It Rained In Nobody's Heart: This Night!

Buddy,

Theatre Severn,

Tuesday 23rd May-Saturday 27th May

(Matinees most days)

When one finds it hard to leave the theatre one knows one has just seen a spectacle that will indelibly print itself on the heart and on the soul. This show is sensational. That is a superlative reserved for the top drawer. One doesn’t believe there is a chest of drawers tall enough to get all the superlatives needed, just needless to say it is astonishing.

Tracing the short 18 months. Yes, it was only 18 months that Buddy Holly’s incredible career lasted before the fatal plane accident of February 3rd, 1959, when Buddy’s plane crashed in a blizzard killing himself, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens. One tends to forget these were just kids. Valens was only 17 and was killed almost immediately after La Bamba sailed high in the Hit Parade.

As the audience we were taken on a Brechtian journey of Buddy’s career starting on the Country and Western Stations in Lubbock Texas all the way to the last gig on at the Surf Club in Clearlake, Colorado. On the way we were enrolled into the “all black,” audience of the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York and again we became the audience at Clearlake.

The set was interesting reminiscent of a recording studio initially and with the application of Chiffon legs or curtains, we were taken to the glitzy, showbiz world of the 1950’s. Furniture was minimal, and all moved spookily by the gang of shifters who were there and then they weren’t, Rapido. This reviewer for one, never saw them. So, the set is portable and functional. The lighting plan is of course complex, as one might expect, and the sound cues must be in the millions. That brings the sound under scrutiny.

In theatre it is argued that if you are to have a gremlin it must be on the first night. Initially one was aware there was a fault with Buddy’s head mic and speech was staccato or was lost. Expertly ironed out by a dedicated crew there was nothing else of the technical side that needs more comment other than it was slick, professional, and turned this utterly tremendous spectacle into something unforgettable.

There is a wonderful coming together of the cast in this show.  There is trust and respect on the stage and amongst so many talented people one would imagine another pantechnicon on the road to carry the egos. But that’s dressing room politics; on stage is different. They are together to do a job and what a job. If you have watched a Rolls Engine under the bonnet it is so smooth in it’s running, one almost feels like whispering in respect of the geniuses that built it. Watching the show instils that kind of reverence as one is surely watching the Rolls Royce of stage shows and the Director is a brilliant mechanic. This show is flawless. It doesn’t often get said in this column so today, it’s a first: This perfect performance is utterly flawless.

Imagine a world still licking its wounds from the hell that was the Second World War and suddenly like a light in the darkness the primeval drums start to beat the rhythm to the introduction of Peggy Sue, in the blink of an eye the world was reborn into a place worth sticking around for. Buddy Holly was 22 when he died. He wrote more classics than many other known songwriters and he and his vision changed society’s history and taught a world to breathe and how to Rave On.

This is a Five Star Review

Sofia Lewis