Theater Review—

Cabaret’s Enjoyable ‘Buddy’ Recalls A Time Of  Reconciliation And The Wonder Of Music

By Julie Stern

BRIDGEPORT — February 2, 1959 was “the day the music died,” a line immortalized in the song “American Pie,” which is so intertwined with memories of the Vietnam War. But that day had nothing to do with the war; rather, it was the day Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper were killed when their small plane went down in an Iowa snowstorm shortly after their triumphant joint concert at the Surf City Ballroom in Clearlake.

Written by Alan James, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story is a musical biography of the good ol’ boy from Lubbock Texas, who sought to ram the sound and beat of what was then disparagingly thought of as  “colored music” down the airwaves of country-western territory. After some initial rejections in Texas and Nashville, Buddy and his trio, The Crickets, find their way to the Clovis, N.M., studio of Norman Petty, who not only likes their songs but also agrees to manage them and get their music heard throughout the country

Within months they are topping the charts, and the first act of Buddy, which is being produced at Downtown Cabaret Theatre until August 10, culminates in a concert at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre.

The second act follows Buddy’s meteoric rise to becoming the highest paid recording artist of his day, his marriage to Maria Elena Santiago, his break with The Crickets and ends with a re-creation of that final tragic Clearlake concert.

That’s the plot, held together by some two dozen musical numbers, in the fashion that Downtown Cabaret Theatre is usually so adept at delivering.

At the outset it looked like this was going to be one of DCT’s lesser moments: the format, which keeps switching back to the Lubbock radio station of Hipockets Duncan, seems awkward and episodic, the send-up of country music (designed to pave the way for the badly needed “new” sound) is exaggeratedly corny, and the music itself unnecessarily loud.

But then magically, the crudeness falls away and it becomes impossible not to get caught up in the vitality and excitement of the Buddy Holly phenomenon.

There are three reasons that make this show definitely worth seeing:

First is the fact that Erik Hayden, who plays Buddy, is brimming with talent. As the singer-songwriter whose initial awkwardness is supplanted by polish as his career takes off, Mr Hayden radiates energy and excitement that spreads across the stage and into the audience. You can’t take your eyes off him, and you can’t help moving to his beat.

Second is the music itself. Rock and Roll, so fervently desired by the generation of Baby Boomers who sent records like “That’ll Be the Day,” “Peggy Sue” and “Oh Boy” to the top of the charts, was a force that shattered the complacency of the Eisenhower era and paved the way for the moral and cultural revolutions of the Sixties. Musical Director Michael Croiter has captured this power not only through Buddy and the three Crickets but also with the larger back-up orchestra at the two scene-closing concerts.

Finally there is the underlying subtext of how the chasm between the races was bridged, at least partially, by the white musicians’ discovery of and incorporation of a sound and style that had previously been associated only with performers like Little Richard and Fats Domino, and groups like the Platters, the Comets and the Drifters.

The innocence that could appreciate such a reconciliation is what makes both the movie and the Broadway version of John Waters’ Hairspray such a nostalgic look back at the Fifties, when integration was a dream and an ideal for so many young people, and the insistent beat of the music could fill a hall with excitement.

Buddy’s life was cut down just as his career was really taking off, which is, of course, a shame. But as with the staged story of Patsy Cline, the DCT production is able to convey what was there in all its short glory. By the end of the show we attended, everyone in the audience was tapping and clapping and doing wonderful movements and wishing it could have gone on for years.

(Performances are Friday at 8, Saturday at 5:30 and 8:30, and Sunday at 5:30. Tickets are $32 to $42, with early show discounts available for seniors; group discounts are also available. Contact Downtown Cabaret, which is at 263 Golden Hill Street in Bridgeport, at 203-576-1636.)