Marriott's joyful 'Buddy -- The Buddy Holly Story' a fitting salute to a rock 'n' roll pioneer
Exiting Marriott Theatre following the opening of "Buddy -- The Buddy Holly Story," I overheard an audience member reflecting on the rock 'n' roll titan's brief but impactful career.
"Imagine if he had lived, the songs he would have wrote," said the man of Holly, who was 22 when he died in the Feb. 3, 1959, plane crash that also killed Ritchie Valens, J.P. Richardson "The Big Bopper" and pilot Roger Peterson, an event Don McLean memorialized in his 1971 hit "American Pie."
That wistfulness is ever present in director/choreographer Amber Mak's joyful, affectionate revival of Alan James' jukebox 1989 musical that traces Holly's career from his signing with Decca Records to his death about three years later following a concert at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.
The show uses common bio-tuner tropes: young musician determined to play his music his way; clashes with record label executives; breaks down barriers to win over skeptics; falls out with bandmates.
And that's just the first 60 minutes or so. The second half of the intermissionless show unfolds as a re-creation of the final Winter Dance Party concert featuring Holly and fellow headliners Valens and Richardson.
Heading up Mak's winning ensemble of seasoned actor/singer/instrumentalists (make that multi-instrumentalists) is Kieran McCabe, who pairs considerable guitar skills with aw-shucks charm and quiet resolve as the beloved, bespectacled Holly.
Jed Feder plays drummer Jerry Allison and Shaun Whitley plays bassist Joe Maudlin, who make up The Crickets together with actor/guitarist Michael Kurowski, who plays the unnamed 4th member of Holly's band.
The supporting cast includes Chicago veterans Melanie Brezill (a vocal powerhouse), Alex Goodrich, Cory Goodrich and Molly Hernandez, who plays Holly's wife, Maria Elena (and a mean trumpet).
Jordan Arredondo is teenage Ritchie Valens, who wins a seat on the ill-fated plane thanks to a coin flip, and David Stobbe plays The Big Bopper and doubles as DJ Hipockets Duncan who narrates the story of Holly's short life and unexpected death.
Christopher Wren, a veteran of six "Buddy Holly Story" productions, Ellie Kahn and Marcus Terell round out the cast.
From 13 singer/instrumentalists, music director Matt Deitchman has shaped a tight, well-oiled ensemble, a crucial element for a show powered by three-minute deliciously twangy bursts of old-fashioned rock 'n' roll.
Kudos to Deitchman and to Mak who make sure every one of them gets a moment or two in the spotlight. Sometimes a moment is all an artist gets. But sometimes, as with Holly, it's enough to change the world.
