Auburn residents will have a chance to rock again like it’s 1959 when the Buddy Holly’s Tour of Stars rolls into the Auburn Avenue Theater for three performances on March 12-14.
Presented by Summit Productions, the shows will recreate the music of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson – rock pioneers who perished when their plane crashed in an Iowa cornfield on Feb. 3, 1959.
For Summit productions founder and Buddy Holly impersonator Ryan Coleman, 30, the shows are a labor of love, a homage to a lifelong appreciation for rock music.
“When I was a kid the first kind of music I can ever really remember listening to was late ’50s and ’60s rock and roll,” Coleman said. “We’d always listen to it in the car, I remember listening to the soundtrack from ‘American Graffiti’ on road trips.”
One of the first artists that jumped out for Coleman was that of the Lubbock, Texas-born Holly, who recorded such hit’s as “That’ll Be the Day,” “Peggy Sue” and “Oh Boy” with his band The Crickets from 1957 until his untimely death in 1959.
Although Holly died more than 50 years ago, Coleman said his music still is as vibrant and vital today as it was in the late-50s.
“With Buddy Holly in particular, the music is just fun,” Coleman said. “Really fun stuff. No matter what the age, anyone will like the music. It’s upbeat fun stuff.”
“Another thing is when you look back at the roots of rock and roll and the roots of what we listen to now, it goes back to people like Elvis, Buddy Holly and Chuck Barry,” Coleman continued. “The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Blind Faith, a lot of the ’60s groups were inspired by him (Holly). It stems from him.”
Coleman, a guitarist since he was 13, said he first got the chance to impersonate Buddy Holly when he was asked to play the singer in “BUDDY: The Buddy Holly Story” at the Tacoma Little Theater this past summer.
“I never thought about impersonating him until then,” Coleman said. “Then I did the show and learned a bunch more about him and his music. I really became enamored of him then.”
Soon, Coleman said he was approached by another popular local impersonator, Danny Vernon, who performs as Elvis.
“He got in touch with me and asked me to work with him on his show,” he said.
Coleman, who works days as a project manager for a contracting company, said his gigs as Holly have been surprisingly lucrative. So much so, that he, along with partner Stephanie Leeper, have started Summit Productions.
“It’s something I always wanted to do for a long time has started a production company and approach doing theater in a different way,” Coleman said.
He added that the goal of the endeavor was to produce high-quality, but affordable shows around the Puget Sound, that would be profitable enough to compensate the performers.
“We want to support the performers, because they have to support themselves and family,” Coleman said. “We’re trying to do theater with a low overhead and shows that don’t involve a ton of rehearsal.”
The Tour of Stars is the first of those.
The show will feature Paul Eddy as Ritchie Valens, Jim Kleinbeck as “The Big Bopper” and an eight-piece backing band.
Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. March 12 and 13, with a 2 p.m. matinee on March 14.
Tickets are $15 for students and seniors and $17 for adults. Groups of eight or more are available for a $2 discount off each ticket.
Tickets are available at www.brownpapertickets.com or by calling 253-200-5905.
