EVEN the producers didn’t give much for its chances. No one thought Buddy Holly would run. “Maybe they gave it six months,” says Mark Salisbury.

“Because this hadn’t been done before – actors on stage playing instruments. It just hadn’t been done. This was a play first with a lot of music coming out of it. So, no one gave it much longevity at all.”

It was also before the digital age. Emails were still things to come, along with many other technological advances we take for granted now.

The reviews for the show were mixed. Some were brilliant, notably the one in The Sun that gave birth to the headline It’s Buddy Brilliant. Come 2006 – for the pundits were wrong Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story did run and run and run – and the newspaper reviewed the production again, delivering the verdict It’s Still Buddy Brilliant.

And now the 25th anniversary touring production is extending its UK tour well into 2014, coming to the Grand Opera House, York from February 17 to 22, with Roger Rowley in the lead role.

Salisbury is directing the current tour (as he did the one in 2011) but was company manager back in 1989 when Buddy premiered in Plymouth. After transferring to a London theatre, business really started to pick up after three months.

The West End run lasted 13-and-a-half years, adding up to 5,140 performances.

Since then it’s toured at home and abroad as well as playing fresh London seasons.

“We continue to rock’n’roll,” says Salisbury. “Every year or so we take out a new tour and people still want to hear the music. It’s not just nostalgia for people who remember it but a lot of young people are finding it now.”

Salisbury worked as an assistant with the original director Rob Bettison, who created the show with writer producer Alan Janes. He moved from company manager to assistant director and now director. It’s become a major part of his life.

“When I started my career was mainly other things, but now it’s mostly Buddy. But I’m pleased to say that because it’s great fun. It’s a great show to work on. The payoff is to see and hear people enjoying themselves.

“We try to make them forget where they are, for a few precious moments, and take them to a place they either don’t remember, but wish they did, or do remember and we try to take them back, recreating as authentically as we can the music of Buddy Holly.”

This story of Buddy, his music and his short life has travelled all over the world. As many as 27 million people worldwide have seen the show. There are also special productions for schools and community colleges as well as dinner theatre shows in the US and Canada.

“It continues to enthral people and it’s the music that does it. If it wasn’t for the music we wouldn’t be here. The music is timeless and I think everyone agrees on that,” says Salisbury.

“Obviously the cast changes pretty much every time. Some people we like when they get to their mid or late twenties may be looking a little bit too old. But it’s the energy not just the look and bringing that youthful exuberance to the role.

“This time we have a new lighting designer and a new set. It needs to change and can’t always be as it was. We need to refine it and make it better. We’re not doing it for the sake of doing it, but because it will enhance the script, the story and the action – which will let the music live longer.”

He sees the enjoyment of both cast and audience as a key reason for the show’s longevity. The show is a celebration of Buddy’s life and music, ending with a recreation of his final concert at Clear Lake, Ohio.

“What happens on stage and in the auditorium is you can feel when the moment comes that the audience suspend their imagination. It washes over them, they sit back and just love it. At the same time you can feel the cast doing the same thing.

“The cast have the audience’s trust and it builds and builds and builds. Most times they get up and dance for the last 15 minutes of the show. You see the audience leave happy and that’s a wonderful feeling.”

• Buddy Box Office: 08448713024 or atgtickets.com/york