Rock ’n’ roller Buddy Holly and crossover country/pop singer Patsy Cline died before their times — Holly in 1959 at the age of 22, Cline in 1963 at 30, and both in fateful plane crashes, ironically — but their musical legacies live on in the respective jukebox revues “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” and “Always … Patsy Cline.”
Georgia Ensemble Theatre is remounting "Buddy" (April 12-29), which the Roswell company first performed in 2009, while Atlanta Lyric Theatre in Marietta is presenting "Patsy" (April 13-29), following several previous productions of the show at various other venues in the metro area over the past 10 or 12 years.
Robert Farley, the Ensemble's founding artistic director, had already announced his retirement and had planned to redirect "Buddy" as his theatrical swan song, before his sudden death last November. At the behest of Farley's widow, Anita, the group's co-founder and managing director, now assuming directorial responsibilities for the revival is Ricardo Aponte, who most recently staged a lively "Once on This Island" for the troupe, and who is also reprising his cameo role in the show as Ritchie ("La Bamba") Valens.
“I felt truly honored to be asked. Because I’d been involved with it from the beginning, from that very first production, Anita told me she didn’t think anyone else would be as invested in it as I was,” Aponte recalls.
“It’s so bittersweet, that Bob isn’t getting the chance to finish what he started,” he observes. “It really meant a lot to him that this be the last show he directed as artistic director, so rather than trying to make the show my own, which is something a director often tries to do, directing this is a way of honoring Bob, of putting as much of his stamp on it as possible, of making it feel as much in the same spirit as his earlier version.”
Principally known to local audiences as a resourceful dramatic actor (Aurora's "Singles in Agriculture," the Alliance's "Edward Foote"), Jeremy Aggers is, in fact, also an accomplished musician, having recorded and released three CDs of original songs he describes as "folk Americana." In Georgia Ensemble's new "Buddy," he takes over the title role initially played by Rob Lawhon.
“This is a pretty important show for me, like a big therapy session,” admits Aggers, who stopped performing live gigs with his own band some five years ago, due to issues of “stage fright.” “It’s not like acting in a play for an audience, when you’re essentially hiding behind a fictional character. So much of my music is a deeply personal expression of my own feelings. It really got into my head, this fear of opening up that way in front of people.”
During the course of “Buddy,” he sings and plays guitar on roughly 20 of Holly’s greatest hits – including “That’ll Be the Day,” “Peggy Sue,” “Not Fade Away” and “Rave On!”
As Aggers explains it, “Buddy had such a gravitas and passion for the music, it’s been a blast and a nice release for me to get lost in that, being this rock star, tapping into his energy level (and) maintaining his brand of vivacity throughout the show. I’m loving playing music in front of an audience again. It kind of reminds me why I got into it in the first place.”
With artistic director Mary Nye Bennett at the helm, Atlanta Lyric’s “Always … Patsy Cline” stars Orlando-based actress Laura Hodos, who has previously performed the title role at other regional theaters in Florida and Maine, alongside local veteran Karen Howell, who has also portrayed Cline’s real-life fan before, both in and out of town.
“Because they’ve played these women before, they came in from day one with a certain understanding of them. They share a natural rapport, a definite bond and friendship. They’re not having to spend a lot of time learning it from the ground up, and get to look for and make other discoveries about their characters instead,” Bennett says.
She suggests that their story is of equal importance to the show as its many musical numbers, featuring renditions of such Cline standards as “Crazy,” “Walking After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces” and “Sweet Dreams,” among some two dozen others.
For her part, Hodos notes with a laugh, “The first time I did it, there’s so much music that just learning all the lyrics was one of my biggest challenges. Now, it feels less formal to me. It’s not about imitating Patsy’s singing style or impersonating her. It’s about capturing and revealing her essence (and) what made her so warm and personable and real.”
And empowering, too. “I’ve also come to appreciate what a trailblazer Patsy was, at a time when women were finally getting out of the kitchen and making names for themselves. She was the first woman artist to cross over from country music to pop. She held her own in an industry dominated by men. She was an inspiration to other women who came after her, and gave them someone to look up to,” Hodos enthuses.
“Like Patsy’s music,” she adds, “that still resonates, even 50 years later.”
THEATER PREVIEW
"Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story." April 12-29. 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Sundays; 4 p.m. Saturdays (April 21 and 28 only). $33-$53. Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest St., Roswell. 770-641-1260, get.org.
"Always … Patsy Cline." April 13-29. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays; 2 p.m. Saturday (April 28 only). $36-$53. Jennie T. Anderson Theatre (at the Cobb Civic Center), 548 S. Marietta Parkway, Marietta. 404-377-9948, atlantalyrictheatre.com.
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