The all-too-short but hugely influential life and career of musician Buddy Holly is being remembered on stage.

Multi-award winning musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story is coming to the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury for five nights.

The show will be at the Marlowe from Tuesday, April 11 to Saturday, April 15. You can book tickets online here or call 01227 787787.

Since opening in the West End in 1989, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story has spent 14 years in London theatres and toured the country, racking up more than 10,000 performances across the UK.

It is also one of a small number of musicals - including Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Miss Saigon, Evita and Cats - to achieve three decades on stage.

Buddy tells the story of a young Texan boy who learned to play guitar with his siblings and went on to become one of the biggest rock and roll musicians of the 1950s.

The show features key moments of Buddy’s life, from his rise to international stardom to his last performance at the Surf Ballroom in Iowa before his tragic and untimely death.

The guitarist died in a plane crash in 1959 alongside fellow musicians Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson. He was 22 years old and had been married to his wife, María Elena Holly, for just six months.

The show features some of the musician’s biggest songs, such as That’ll Be the Day, Oh Boy, Peggy Sue and Everyday.

Writer and producer Alan Janes said: “We are so excited to be back on tour and to see our audiences – aged 8 to 80 – dance in the aisles every night to our story of a young man whose musical career spanned an all-too-brief period, but whose music will be remembered forever.”

The show will be touring at theatres across the country until October 2023.