Hull New Theatre – until 14th February 2026
Reviewed by Dawn Bennett
5*****
What a fabulous night I had last watching Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story at Hull New Theatre from start to finish the cast were all fantastic. This is not a juke box musical when the songs are sometimes put in and don’t seem to add anything to the story, the songs in Buddy are the story. The story of how he went from playing country with his band, The Crickets, to being the star he became in a very short time and of course the tragedy of his very early death at the age of only 22 years old.
I didn’t realise how many of Buddy’s songs I knew, from Oh Boy, Peggy Sue, True Love Ways to Heartbeat and many more. As good as the songs are they really came alive when performed by this very talented cast, the majority of them playing instruments as well as singing and acting. AJ Jenks was outstanding as Buddy Holly, his singing and guitar playing was something else, he brought the songs alive along with the fabulous Crickets Stephen Alexander-Kerr on drums who played Jerry Allison, Joe Sterling, on guitar, who played Niki Sullivan and Melker Nilsson on bass who played Joe B Mauldin.
This show doesn’t go into depth about the life of Buddy Holly, we see him and the band start out small, get their break in New York, change their management, how Buddy meets his future wife Maria Elena (Marta Miranda). We see him at his final performance in Clear Lake Iowa with The Big Bopper (Joshua Barton) and Ritchie Valens (Miguel Angel). For fans of his music and good music in general I think you will love this show as much as I did.
A special mention must go to the BSL signer, Andy Higgins, how he managed to keep up with the songs and the script I don’t know but he was excellent!
This is must see production, if you don’t catch it in Hull try and get to see it elsewhere. You won’t be disappointed and the songs will be with you for a long time! A five-star production by a five-star cast.