Front Row Centre Review: BUDDY-THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY

The last half of BUDDY - THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY is a re-creation of the famous concert in the Surf ballroom in Clear Lake, on February 2^nd 1959: The day before the music died.

As hit after hit parades by, the energy level in Stage West dinner theatre builds to frenzy, and everyone joins the party, holding to the moment in a futile attempt to delay the inevitable.

Unfortunately, to get to this highlight you do have to stick with a show that takes vivid, real-life characters and turns them into cardboard musical comedy archetypes. Details are given breathless recaps between the numbers and Holly's battles with the record labels, which should provide some tension, are squandered here. Book writers Alan Janes and Rob Bettinson appear to have done little more research than read album jacket biographies of Holly.

Director John Mueller, in collaboration with choreographer Jim White, take this second rate script and place it on stage in a fairly straightforward manner.  The lines are given flat, fairly pedestrian readings and many of the jokes fail to land.

Only John Devorski as the DJ Highpockets manages to find a character to play.

The other performances seem embarrassingly amateurish, until the group arrives as the first white act at Harlem's Apollo Theatre. In a neat stage reversal we are whisked from backstage to onstage and the real musical talent emerges. This segment forms the finale of the first act and it proves worth waiting for, yet it only hints at what is to come in Act Two.

It is here that Christian Bellsmith becomes Buddy Holly and the musical numbers galvanize the viewers who are just beginning to wonder if this show will get any better. It does. With bright cameos by Jim Soper (as The Big Bopper) and Jon-Alex MacFarlane (as Ritchie Valens) BUDDY suddenly becomes a concert built around a seemingly endless hit parade. The music, the dancing, the spectacular lighting design (by Allan McMillan) all help raise the pulses of the spectators. 

When it sings, when Bellsmith is on stage performing the classic pop songs, BUDDY is decent entertainment. It is a star performance to make you forgive the weaknesses that precede it.

 BUDDY- THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY plays Tuesdays through Sundays at Stage West Dinner theatre. Dinner/Show tickets arrange from $51 per person for the Wednesday matinee to $92.11 for the Saturday evening performance and may be reserved by visiting www.stagewest.com or calling the box office at 905-238-0042.