My lovely Irish vacation over, I arrive back in London where I am staying through Monday when Dean and I have a meeting with the Audit Commission. But I have the rest of the weekend in London.
I check into another of the ubiquitous cheap hotels with tiny rooms near Padding Station and am off in search of theater tickets. I take a double-decker bus to Trafalgar Square, a few blocks from Leicester Square, and get a matinee ticket to Buddy at the Strand Theater.
The Strand is near Covent Garden and I walk through the heart of London’s theater district to locate it. I bump into the National Theater Museum and go it, but only have time to barely scratch the surface. It traces the history of London’s greatest stage actors from Henry James to Ellen Terry to Noel Coward. It is a gem of a little museum.
I make my way to the Strand and take my seat.
The musical, Buddy, is in its 10th year on the London stage and it is easy to see why. It traces the short, but brilliant career of Buddy Holly with wonderful music that makes you want to dance. Besides all of the great Holly/Cricket hits, we are also treated to songs by the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens.
The finale of the show is the re-creation of their last performance in Clear Water, Iowa, on February 2, 1959; the night before the tragic plane crash that took all their lives. It was the Winter Dance Party and featured La Bamba and Chantilly Lace, plus all of Buddy Holly’s hits. Sadly, Richie Valens was not scheduled to fly on that plane; rather he “won” his seat in the flip of a coin replacing one of the other band members.
Before the finale, announcers tell the audience to stay seated. But they should have known better; it just serves as an invitation for everyone to jump out of their seats and start dancing in the aisles.
I leave the theater singing La Bamba and Peggy Sue. Incidentally, the show reveals the background to the song named Peggy Sue. A young woman of that name agreed to sleep with the band’s drummer if they named a song after her. The rest, as they say, is history.
I have dinner at a lovely French restaurant, Le Café du Jardin, just around the corner from the theater and take a cab back to my hotel.
Jody’s UK Memories 