- Title: UK: 'BUDDY' THE MUSICAL CELEBRATES ITS 11TH YEAR RUN IN LONDON
- Date: 22nd October 1999
- Summary: "BUDDY" PERFORMANCE
- Embargoed: 6th November 1999 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVAA9PF893AJ7K2GF52155HSGFJ9
- Story Text: "Buddy", the rock 'n' roll musical about Buddy Holly's career celebrates the start of its 11th year in London next week.Reuters met the stars of the show at London's Strand theatre for the presentation of a telephone from Clearlake (Iowa, USA) Surf Ballroom, used by Buddy Holly before his fatal crash on February 2, 1959.
"Buddy" the musical opened at the Victoria Palace in London on October 12, 1989 and transferred to the Strand Theatre on October 7, 1995.
It is the brainchild of writer Alan Janes and was initially directed by Rob Bettinson.Since the early days, musical director Paul Jury has been with the production and has seen it gross staggering sums of money.
In London, the show has taken 46 million (pounds sterling), in Europe, one hundred million (pounds sterling) and in the United States and the rest of the world, one hundred million (pounds sterling).
Director Jury says the secret behind the success of the musical is the music and a great story line.
'It's the music primarily, it's the rock and roll.Rock 'n' roll is great, everybody loves it across the age barriers, across any cultural divide so people come in for the rock 'n' roll.Once they get here then they get into the story which is a great rags to riches story of this guy.' The show which enters its eleven years of production next week has naturally seen casts come and go but the present star of "Buddy", Lancashire-born Gus MacGregor has been a part of the show for the last four years (on and off).He says despite the tiring schedule - eight performances per week - the vibe of the musical is what drives him to keep going.
'It's a three hour show and I'm on stage virtually all the time and when I'm not, I'm doing a costume change and having a drink of tea at the interval and the rest of the time I'm pretty much out there doing it and I love that about it and that's one of the things that I love.I like to keep fit anyway, like I say I'm doing the London marathon next year as Buddy Holly for 'Scope' and you know so I go running and stuff like that to keep myself fit and I have to really but people who have seen the show say 'where do you get your energy from?'.I think there's something about this music and something about rock 'n' roll and the audience response we get that drives you through even if you come in one day with a headache and maybe you had too late a night or something like that and you come in and you get in under the lights and you start playing that music and it just drives you forward," he says.
The musical is the story of a small town boy made good.
Using the medium of American local radio stations with the 50's era evoked by advertising boards as the scenery's backdrop, the show depicts the tragically short musical career of one of the greatest names in rock 'n' roll, Buddy Holly.
It features some of his best known songs including "Peggy Sue", "Words of Love", "Oh Boy" and "Raining In My Heart", but it also gets a powerful backing from a cast of musicians (who all play instruments on stage) including John Simon Rawlings as The Big Bopper and Miles Guerrini as Ritchie Valens who nearly steals the show with La Bamba.
They agree that the show is fantastic fun to be a part of: "The whole cast feels that and it is the sort of show and there are not that many live theatre shows about where you do get that kind of feedback from the audience, which we feel.We physically have a response to it.RAWLINGS SAYING: 'Yes it's definitely a natural rush you get as a performer out there that you get from this lot all up and dancing and screaming for more.There's nothing like it - it's great fun isn't it...intoxication...we love it," says Guerrini.
While playing the part of Buddy when on tour in Canada, MacGregor actually met Buddy Holly's widow Maria Elena, it was an experience he says: "I got to meet Maria Elena Holly who is Buddy Holly's widow and she's still alive and I guess in her early sixties or something like that.I did the show in Canada for a while and I met her over there.She came to see the show, loved the show and thought I was very like Buddy, told me so and I said look do you want to come out for a drink with us, we're going out for a drink and she said yeh I'd love to so we go to this bar and she's like straight in there 'I'll have a scotch on the rocks' and she's a really kind of rum lass I would say from Lancashire.But she was great, a lot of fun and very sort of bubbly and funny and very willing to talk about Buddy she said that I reminded her of him a lot which I was very flattered by.She said that my passion for the music and I guess I was quite gentle with her and kind to her and she said 'oh you remind me of Buddy' a little bit weird actually if you know what I mean".
As part of the celebration of a decade in business, the theatre has been presented with the original telephone used by Buddy Holly to make his last phone call before the fatefull plane crash in 1959.The phone is from Clearlake Surf Ballroom, Iowa.
The show has already been taken to Japan and Germany and some parts of the States and it is due to reopen in Boston on December 6, 1999. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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