Review: BUDDY - THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY at Washington Pavilion

The touring company BUDDY - THE Buddy Holly STORY is flush with musical talent. Every performer is an actor and a musician. We are introduced to a 19 year old Buddy Holly and his bandmates/friends as they start to introduce their "own kind of music" which happens to be rock and roll, on a country radio station program in Lubbock, Texas. Therein lies the first big conflict of the Buddy Holly Story to overcome.

Their first big break with a recording contract turns out to be a bit of a bust in that Decca is not interested in their rock and roll sound and Buddy comes home to try other avenues for reaching his career goals of sharing his sound with the world. We all know how the story ends, so the script does a lot of fast forwarding through some of his musical highlights in Act One. I was starting to feel a little anxious that I was only going to hear snippets of my favorite songs in recordings that overplayed scene changes and then the band makes it to an appearance at the famed Apollo Theatre in Harlem. The script aptly covers the predictable confusion of the band being white artists in a predominantly black artist entertainment venue but it is here we finally get to hear some favorite songs in their entirety. The prelude to the band's appearance is a masterful performance of Hannah-Kathryn Wall singing "Shout". She delivers the energy, vocal range, and power and they are a fresh and welcome shift in the show's trajectory.

Once Mr. Andrew Harvey, playing Buddy Holly is turned loose on the stage of the Apollo, the sense memories start to roll in for this reviewer. I am harkened back to the late 70's when music from the 50's made a comeback with the youth of the day. My personal high school years are peppered with friends performing in 50's tribute bands at parties and events. DJ and The Stones was the most popular entertainment at my high school. Sioux Falls residents can hear their lead singer pretty regularly at St. Joseph's Cathedral in the person of Father Morgan. I named the first car I ever bought ($400 in saved wages from my job at The Friendly Drive In) - a 1955 maroon and white Chevy after Buddy's hit "Peggy Sue". "Oh Boy" took me back even farther in memory, to my uncle punching out the lyrics and playing stand-up bass in my Dad's band of the 1960's.

While this show is a little "thin" on the script, it most certainly delivers fond audible sense memories for the viewing audience of a time when music mostly soothed our souls or inspired a "joy of living". You could understand the lyrics back then, and the rhythms made you feel like dancing, (not shaking your fist at the driver next to you blaring "rap" at a stoplight). Guess what buddy? In a not too short time, you won't be able to hear normal conversations because you drove around with your music at awful and damaging decibels.

It is at this point in the show, where the costumes of the production start to get more exciting and we are introduced to the swagger of David Cochise Williams who will turn out to have some of my favorite moments in the show as Richie Valens at the Winter Dance Party in Clear Lake. Nathan Wright performing in that same concert as the Big Bopper is "spot on" in his sound and energy with "Chantilly Lace".

No story of the rise of a music star is complete without the inevitable reveal of the underbelly of the music industry. A music labels power- wielding influence over the sound and image of artists is indicative of a somewhat cultural, but mostly financial drive to control and accumulate wealth at the expense of art.

In his brief tenure, Buddy Holly was a true artist, driven by his talent and desire to shine that the brevity of his time in the spotlight seems unfair in some ways. But, like the best kind of poetic justice, his music lived on in the hearts of listening audiences well into the future and inspired multiple generations of music lovers.

No review of Mr. Andrew Harvey would be complete without high praise of his immeasurable musical talents on guitar, but it is his vocal tenderness in songs like "True Love Ways" that really cemented my admiration for his prowess on stage. The opening strains of this song, struck a familiar chord with this reviewer because of an advertising campaign called "Never Say No To Panda", that you can find on YouTube ( and I promise, you will have some really good laughs about, and probably share on social media). Ultimately, this song reflects the unvarnished love and devotion for his beloved wife. His performance of "Raining In My Heart" is also an especially poignant moment in the show.

The company ends this production with some great energy and enthusiasm as they present the evening in Clear Lake, Iowa's Winter Dance Party, which would turn out to be the last hurrah for three seminal artists of this era. The Wednesday night audience was appreciative and demonstrative in their approval. BUDDY - THE Buddy Holly STORY, plays again tonight at the Washington Pavilion and this is a tale that will stay with you as you recall the tunes and lyrics of a meteoric rise and untimely end of this musical star. Get your tickets online or by calling the Washington Pavilion Box Office at 605-367-6000.

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