Apparently you're over the hill when you start wearing "relaxed" jeans. But you're seriously close to that same landmark when you know all the words to "Peggy Sue," Buddy Holly's smash hit back in the late '50s: "Peggy Sue/Peggy Sue/Oh, how my heart yearns for you/Oh, Peggy/My Pe-heggy Sue-ooh-ooh-ooh." Hardly profound, but it earned that tune the #3 spot in Billboard Magazine's Top 100 in 1957.

Director Bill Millerd also has a smash hit on his hands--especially with the boomers who do everything but get up and start rockin' and rollin' in the aisles when Zachary Stevenson (as Buddy) explodes with tunes like "Ready Teddy," "Oh Boy" and "Johnny B. Goode." Stevenson, wearing Holly's trademark big, horn-rimmed glasses and a big grin, is sensational. Note to those with excess weight: you will lose pounds just watching Stevenson's non-stop, flat-out, seemingly jet-fuelled performance. The guy, already lean, is going to be a whole lot leaner by the end of the run. And that goes for the whole cast--all 14 of them. They're having a blast on the Stanley stage and are 100 per cent committed to making sure you have fun, too.

Looking over the hit-after-hit song list, it's hard to believe that Holly's phenomenal recording and concert success only spanned about eighteen months before he was killed in a plane crash in 1959 at the age of 23 along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. It was a meteoric rise for 19-year-old Holly seeing Elvis Presley live in Lubbock, Tex., Holly's home town, to opening for Elvis later that same year.

Under Sasha Niechoda's musical direction, Buddy really rocks the joint. As well as The Crickets (played by Jeff Bryant on lead guitar, Scott Carmichael on drums and Jeremy Holmes on bass) there's Niechoda on keyboards, Henry Christian, Neil Nicholson and Tom Colclough (who plays a mean saxophone). Hype that up with three guys and three gals doing backup vocals and shakin' their booties (choreographed by Valerie Easton) and what you've got is joyful sound at the Stanley.

Ted Roberts' wide set is flanked by two radio studios, leaving lots of room in the middle for various clubs and concert venues like the Surf Club and Harlem's Apollo Theatre (where, apparently, the black emcee and audience were shocked to discover that Buddy Holly and The Crickets were white guys--"four honkies from Texas." In the days when radio reigned, who knew?)

Rebekka Sorensen's costumes--from Holly's early cardigan and loafers to a velvet pinstripe suit and the girl trio's frothy pink strapless gowns--recreate the era perfectly.

Buddy is not the greatest musical ever written. The plot, thin even at the beginning, peters out, and the show ends in what is virtually a concert with song after song. But it's a fabulous showcase for loads of talent in addition to Stevenson's lead performance. Denis Simpson is dynamite as the Apollo emcee, and he and Sibel Thrasher do a couple of numbers before Buddy's act--which, naturally, brings down the Apollo house. Kieran Martin Murphy bops big as the Big Bopper (outrageously dressed in mismatched stripes and leopard-skin print) while sexy Michael Scholar Jr., in satin shirt and cummerbund, tears up the stage with a big, big "La Bamba." Elena Juatco makes her Arts Club debut as Buddy's love interest. Seana-Lee Wood is heart-o'-gold Vi, girl Friday and wife of producer Norman Petty (Milo Shandel).

We all know how Buddy's story ends so there's no surprise there. What is surprising, though, is on how upbeat a note this musical signs off. It really is a celebration of a life--brief but stellar--and of music that rocked a generation. If for no other reason, see this show for Stevenson's performance. Like Buddy Holly, he's a natural. Rock on, Buddy. Rock on, Zach.

joled@telus.net