Buddy - The Buddy   Holly Story

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment present the fourth production and the "rocking-est" show of La Mirada Theatre's 2009-2010 season, Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story, written by Alan Janes & Rob Bettinson with choreography by Dana Solimando, musical direction by Darryl Archibald and directed by Glenn Casale.  Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story will begin performances on Friday, April 16 and will run through Sunday, May 2 at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Boulevard in La Mirada.

Starting out as a Country & Western singer in Lubbock, Texas, Buddy and his two friends, Joe and Jerry, form 'The Crickets' and with the support of a local radio DJ, 'Hipockets' Duncan, they begin to carve out a career in music.

After an inauspicious start at Decca Records in Nashville, Buddy and the Crickets sign a contract with up-and-coming innovative record producer, Norman Petty. Within hours of meeting they start to record Buddy's biggest hit "That'll Be The Day" which will rocket up the charts to number one in a matter of weeks. Buddy Holly & the Crickets suddenly become the hottest act in the country.

Now successful, the Crickets travel to New York, where Buddy meets and proposes to Maria Elena Santiago, the Puerto Rican receptionist of his music publisher, after a courtship which takes all of five hours! Newly married and ambitious, Buddy completely shifts his focus to New York and an inevitable rift develops between him and the Crickets. After a declaration of home truths during a recording session in Clovis, the band split and Buddy unexpectedly finds himself having to pursue a solo career. The 'Winter Dance Party 1959' is a tour that is travelling by bus through the Midwest, quenching the teenage thirst for the new music called Rock & Roll. The tour is hard work, the weather conditions appalling and the performers are alternating between sleeping in the luggage racks and dropping into hospital to be treated for frostbite.

Here, Buddy's final performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, with Ritchie Valens ("La Bamba") and the 'Big Bopper' J.P. Richardson ("Chantilly Lace") is recreated. After the concert, Buddy breaks his promise to his pregnant wife not to fly as he and the other two headliners board a small plane and fly off into the night for Moorhead only to crash into a ploughed field shortly after take-off. There are no survivors.

The tragedy snatches away the lives of three of the world's most dynamic musical talents - Buddy Holly (22), Ritchie Valens (17) and the Big Bopper (28) - and as the legend says, it was "the day the music died..."

Buddy Holly's brief life has become the stuff of legend. Now, Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story tells the incredible story of the three years in which Buddy Holly became the world's top recording artist with a show that features over 20 of Buddy Holly's greatest hits including "Peggy Sue," "That'll Be The Day," "Oh Boy," "Not Fade Away," "Everyday," "Rave On," "Maybe Baby," "Raining In My Heart," Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba," and the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace." Over 20 million people from around the globe have come to see Buddy and experienced the magical talents of the young man with glasses named Charles Hardin 'Buddy' Holly, whose musical career spanned an all-too-brief period in our history. Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story is a celebration of that legend and catches that unique mixture of innocence, determination, humor and charm that truly deserves the billing: "The World's Most Successful Rock & Roll Musical."

Tickets range from $35 - $50 and can be purchased at La Mirada Theatre's website, www.lamiradatheatre.com or by calling the La Mirada Theatre Box Office at 562-944-9801 or 714-994-6310.