Buddy kicks things off right

So this is it, the start of the 2008-2009 Buffalo theater season.  It’s a big year, full of surprises, new faces, lots of changes and some missed friends.  The theater scene has changed since curtains last fell in the spring.  Our city’s cherished Studio Arena Theatre closed its doors after years full of spending, saving and funding crises put it out of business.  It wasn’t pretty, it still isn’t totally resolved (although, currently there is no such thing as Studio Arena Theatre, so who’s to say what will come of it in the future?) but we can be sure that while our own regional theater has shone its last light, so too are we enthusiastic and excited for what comes next throughout the rest of the theater season.

So here we are, in almost full force, with Curtain Up! ready to kick things off a week from tonight and many openings taking place throughout this weekend and next week.  I saw my first opening this week, in MusicalFare’s “Buddy Holly.” This is standard fare for Buffalo’s only full-time producing musical theater.  This being a jukebox musical—a musical play in which the music, and more often than not the plot and characters, are derived from a catalog of pre-existing popular music; the best examples of which being Mamma Mia! (ABBA), Jersey Boys (Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons), and We Will Rock You (Queen), and many more—I expected the same sort of contrived, silly banter masquerading as dialogue, stupid song setups along the lines of a Jay Leno-introduced musical performance, and no coherent plot strung from 30 or so popular songs from 30 years ago.

This is some of that and a little bit of other, more capable material elements thrown in for good measure.  “Buddy” works because it relies on the instrumental performance of its three-man band, Buddy Holly and The Crickets.  Here, three actors with ample singing and acting prowess (for the most part) take up the added task of playing musical instruments live while acting out their performances.  It’s not the sing-act-dance triple threat we’ve come to hunt down on the theater stage, it’s what I’d call “quadruple thunder.” And it’s marvelous.

Joe Wiens, a Niagara University graduate and musician, in addition to his acting credits, is also a musician and performer.  It shows, as he is purely magical in this role.  He is more than adequate on guitar, convincing in his portrayal of a cherished American legend with a point to prove, and easily the most coherent, polished and conclusive actor to play this type of four-in-one musical theater role on this or any other local stage in some time.  When he fronts his Crickets in a demo recording session, he exudes the confidence of an angst-driven young man, one with rock and roll pacing through his veins, and he translates that to the strings he strums, the lyrics he writes and performs for his girlfriend (in one second-act guitar ballad solo, which was sweet as rainbows and ice cream), and everything else he touches.  Wiens gives a knockout performance, one that I could easily see on screen in this role, or at least on a larger and more substantial stage.

The rest of the cast is wonderful as well, giving a refreshing and needed new take on what young local talent looks like.  MusicalFare tends to stick to its cadre of theatrical people, and however talented and wonderful they may be in their assigned roles, it can easily get tiring see some of the same faces over and over.  This cast has some that have performed at MusicalFare before, though not in roles as juicy and meaty as they are here.  Take Philip Farugia as The Big Bopper (and others)—he’s been great in almost everything I’ve seen him in but this was his breakthrough performance at MusicalFare, at least.  And Adrienne Lewis, also from Niagara University, was a smack across our faces in her portrayal of the pill-popping, martini-swigging Joanne in NU’s Company last fall.  She is equally thrilling here, as an Apollo Theatre hostess and all-around attitude queen.  Wonderful roles, great performances, and thrilling (relatively) new faces.

This is a lovely new take on an old model—give audiences what they want, with songs they know and characters they remember from their youth.  Just as Holly protested to his promoters and producers time and time again, something new isn’t going to kill what’s old.  It’s only going to give it a new spin, something for the people to talk about.  That’s rock and roll, in all its bloody glory.

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story plays through October 12 at MusicalFare Theatre, located on the Daemen College campus in Amherst.

Photo of Buddy Holly-like glasses courtesy this guy.

Posted by on 09/12 at 10:17 AM