A WORLDWIDE hit show that taps into the enduring love for one of the great icons of 1950s rock and roll, Buddy Holly, comes to Bath Theatre Royal from 13th to 17th January as part of a 2026 tour. Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story has been seen by an estimated 22 million people around the world, and was a smash hit in the West End and on Broadway.
With a multi-talented cast of actor-musicians, led by AJ Jenks reprising the title role, the show is two terrific hours of music with more than 20 of his greatest hits, including That’ll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, Everyday and Rave On, with the Big Bopper’s Chantilly Lace and Ritchie Valens’ La Bamba, and rip-roaring versions of Shout and Johnny B Goode completing a stellar musical line-up.
Buddy tells the story of the singer-songwriter’s meteoric rise from his Southern rockabilly beginnings to international stardom and his legendary final performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, before his tragic and untimely death at the age of just 22. In 18 short months the bespectacled boy from Lubbock, Texas, revolutionised contemporary music and, after his sad early death, would influence everyone from The Beatles to Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones.
Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story played a record-breaking 4,668 performances over 580 weeks on tour in the UK and Ireland, as well as 5,822 performances over 728 weeks in London’s West End. Returning to UK stages after a triumphant 30th year anniversary tour in 2019, Buddy is one of a small number of iconic musicals – including Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and Cats – to reach three decades on stage.
Since its inception, Buddy has inspired a generation of multi-million selling jukebox musicals including Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You, yet remains the true original and a musical phenomenon.
Joining AJ Jenks will be Stephen Alexander-Kerr as Jerry Allison, Miguel Angel as Ritchie Valens, with Tyrone Jones, Joshua Barton, Andrew Farrell, Ewan Ling, Marta Miranda, Melker Nilsson, Thomas Fabian Parrish, Laura-Dene Perryman and Joe Sterling (who plays Buddy at some performances).
Photographs by Hamish Gill