Billy Buckett

Billy Buckett plays like a Cliff Richard movie of the sixties – a simple teenage love story, a score of original rock ‘n’ roll songs, and a fresh-faced cast continually bursting into energetic song-and-dance. It’s a recipe for success and this company, mostly holdovers from Beenleigh Theatre Group’s 2013 production of the show, had fun once again recreating the suede shoes and peddle-pusher era.

It’s 1959 in post-war Britain where a guitar-strumming grease-monkey Billy falls in love with the boss’s daughter Jan and gets her pregnant. Her father whisks her off to Switzerland to have the baby, unknown to Billy who becomes a big pop star in her absence. But like every good Cliff Richard movie, it all ends happily when the young lovers are reunited at their best friend’s wedding.

Stephen Dorrington’s cocksure Billy was appealing in a rough-at-the-edges kind of way, with charismatic stage presence and spot-on vocals. Almost eclipsing him in the singing department was pretty and vivacious Lauren Lee Innis-Youren as the snooty-girl-who-slums-it, Jan. Together their ballad “Tender is the Night” was a first-act highlight and far and away the best song in a score that cloned pop hits of the era.

Also delivering impressive vocals was Allison Nipperess, who strutted and vamped with whip-cracking velocity as motor-cycle leather Queen, Maureen, and her other half Douglas Rumble, whose booming bass added comic colour to Big Ted, the garage foreman.

As the parent and industrial “suit” Arthur, old-stager Ian Maurice made a meal of his “Self-Made Man,” whilst Linda Hall as his put-upon wife had her own moment with the wistful “Photographs and Memories”. Jermia Turner and Kate Davies added bounce and spunk to Shirley and Betty, as did Lachlan Clarke as Sparky and Sammy Gi as a falsetto-voiced Pimples.

The set was basically rostra, with the band centre-stage, and set-pieces that moved on and off as required. It worked well for Roslyn Johnson’s zippy direction which kept the show moving, helped by the six-piece band under the direction of composer Jay Turner, a rock ‘n’ roll veteran.

Since its first sell-out season in 2013 the show has undergone changes, not enough in my book as the first act is still bloated with too many songs. The second act plays better. Crowd-funded by a campaign on Pozible, this original “rock ‘n’ roll love story” is unsophisticated entertainment and aimed at an undemanding audience. It knows its market and it succeeds admirably.

Peter Pinne