the slightly receding hairline and vaguely thickening waistline be forgiven? Well, all right, as Buddy might have said.
This show takes time to build, perhaps echoing the initial struggle our hero had with the Nashville establishment.
Any musical devoted to the long tall Texan who shattered the showbiz norms of the 1950s must have a close eye for detail, and in the main, Alan Janes’s Buddy comes through with flying colours.
Talking anoraks again, it is actually an entirely downwards guitar strum on Peggy Sue. Joseph occasionally deviates, but let’s not become too precious about this – the main thing is that the feel is right.
This is a modern-day fairytale and the story is familiar to most people over a certain age. The boy from Lubbock insists on playing ‘his music’ despite all the brickbats placed in his way. The rise to fame is meteoric, and he proposes to Maria Elena two minutes after meeting her.
Then he’s taken from us, a rock ‘n’ roll Cinderella who must obey the midnight chimes that will seal his fate.
But what a farewell party… and then a thoroughly convincing Miguel Angel as Ritchie Valens and Steve Dorsett’s Big Bopper in an extra-large fake leopard skin jacket join Buddy on his voyage to eternal fame. The show runs until Saturday. See it.
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