The tour – led by Backbeat’s own rockabilly superhero, Brandon Cunning – started off with a bang. There was some great harmonizing to Blue Suede Shoes – a salute to our hometown boys, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley. As much as we love the Texas-born Holly, we do live in Memphis after all, so we could hardly resist a little friendly competition. It was some of the best singing and rhythm our bus has ever seen – I don’t thnk we’ve ever had more talented passengers!. My favorite part of the day, though, was when the cast joined Brandon to sing the Holly hit Oh Boy. Check out the video!
Brandon and I both had a chance to meet lead actor Todd Meredith, who is reprising the role of Holly in the national touring company for his fourteenth time. (The musical originally opened in London in 1989.) Meredith has been a fan of Holly for most of his life and has his own tribute band to Holly called “The Rave-Ons.” Click here to check out this footage of Meredith’s personal tour of Graceland led by one of their archivists.
It was the second act’s recreation of the Winter Dance Party Tour, though, that really captured my heart. It featured what would end up being Holly’s last performance. By this time in Holly’s career, Buddy had split with the Crickets and met and married the love of his life, the Puerto-Rican beauty Maria Elena Santiago. Along with him on the tour were the Big Bopper, played by Greg Kalafatas, and Ritchie Valens, played by Danny Caraballo. Kalafatas and Caraballo did rousing renditions of Chantilly Lace and La Bamba, but it was Meredith’s performance of Johnny B. Goode that brought the crowd to its feet, singing and dancing along with the cast.