Review: 'Buddy' Ends WWT 2008 Season With A Good Time
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If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's got to be a duck, right?
On opening night Wednesday of "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story" at the Wagon Wheel Theatre, Anthony Rand looked like Holly, sounded like Holly, played like Holly - He was Holly!
Having interviewed him Monday afternoon, I wasn't too sure he could pull it off. But being the professional actor he is, and having played the role multiple times, he proved me wrong (it happens) and was better than Gary Busey in the 1978 movie about Holly (which is not the "Buddy" musical).
Rand is a stellar performer in "Buddy," and gives a performance not to be missed. Even Holly himself would have to be impressed with Rand's portrayal of him.
If you close your eyes while Rand is playing Holly, or while performing one of Holly's classic rock songs, you can believe that it is actually Holly up on stage. Even if you don't close your eyes, though, Rand looks as close to a Holly clone as one could hope to find.
What I liked most about this show is how it, along with Rand's performance, shows that sometimes rebellion, going against the grain, leads to greater things. The recording industry tried to push The Crickets into becoming a country trio. Holly didn't want any of that, he wanted to play rock 'n' roll. He'd push his music, his way, out there to be heard.
Rand captures Buddy Holly's rebellious streak the way it was, the way it should be.
But even though the show is called "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story," a life story is never about one person. It's also about the people who share that person's life. And Holly shared his short 22-year life with his two friends, Joe Mauldin (Dennis Michael Keefe) and Jerry Allison (Steven Lasiter).
And though Holly provides the audience with moments of laughter, it's Lasiter's Allison that had me busting the biggest gut.
In one scene, when Buddy Holly and the Crickets are first recording "Cindy Lou," Allison wants Holly to change the song name to "Peggy Sue." Why? If Holly does, Allison can spend some nighttime quality time with the girl from the gas station named - what else? - Peggy Sue. Lasiter may be older in real life than a hormonally charged teenager, but he plays Allison so well, you'd think he was under 20.Later, Allison tries to pick up a receptionist named Shirley the same way Holly picked up his future wife Maria Elena (Mary Joe Duggan). It doesn't work, and Allison ends up with his fingers slammed by the telephone. It's funnier when you see it live than when I describe it here.
And along with his flawless performance as Allison, Lasiter can really bang the drums.
Mauldin doesn't have a lot of lines in the show, but Keefe displays his strong bass-playing abilities. Together with Lasiter and Rand, the three could tour around the country, maybe the world, and perform as a Buddy Holly and the Crickets tribute band and do well. They make a great trio.
Of course, The Crickets wasn't always Holly, Allison and Mauldin. At one point, Niki Sullivan (Adrian Aguilar) played guitar with the group. Though Sullivan is almost lineless in "Buddy," Aguilar contributes significantly when he's playing the guitar or the trumpet with The Crickets. You know Aguilar can sing, dance and act - now you know he also can play instruments. The boy is just all-around talented.
One of my favorite scenes in the show is when The Crickets play at the Apollo. It's a historically all-black theater in Harlem. The Crickets were booked to play there because they sound like a black group. But when they show up, the Apollo singer (Chelsea Waller) and performer (Charles Glenn) can't believe what they see. They let them go on, however, thinking they won't survive, but the Crickets impress the audience.
Waller and Glenn are very good in the Apollo scene. I immediately started thinking of shows the Wagon Wheel could do in the future to showcase their talents. "Dreamgirls"? "A Raisin in the Sun"? Or, heck, just put them in leads in any of the six shows during the 2009 summer as race doesn't matter. Good acting is good acting, and Waller and Glenn are talented.
In "Buddy," Holly doesn't care about who he makes music with or for - he just wants to play music. He had no problem playing at the Apollo. And he doesn't care that the girl he fell in love with, Maria Elena, is Puerto Rican. Holly's mother does, Norman and Vi Petty (Mike Yocum and Jennifer Dow) might, but Holly doesn't.
As Maria Elena, Duggan is sublime. Her love for Holly shows, but she's not afraid to speak her mind when she's confronted with anti-Hispanic jokes or comments. She stands firm. Duggan delivers her lines as if she's saying them from the heart, not the script.
The other Latino role in "Buddy" is Jose Sepulveda as Ritchie Valens. Now while I always think of Lou Diamond Phillips as Valens, Sepulveda does the role justice. He has more energy than the energizer bunny on caffeine pills.
The third big-name musician of the 1950s era in "Buddy" is the Big Bopper, played well by Ross Hannon. He has the booming voice, the look and swagger that one could attribute to the Bopper.
There is audience participation in this show. I enjoyed watching Dow or Mark Ayesh pull someone from their seat and dance with them. The actors got into the aisles for some of the songs to sing and dance to, and encouraged the crowd to clap. Obviously, some of the audience members were a little more footloose and fancy free, but all seemed to be having a great time. Even the three ladies to my right were standing, clapping their hands or just enjoying themselves.
Everyone who goes and sees this show probably will leave with a favorite number. Mine is "Peggy Sue." I had the song stuck in my head Monday before I interviewed Rand, Keefe and Lasiter, and it was still stuck there long after I left the theater Wednesday night because the show made it more memorable.
It's great when something can come to an end on a high note, regardless of the highs and lows that may have preceded it. And with "Buddy," the WWT ends its 2008 summer season on a high note. All the actors in this production, from Ayesh as Hipockets to Rand as Holly, prove that while you may not like every show at the Wagon Wheel, there is at least one show a season that everyone can enjoy. And "Buddy" is that one show this season.
My rating of the show (out of four): 4.
To order tickets or for more information, call the WWT box office at 574-267-8041, or toll free at 866-823-2618, or visit online at www.wagonwheeltheatre.com
Single adult tickets are $30 for all shows. Tickets for students 13 through college are $16, and children 12 and under are $12. Special rates are available for groups of 15 or more.
