Let me start off running. All the actors on stage played their own instruments,
and they were really good musicians and actors, which gave great credibility
and realism to the performances. Not only was the Buddy Holly band, The Crickets
superb, with special mention of bassist Tony Gloria, and Apollo Sax Player Billy
Ray Sheppard, but also the back up singers looked good, performed well and were
well-choreographed in their dance moves. Stewart Mann who played Buddy Holly was
perfectly Holly - where do these incredible talents come from? Thad Payne did a
good Big Bopper and Ernest Sauceda did a fine Richie Valens. Other actors were
supportive and did their parts well. Sounds like a good show -does it not? And
it is!
Now to the nitty gritty. The set design had good points and some
clever elements - such as the giant size juke box selection lists, but felt a
little incomplete. A lot of musical equipment needed to be moved quickly around
the stage, and it was handled very well during well-planned transitions. The
costumes were good and well-conceived. The sound was excellent - amazing,
because of the many performers being accompanied by the live rock music. That
really made me happy. I don't like going to a performance and listening to
garbled or overly-loud sound. The three projection screens were helpful in
guiding the audience to the historical events happening on stage. In some places
the video was very creative and professionally-done, made to look vintage. In
one place they overused a snowfall graphic video, but that was the only let
down. The lighting did not have much finesse, with people on the edges of the
stage sometimes standing in the dark.
During the First Act, you discover
the early years of Buddy Holly and what made Buddy who he was. In with all the
great live music performances of Holly's early songs was one weak sequence of
recorded Holly songs, where the stage went dark as the performers turned their
back to the audience. All in my party felt that it was a low energy spot in the
show. Someone actually felt that it was a lighting glitch at first. We felt that
the performers should have performed those songs. I don't know why they didn't.
Was it the writing of the show or a local directorial decision?
Act Two
was a home run - it was longer than Act One and great fun from start to finish
with wonderful performances by the 16 musicians and singers on stage. You have
to experience Act Two - it contains the last live performance of Buddy Holly,
The Big Bopper and Richie Valens - and you feel like you are really there - the
excitement just ripples through the audience. I want to go back and see the show
at least one more time for the euphoria of reliving that rock
concert.
Buddy Holly did not have the sloppy
looseness and obvious karaoke tracks of some recent musical shows in town, and
for that I am truly grateful. Local theater production companies don't have the
gigantic budgets of Broadway road shows at the Majestic, and that has to be
understood by the local audiences. But a small budget does not have to translate
into a cheap-looking, poor sounding, sloppy show. If Jonathan Pennington keeps
doing exciting productions like Buddy, and even tweeks some weak spots in his
shows before they open, then Pennington Productions at their new home in the
Cameo Theatre could be one of the premier places to have fun in San Antonio
theater. Go see Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. www.cameocenter.com