THE day the music died again was March 18 2017 as rock'n'roll forefather Chuck Berry passed away at 90, but the music lives on, as it always will.

Not least in Berry's songs Brown Eyed Handsome Man and Johnny B Goode being sung with gusto by Glen Joseph and Alex Fobbester, sharing Buddy's role in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story this week in York.

The first and still the best of the jukebox musicals, Buddy is a sad but joyous celebration of a curtailed but crammed life that prompted Don McLean to write in American Pie of how "February made me shiver with every paper I'd deliver"...."but something touched me deep inside the day the music died".

McLean's eulogy to Holly in his intro to a cryptic song that goes on to ask "Now do you believe in rock and roll? Can music save your mortal soul?" has resonated through 46 years. The answer comes in Buddy, a musical that most definitely believes in rock'n'roll, as Holly did when rowing against the tide of ubiquitous country music in Bible Belt, late-Fifties Lubbock, Texas.

Back for its umpteenth run at the Grand Opera House – and sure to return there – Buddy opens with Holly (Glen Joseph on press night) and his Crickets in a rush to cut through the country niceties by breaking the local radio station's rule of not playing rock'n'roll (live on air). He will live fast, no time to eat, write restlessly, record relentlessly and fall in love in a click of a finger, proposing to record company receptionist Maria Elena (Kerry Low) only five hours after they meet.

Holly will be ruthless too, whether challenging the radio station country code or Decca's recording studio constraints; insisting on wearing even thicker glasses when advised to remove them; or cutting ties from old-school producer Norman Petty (Alex Tosh) and Crickets drummer Jerry Allison (Josh Haberfield, brilliant drumming, by the way) and stand-up bass player Joe B Maudlin (Joe Butcher, good balancing skills) to move to New York.

Did Holly sense that he would die young, his songs stay so pretty? Did he know that music cannot save your mortal soul? Whatever, he made Everyday count in his 18-month rise and crash landing in the February Iowa snow.

Why does Buddy, the musical, work so well? How about great songs; great storyline; heartbreaking ending, for a start. Then it's down to how it's told by writer-producer Alan Janes, director Matt Salisbury and choreographer Miguel Angel, and their company of wonderfully resourceful actor-musicians, whether playing multiple roles and multiple instruments or leading the show with Glen Joseph's inexhaustible energy.

There's spot-on judgement in the combination of cheeky humour, romance, period detail, recording studio authenticity, rock'n'roll rebellion, tragedy and resurrection, topped off by breathless concert performances to end each half as Holly raves on. Hollylujah, Buddy both exhilarates and "touches you deep inside".

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york