Buddy Holly lives on

No Maybe-Baby about it, Buddy boy: This'll Be the Day (beat, beat) when you live.

Again.

"I enjoy the music immensely, and with this being the 50th anniversary of his death, it seemed like a timely choice," says Phil Shelburne, director/producer of P.S. Productions, which launches the Super Summer Theatre season today at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park with "Buddy -- The Buddy Holly Story," the ex-Broadway/London jukebox musical about one of rock's legendary, if improbable progenitors.

"Everybody complains that they want something new, and I always like to see something new, so I just looked for a newer product, one we haven't seen here before."

"Buddy" is not -- excuse the expression -- Hollywoodized. That distinction belongs to the debated (by fans, anyway) 1978 film starring Gary Busey, the alleged inaccuracies of which irked Paul McCartney, who owns the copyright to Holly's music catalog and backed the creation of the 1989 stage bio.

"It's a treat," says Brandon Albright, who channels the geeky, gangly rock god in the ranch production. "The research that goes into it, watching the videos, reading up on people who knew him, those people are still alive today."

Holly's short, shooting-star life is traced from his roots as a Texas teen with The Crickets through his death at age 22 aboard a small plane that crashed during a blizzard after an Iowa concert. The disaster also killed peers/passengers Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (Real name: J.P. Richardson) in the early hours of Feb. 3, 1959, famously memorialized by Don McLean as "the day the music died" in the melancholy classic "American Pie."

"Buddy" makes story stops at The Crickets' historic appearance as the first white group to take the Apollo Theater stage in Harlem, studio sessions with producer Norman Petty yielding some of the bespectacled singer's biggest hits, and his impulsive marriage to record company receptionist Maria Elena Santiago -- who, pregnant at the time, made Holly promise not to fly before, fed up with tour buses, he stepped onto the doomed aircraft.

Also captured is the dichotomy between Holly's impeccable "yes, sir/yes, ma'am" manners and a perfectionist persona that erupted in flashes of temper. "There's one scene where he actually goes after a producer but it's because they're making him record his music with more of a country, twangy sound, and he knows that's not what his music is about," Albright says. "Buddy was extremely likable but when it came to his music, he was very stubborn, very adamant. It's a balancing act for me. The audience has to fall in love with him, but they have to understand he knows what he wants and gets it."

Justifying its genre, "Buddy" is a giant jukebox of memories, predominantly of Holly's hits: "Peggy Sue" (originally titled "Cindy Lou"), "Maybe Baby," "That'll Be the Day," "Words of Love," "Oh, Boy," "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," "Ready Teddy," "Think It Over," "Peggy Sue Got Married" and rocker anthem "Rave On!" Fellow performers portrayed include Valens, the Big Bopper and Dion DiMucci, adding songs such as "La Bamba" and "Chantilly Lace" to the "Buddy" score.

"Trying to convey something that was an interesting sound 50 years ago with the standards we have today was difficult," Shelburne says. "The whole concept of reverb was so revolutionary when they did it then. Today, what do we do that doesn't have it in it? We managed to keep the essence and still update it."

Casting also was a conundrum. "We had anticipated using musicians, but they needed to sing, play an instrument and have some acting ability, which was a pretty tall order," Shelburne says. "We ultimately got actors who wound up learning instruments. Brian Gressley, who plays (Crickets bassist) Joe B. Mauldin, just kept at it. He was insistent. Weeks went by, and the next thing you know, he'd taught himself to play everything on this upright bass."

Though the crash that cut deep into America's musical soul is referenced -- a DJ's voice announces the tragedy -- "Buddy" climaxes on a Holly high as he, the Bopper and Valens return to the stage for a 30-minute hitsville concert, backed by additional brass and keyboard players.

"It's very upbeat but reminds the audience that we lost this special soul at a young age," Albright says. "It's been a cool challenge to make sure I'm true to who Buddy Holly was. It's incredible what he accomplished."

No maybe about that, baby.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.