That’ll Be The Day, Worthing Assembly Halls, Friday 14 December 2023. Review by Janet Lawrence

The sold-out audience clapped and cheered from the first drum roll.

It was a show full of glitter, colour, fun and enthusiasm, as we sang along to hits by artists such as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Cliff Richard, Tina Turner, and Whitney Houston. Other musical performers featured over the years include Lonnie Donegan, the Tremeloes, Tom Jones, Diana Ross and The Seekers. There were many more and, if I named them all, we’d end up with just a long list. The show also included comedy routines that took us to the inimitable Steptoe and Son, and a skit on London’s rhyming slang: apples and pairs - stairs; china plate - mate.

Suffice it to say, this one-off show was founded in 1986 by Trevor Payne. He’s the Director, writer and creator of That’ll be the Day. Trevor’s colourful troupe have worked together since the beginning. He is the Director, writer and creator. ‘I started off in the clubs, in holiday centres in the south west of England.’

‘And then around years ’91, ’92, ’93 we dipped our toe into the theatre and haven’t looked back. Everybody who came to see the performance loved it. So we became a touring theatre show, running now for nearly 40 years.’ It continues to attract massive audiences everywhere. They have a yearly rehash of every show, so audiences don’t get bored with it, said Trevor.

“We are the most successful, long running one-night show, bar none. The whole idea, Trevor told me, is to create a rock ’n roll show based on music from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s - those songs and musicians who have stood the test of time.

“We are the baby boomers,” he added.

Those decades when we had ‘Pretty Woman’ by Roy Orbison; The Platters; ‘We’re going on a sleigh Ride’; ‘Let it Snow’; Chuck Berry’s ‘My Dingaling’; a fine duo performing a Simon and Garfunkel with ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’.

So while the show’s leading title leads a stranger to believe it’s a tribute to Buddy Holly, in fact, as Trevor Payne says, it’s nothing to do with that short-lived icon of the 1950s. It’s to jog people’s memories and the memories from their lives triggered by the songs. ‘And nostalgia,’ says Trevor, when I spoke to him during the interval of this three-hour Christmas show.

‘Gemma Nelson joined six months ago,’ said Trevor. ‘Bought right into it, knew exactly what they were all about, and stayed.’

‘Nikki Hechavarria, is in her 15th year with the band. Came over from Canada, after being in Lion King for a year.’ Impresario Gary Anderson, a comedy double act with Trevor.

The guys in the band reflected the music of the decades as they unfolded. Carefully chosen musicians at the top of their abilities, working together to give us the flavour of the songs we remember.

It’s interesting that most of the audience were in the ‘over-fifties’ category, enjoying the memories of their younger years, from the jive, then the twist, Rock ’n Roll, Calypso and any more you’d like to mention.

I could write tomes - it’s impossible to list every single song that took us down memory lane and every musician, but there was something for everybody and we, the audience, sang along; we clapped, swayed, swung our hands from side to side in time with the music.

At the end there was a standing ovation to send us home humming to that special tune that transported us to some life-affirming occasion of our own. That’s what this feel-good show was about. ‘The idea,’ says, Trevor, ‘is to jog people’s memories and the moments in their lives.’