Travis Poelle has been transforming himself into a rock-and-roll pioneer for a decade.

As Travis Poelle slips into a pleated white suit and dyes his golden brown locks jet-black, he doesn’t feel anything. But when he puts on the thick-framed bifocals he becomes legendary rocker Buddy Holly.

“Sometimes when you put on certain pieces of a costume for a role, the character clicks,” Poelle says. “That’s what happens when I put on the glasses.”

The classically trained stage actor has been putting on the iconic eyeglasses since 2003, when he first played Holly in the PacRep production of Buddy! The Buddy Holly Story. The show, directed by Stephen Moorer, was an unexpected hit so they brought it first to San Jose, and then to San Francisco’s Post Street Theatre. Poelle even scored the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Male Principle Performance in 2003.

Before his first rehearsal, Poelle spent hours soaking in footage from “The Ed Sullivan Show” and any other live appearances he could find of Holly; he also read biographies and listened to Holly’s songs over and over so he could capture his onstage personality trademark and twangy yelp.

Now Moorer has put together a brand new revue, Buddy Holly & Friends in Concert, which kicks off a month-long run tonight at the Golden Bough Theater.

Moorer’s new tribute pays homage to some additional landmark rock-and-rollers of the ’50s all the way up to the mid-’60s, which means Poelle will also be performing as Roy Orbison, Art Garfunkel and a yet-to-be-determined member of the Mamas and Papas, dressed in character for each. Backed by the PacRep Band, Poelle’s co-stars Davitt Felde, Lydia Lyons and Daniel Simpson will be taking on the likes of Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Leslie Gore and others.

“It’s fun for us to get to revisit these old songs, but we keep adding new ones,” Poelle says. “Every character we do in the show we act as if we are the characters so it’s not just a group playing a bunch of covers.”

The apex of the show is still the figure that influenced all the aforementioned groups. Holly tunes like the pre-rockabilly “Bo Diddley,” the rhythmically dynamic “Peggy Sue” and Poelle’s all-time favorite Holly song to perform, “Not Fade Away.”

“It’s appropriate because we’re enabling Buddy to not fade away,” he says. “It’s also a good groove with good harmonies and the primitive recording is really fun. I never get tired of playing it.”

It’s common for audience members to approach Poelle after shows to tell him how they had their first dance or their first kiss while a Holly song was playing. They’re able to relive all those precious memories while they experience the show, and dance in the aisles too.

“It’s a privilege and gratifying to bring that to people,” Poelle says. “It’s 50 years later and people are still dancing and the music’s still infectious.”

BUDDY HOLLY & FRIENDS in Concert happens at 7:30pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Aug. 1-Sept 1, at the Golden Bough Theater, Monte Verde St. between 8th and 9th Ave. Aug. 1-2 $20/child $7.50; Thursday $35/child $7.50; Friday and Saturday $39/child $7.50. 758-3973.

~ ~ HEAR MORE HERE ~ ~

• www.travispoelle.com
• www.pacrep.org