"Buddy" - The Buddy Holly Story

[RayL]

My wife and I saw "Buddy" in about 1989 or 1990 at the Victoria Palace when it first came to London. In the role of Buddy was a guy called Billy Geraghty and one of his great pieces of stage business was to throw his Fender Stratocaster high in the air, spinning, and with the chrome sparkling as it caught the lights, and then catch it as it came down. Is that still done with recent casts?

The programme makes it a bit difficult to judge the size of the cast because many of the parts were doubled, but I'd say around 30. Bruce Welch is listed on the title page as 'Music Consultant'.

There is a 'SPECIAL NOTICE' in the programme which reads:-
"Patrons seated in the Circle and Balcony are requested
1. not to dance in the seatways and gangways and
2. to refrain from heavy foot stomping" !

Ray

[JimN]

My wife and I saw "Buddy" in about 1989 or 1990 at the Victoria Palace when it first came to London. In the role of Buddy was a guy called Billy Geraghty and one of his great pieces of stage business was to throw his Fender Stratocaster high in the air, spinning, and with the chrome sparkling as it caught the lights, and then catch it as it came down. Is that still done with recent casts?
Ray

I saw the show with my wife and son James at the Aldwych Theatre in about 1990 (I managed to get some comp tickets - the generous cast member knows who they are) and there was some talk about letting James do his secondary school work experience helping on the mixer desk.

The thing is, I don't recall the Strat-tossing stunt. Perhaps it had stopped by then?

JN

[Mike Honey]

Yes I also saw billy Geraghty as Buddy; i think Alfred Marks son was the Big Bopper. A great show and set the pattern for many following shows where the subjects songs were used rather than newly written songs!!

mike

[Iain Purdon]

I don't recall the Strat-tossing stunt. Perhaps it had stopped by then?

Do you think Pete Townshend might have complained that they were pinching his act?