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‘The Buddy Holly Story’ comes to Packard hall
If you go
What: “Buddy — The Buddy Holly Story”
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday at Packard Music Hall, Warren
Tickets: 800-745-3000 or ticketmaster.com
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
Buddy Holly’s period of fame — from his first hit to his death — was a scant 18 months.
But his influence on rock ’n’ roll? That will just not fade away.
The same can be said for the Broadway musical “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story.” It started more than 25 years ago on the West End, came to Broadway, and has been a touring fixture ever since.
The musical, in fact, has been around longer than Holly himself; he was just 22 when he died in a plane crash in 1959.
The current iteration of the tour comes to Packard Music Hall in Warren on Wednesday.
Steve Steiner is the director, co-producer, general manager and company manager of the traveling production. He also has a small role in it as Texas DJ Hi Pockets Duncan.
Steiner was with the show when it opened on Broadway in 1990, playing the role of Jack Daw. Since then he has directed it numerous times.
The musical — like its subject — started something that just won’t quit. It also created a new type of theater production.
“‘Buddy’,” said Steiner, “is the blueprint for the jukebox musical.” It’s a format that has spawned the likes of “Jersey Boys.” The show depicts the rise of the musical star from obscurity to fame while including a large number of songs performed live by the actors.
Steiner knows “Buddy” inside and out, and has an obvious affection for the show.
It starts in 1956, when Holly was doing local gigs in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas.
“The accepted and preferred style of music then was country-Western, and [Holly] really wanted to play rock,” said Steiner. “He was reviled for it. When he went to Decca [record label], they told him no, you have to sing country, but he bristled against it.”
Holly’s first hit was “That’ll Be the Day,” which was released in April 1958.
“His career was only 18 months from that day, but the amount of creative output he did in that time was large,” said Steiner. “At that time, the record industry wanted its popular artists to have four hits a year, enough to keep them in the market but not saturate it. But Holly doubled that output. Half of his records said Buddy Holly on the label, and the other half said The Crickets, but it was all him and his band.”
The musical coming to Warren includes more than 20 songs, all of them by Holly except two: “Chantilly Lace” by the Big Bopper and “La Bamba” by Richie Valens.
The three stars were touring together when they were killed in a plane crash Feb. 3, 1959 — Don McLean called it “the day the music died” in his hit “American Pie” — after a concert in Clear Lake, Iowa.
Steiner said the audience will recognize most of the songs, even ones — such as “Not Fade Away” — that Holly wrote and recorded first but were made famous by other artists.
Despite the tragedy, “Buddy” does not end on a somber note.
“The crash is acknowledged at the end as a reading of the news, and you can hear him singing,” said Steiner. “Then there are some encore songs that honor rock ’n’ roll and Buddy.”
Steiner remembers the crash. “I was 8 years old but when I heard the news on the radio, I was hit hard by it,” he said. “It’s how I started my love for music and performing arts.”
One defining aspect of the show is that all of the actors also are the musicians who perform the songs. There is no band or orchestra off-stage.
That makes finding qualified cast members a challenge. “It shrinks the talent pool,” said Steiner.
Todd Meredith plays the title role.
The musical boasts a multilevel set and an eye for authenticity in both costuming and objects. “A lot of the images are evocative of that era,” said Steiner. “It stylistically looks like it comes out of an ad from the 1950s.”