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 Charles Hardin Holley lost his life in a plane crash on Jan. 23, 1959, along with Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson. Just as the career of the legendary rock n' roll pioneer Buddy Holly ended in a plane crash during a Minnesota snow storm – “the day the music died” – the redux of “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” emerged from one on Jan. 31, 2010 at Wayside Theatre.
The show had been scheduled to start on Saturday, Jan. 30, but got snowed out. So the first show went on without a chance to tweak the production in front of a live audience before Opening Night.
Wayside Theater announced on Feb. 15 that the show schedule has been extended through March 20. A number of performances had been canceled in February due to the snowy weather.
Shenandoah Valley actor and musician Robbie Limon has returned to recreate a performance that has been one of the most popular plays in the theater's 48-season history. Along with Limon, the cast includes a group of talented actor-musicians who bring high energy to the music and the audience to their feet.
The story follows Buddy Holly and The Crickets as they rise from obscurity to international fame, beginning at a small Lubbock, Texas radio station, and then on to New York, where Holly meets and quickly marries Maria Elena Santiago. Buddy Holly ultimately leaves The Crickets for a solo career. Then comes the fateful decision to go on the road for a Winter tour in Minnesota, along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. And despite Elena's terrifying premonitions, Holly charters an airplane, takes off with Valens and Richardson and all three are killed when the plane goes down on the way to Moorhead, Minnesota.
Wayside Theatre Artistic Director Warner Crocker says that this show is definitely no carbon-copy of the first one. “Whenever you go back and revisit a piece that you've done,” says Crocker, “it gives the director, the music director and the actors a chance to take it deeper, take it further.”
Limon is joined on stage by Thomasin Savaiano, Richard Follett as the Big Bopper, Wayside Music Director Steve Przybylski, Clay Arthur, Vaughn Irving as Ritchie Valens, David Maga, Bob Payne, Aviva Pressman and Jayson Belew.
Warner says that, along with this year's performance season and educational programs for young actors, a series of community meetings is also planned. The goal is to increase awareness about what the theater has to offer and what it gives to the community. He noted that Wayside Theatre is unique in Virginia in not receiving support from surrounding municipalities. Crocker says he hopes that meetings among community members, political leaders and the business community will provide new ways to sustain the oldest professional theater in the Shenandoah Valley. “We've got to make that case,” he said. “We think we make it every night when we do a show here. But we've got extend that conversation beyond the stage.”
Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story performances will continue through March 13. Ticket discounts are available for students and seniors. For ticket information, call the Box Office at (540) 869-1776 or visit www.waysidetheatre.org. Wayside Theatre is located in Middletown, Va. on Route 11, Main Street, just north of the intersection of I-66 and I-81.
Photos by Westervelt, courtesy Wayside Theatre. Story copyright ©2010 by Shenandoah Valley.com. |
