Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story at the Mayflower Theatre Southampton Review
Buddy
The Buddy Holly Story
Mayflower Theatre, Southampton
11-14 January 2017
Reviewed by Amy Adeliyi
Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story depicts the rise to fame and short lived career of the infamous Buddy Holly. The theatre production highlights the key moments that defined and created the unique musical stylings of Buddy Holly and The Crickets, interspersed with fantastic renditions of his chart hits.
The cast looked like they genuinely enjoyed the show and the energy and fun worked its magic on the audience with hardly anyone able to sit still, from toe tapping to full on singing along to the hits.
The musical skills were displayed with backing tracks, full musical/band accompaniment and acapella. I for one loved the rendition of ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Raining in my heart’ performed by Glen Joseph. Whilst the audience were all on their feet for ‘Johnny Be Good’.
The show also had comedic value with the Apollo performers and the ‘different’ vocal style from Miss Winter in the Clear Lake scene change. Although all members of the cast had beautiful voices and believable portrayal of characters, Buddy Holly (Glen Joseph) stole the show with an outstanding voice and amazing energy throughout every scene. The set was simplistic and understated, which enabled your full attention to focus on the outstanding cast.
The Mayflower Theatre is close to rail links and we found a multi-story car park close by, I would encourage visitors to check for any local events such as football matches as the traffic coming into Southampton can be extremely busy at these times.
The theatre itself is very clean and the interior looked fresh and well maintained. The theatre was well staffed with plenty of helpful friendly ushers, aiding the theatre goers with directions and the purchase of refreshments in the interval.
We would definitely return to see the show again, giving a 5* for the beautiful voices and pure energy of the cast.
With standing ovations and numerous encores The Buddy Holly Story is one not to be missed. As the man himself said ‘come on down, Buddy’s back in town!’
Rating: 5/5 
Tickets cost from £17.50 to £32 (booking fees may apply).
Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story is at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton until 14 January 2017. For more information or to book tickets click here or call the box office on 02380 711811.
Mayflower Theatre, Commercial Road, Southampton, SO15 1GE | 02380 711811
