"Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story"

Nottingham Theatre Royal.

This show starts off in January 1956 and takes you through to 3 February 1959, the date of his final concert at The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. It's also the date of the fateful plane crash that took the lives of three of music's biggest names of the time. Dubbed as "The day the music died" by Don McLean in his tribute song "American Pie". It follows Holly from his early start with The Crickets all the way through his short three year professional career, leaving out all of the messy legal wrangles and relationship issues. It's main objective is to show the talent and music of Buddy Holly and his Crickets, along with Richie Valens and The Big Bopper.

A.J. Jenks plays Holly perfectly, even down to the way that he uses the guitar as choreography. He may not sound exactly like Holly when singing, but who cares because the force and the energy behind the live performances is all that matters. Jenks, like many other actors on that stage play their instruments and this brings realism to the show and gives you a sense that you are watching Holly perform live. His performance of "Raining In My Heart" is just one of the highlights in this show. A superb performance from a wonderful actor, musician and singer.

Joe Butcher plays J B Mauldin, The Crickets' bass player. He uses his double bass as a partner on stage, dancing with it, throwing it in the air, cavorting with it, all the while slapping out that unmistakable rhythm. What a showman Mauldin must have been, and what a showman Joe Butcher is.

Jerry Allison, the Crickets' drummer, is played by Josh Haberfield, the man who provided Holly with the title of one of his biggest hits, "Peggy Sue". He also provided the clever rhythm section for the hit "Everyday" by slapping his knees; this I knew already but seeing Josh produce that on stage was such a joy to watch.

Miguel Angel plays Richie Valens in Act Two, and Tyrone Jones, the host of The Apollo, in the first part, and also choreographs the show. Just watching Miguel perform "La Bamba" as the seventeen year old Valens was a treat. It's one of those records that always gets people up on the dancefloor at a party and experiencing this live, with all that drive and energy gave me tingles. And when you think that if the toss of that coin had turned out different, he may still have been with us now, instead of being the reason why his seventeen years was so cruelly ended.

J.P. Richardson aka The Big Bopper is played by Christopher Chandler. Boy, did he get the crowd going as he bounced around the stage, larger than life and just as entertaining while singing "Chantilly Lace"

Stephanie Cremona plays Vi Petty, Norman Petty's wife. Now, not only is Stephanie a great piano player but she can blow a mean saxophone as well, as shown in the second act.

Samuelle Durojaiye plays Marlena Madison and Laura-Dene Perryman plays Chantel Williams, two of the regular singers at the black venue in Harlem when Buddy Holly and The Crickets make their debut there. Both ladies have incredible voices and an enormous amount of swag, taunting Holly and co before they go on, but then joining them onstage when they realised that they were going down a storm with the black crowd.

Ewan Ling plays Jack Daw, an Apollo entertainer as well as one of the back up singers at the Clear Lake Concert. I love acapella when it's done correctly, and the doo wop version of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" hit the spot perfectly for me. Jack Daw's Snowbirds were played by Laura-Dene Perryman, Stephanie Cremona, Samuelle Durojaiye and Daniella Agredo Piper.

Thomas Mitchells plays DJ Hipockets Duncan, the Decca records producer, Norman Petty, the DJ at the Apollo, Murray Deutch and the MC at Clearlake. With just a change of a jacket, cap or alternate hair style, Mitchells created each new character as well as different voices. From what I saw tonight, he is a very flexible and resilient actor.

Daniella Agredo Piper plays Maria Elena, Holly's wife, who fell for Holly straight away when working on the reception desk of the record company.

Directed by Matt Salisbury, this show is full of pace and only really slowed down when the announcement of Holly, Richardson and Valens' death came over the radio and Holly's solitary guitar was held in the spotlight. Straight after that sombre moment though it was back to the party finale with even more rockin' and a rollin' songs that gave the audience a chance to get up out of their seats.

Adrian Rees Set Design switched to various rooms and locations without you even noticing they were done so smoothly. The "live" performance sections made you feel that you were back in the 1950's with ruffled silk backdrops that seemed to come to light when the light played around on them. The whole stage seemed to come alive.

Musical Director is Dean Elliott, assisted by Ewan Ling. There were so many infectious songs written and performed by Holly in such a short period of time, practically about eighteen months, and that special Holly trademark sound has been replicated just right.

Darren Coopland's Lighting Design, as I've previously said, made the set jump about and come alive before your eyes like a colourful kaleidoscope. An integral part of creating that party atmosphere of a live rock n roll show. And if any part of the lighting had failed, they could always use Buddy's smile which lit up the whole theatre.

The Sound Design by Pete Cox is excellent throughout.

The soundtrack to the show is just bursting with classics like "Rave On", "Peggy Sue", "It Doesn't Matter Anymore", "Peggy Sue Got Married". "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", "True Love Ways", "Not Fade Away", "Everyday", "Oh Boy" as well as "La Bamba", "Chantilly Lace", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On".

They also performed the song "Shout", which slightly puzzled me as it was performed in the show in Harlem in 1956, but the Isley Brothers didn't write the song until 1959!

That nerdy fact though didn't spoil the show one iota for me as I love the music of this period and, as this was my first time seeing this show, I just revelled in the artistry of the music and the joy in the songs, as well as seeing them performed live before my very eyes.

If you like shows with party atmospheres then this one is for you, because the vibe is party all the way. It's upbeat and infectious, you'll know all the words of the songs and you will not be able to keep your feet still. It also gets you wondering, if things had been different, and they hadn't flown on that snowy blizzard of a night, what musical gems we would have had from Charles Hardin Holley and co.

"Buddy - The Buddy Holly Musical" will be raving on until Saturday 29 July.