Synopsis / Songs

The action takes place in Lubbock, Texas; Clovis, New Mexico; New York and Clear Lake, Iowa, between January 1956 and February 1959.

With the support of local Lubbock radio DJ, Hipockets Duncan, Buddy and his two friends Joe and Jerry, form a Country & Western band – Buddy Holly & the Crickets – and begin to carve out a career in music. After a difficult start at Decca Records in Nashville, they sign a contract with up-and-coming, innovative record producer Norman Petty. Within hours, Buddy Holly & the Crickets start to churn out hits from the recording studio built in Norman’s backyard in Clovis, among them ‘That’ll Be The Day’, which will rocket up the charts to number one in a matter of weeks.

Buddy Holly & the Crickets are suddenly the hottest act in the country and out on a national tour. This includes a stint at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York – Buddy and the boys having been mistakenly booked as a Black act – where they are tasked with winning over the notoriously tough to please Apollo crowd.

Whilst recording in New York, Buddy proposes to Maria Elena Santiago, the Puerto Rican receptionist of his music publisher after a courtship of all of five hours! Newly married and ambitious, he shifts focus to New York and a rift develops between him and the Crickets. After a declaration of home truths during a recording session back in Clovis, the band split and Buddy unexpectedly finds himself having to pursue a solo career.

Following the break from Norman and the Crickets, Buddy joins ‘The Winter Dance Party’ of 1959, a bus tour through the Midwest quenching the teenage thirst for the ‘new music called Rock ‘n’ Roll’. The tour is hard work, the weather conditions appalling and the performers are alternating between sleeping in the luggage racks and dropping into hospital to be treated for frostbite.

Our story ends in the small hours of February 3rd, 1959, after a rocking concert with J.P. (‘The Big Bopper’) Richardson and Ritchie Valens at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. Buddy makes the fateful decision to break his promise to his pregnant wife not to fly, as he and the other two headliners board a small plane and take off into the night destined for their next show. During a snow storm, in the dead of night, the plane crashes and spares no survivors.

The tragedy shocks the world, snatching away the young lives of three major musical talents – Buddy Holly (22), Ritchie Valens (17) and the Big Bopper (28) – and as the legend says (as Don McLean called it in his song ‘American Pie’), it was “the day the music died.” Buddy Holly’s brief life is immortalized in this both joyful and heart-rending stage show. It’s a celebration of the man, his music and life, that catches that unique mixture of innocence, determination, humor and charm that was Buddy Holly.

RUNNING TIME: 2 hours 15 mins (including 1 x 15 minute interval)
AGE RECOMMENDATION: BUDDY is suitable for all ages – from 8-80+!

SCENES

THE SONGS