Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story
| Buddy The Buddy Holly Story |
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Written by Alan Janes
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| Music | Buddy Holly and others |
| Lyrics | Buddy Holly and others |
| Productions | 1989-2008 West End 1990–1991 Broadway 1991–2016 UK Tours 1991–2016 US National Tours 1991–1994 Australia 1994–2001 Germany 2007-2008 West End Revival 2009–2010 Australia 2009–2010 Germany |
Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story a musical in two acts written by Alan Janes, and featuring the music of Buddy Holly, opened at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre on 12 October 1989. Considered to be the first of the so called ‘Jukebox Musicals’, Buddy ran in London’s West End for over 14 years, playing 5822 performances. Janes took over the producing of the show himself in 2004 and Buddy has been on tour in the UK for 17 of the last 24 years, and has played Broadway, 5 U.S. National Tours, Canada, Sweden, South Africa, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Holland, Singapore, Finland, Austria, Denmark and countless other productions around the world leading to the show being named as ‘The World’s Most Successful Rock ‘n’ Roll Musical’. Janes was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Musical, and internationally Buddy has received 29 nominations and awards.
A late-night fan based conversation in a bar of the Montcalm Hotel in London’s West End in 1988, between the theatrical agent Laurie Mansfield, film producer Greg Smith and writer/producer Janes, about the legendary rock ‘n’ roller Buddy Holly, led Janes to develop and write Buddy. A year later, supported by Paul McCartney, who owned the copyright to Buddy Holly’s music, the show had a try out at the Plymouth Theatre Royal before its transfer to London’s Victoria Palace.
Janes worked with originating director, Rob Bettinson, and originating musical director, Paul Jury, to present the show for a 3 week pre-London engagement in August 1989 at Plymouth’s Theatre Royal with Paul Hipp as Buddy Holly. The first shows were beset by technical problems as 26 actor/musicians played and acted their way through two and a half hours of drama and hi-octane rock ‘n’ roll concert. But regardless of the set crashes and technical mishaps, the audience would not let the cast leave the stage, demanding encore after encore until the cast had run out of songs to play.
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