Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story returns to Nottingham Theatre Royal

Smash-hit musical Buddy is back at the Theatre Royal Nottingham with the story of the tragic rock and roll star killed at a tragically young age.

Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story has now been touring for more than 30 years and is still as popular as ever.

It is at the Theatre Royal from Tuesday to Saturday (July 25-29).

Buddy tells the enduring story of the musical icon’s meteoric rise from his Southern rockabilly beginnings to international stardom and his legendary final performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, before his tragic and untimely death at the age of just 22.

In 18 short months the bespectacled boy from Lubbock, Texas, revolutionised the face of contemporary music, and would influence everyone from The Beatles to Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones.

It also includes the Big Bopper’s Chantilly Lace and Ritchie Valens’ La Bamba, and rip-roaring versions of Shout and Johnny B. Goode.

Leading the company will be AJ Jenks and Christopher Weeks, alternating the titular role, alongside Joe Butcher as Joe B Mauldin, Josh Haberfield as Jerry Allison, and Miguel Angel as Ritchie Valens/Tyrone Jones. Completing the cast are Daniella Agredo Piper, Christopher Chandler, Stephanie Cremona, Samuelle Durojaiye, Jacob Leeson, Ewan Ling, Thomas Mitchells and Laura-Dene Perryman.

Writer/producer Alan Janes says: “We are so excited to be back on tour and to see our audiences – aged 8 to 80 – dance in the aisles every night to our story of a young man whose musical career spanned an all-too-brief period, but whose music will be remembered forever.”

Buddy has played a record-breaking 4,668 performances over 580 weeks on tour in the UK and Ireland, as well as 5,822 performances over 728 weeks in London’s West End.