Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story – Darlington Hippodrome

Writer: Alan Janes

Director: Matt Salisbury

The opening night of Buddy in Darlington, and indeed only its 5th performance of a touring production running until September, was on a very rainy Tuesday night. Quite frankly the cast had it all to do if they wanted to wake up this quiet, mostly silver-haired audience and turn them into a foot-tapping, hand-clapping Buddy Holly worthy audience.

Buddy is billed as The Buddy Holly Story. In actual fact, it is the story of just 18 or so months in his short life, as he moved from relative obscurity to a front man at the top of his game, before his untimely death aged just 22. Peppered with all of his hits (he was an absolutely prolific songwriter), the show charts this incredibly speedy rise to fame through a series of scenes partially narrated by radio DJ Hipockets Johnson, who spotted Holly at a gig and gave him his first break.

What this ex-West End show lacks in narrative (there’s a real feeling of “and then he did this, and then he did that” to the script, without any nuance or real detail) it makes up for in energy, performance and in the case of AJ Jenks who plays Buddy Holly, absolute charisma.

Members of this company need to be multi-talented, for almost all actors played at least one instrument, many played two or more, as well as singing, acting and a dash of dancing too. The cast worked incredibly hard and were rewarded by the energy slowly transferring through to the audience throughout the first half. There were a couple of technical issues, the sound of the music was a little quiet as a whole, and a couple of tangled guitar cables were also a problem – of course everything was wired in 1958, there were no wireless battery packs. In one scene the celeste that is supposed to be played by producer Norman Petty’s wife Vi when first recording Peggy Sue completely refused to work, power only returning to it as it was wheeled off stage at the end of the scene, but all of these minor problems were dealt with smoothly and professionally by the cast, who adlibbed their way through the celeste issue and found a workaround using the normal piano.

After the interval it felt like a different audience had arrived, though in truth it was probably because the second half has more pace, even more songs and ends with the 1959 Winter Dance Party concert that Buddy Holly played, which was to be the last time the world heard him as he was killed in a plane crash that evening in the midst of a terrible snowstorm.

Stand out performances came not only from AJ Jenks as Buddy, but also from Thomas Mitchells, who plays no fewer than six different roles as well as becoming a backing singer in the Buddy Holly Orchestra at the end. Each role was played skilfully, the different characters signified through a change of jacket and/or hat.

Laura-Dene Pennyman has worked previously at Butlins, and the redcoat energy was in full force whenever she came on stage as in least three different roles, she was full of life, very easy to watch and had a fantastic voice too.

One of the absolute highlights, however was the shenanigans that Joe Butcher got up to while playing the double bass – he flung the instrument around with ease, dancing with it and climbing all over it – a superb showman, who then transferred his skills to the base guitar in the second half.

By the end, the audience were clapping, whooping and cheering and with good reason – this is a solid production that should continue to impress audiences on the touring circuit.

Runs until 4th March 2023.