Jersey Boys Blog

What do you guys think of Phillip Phillips’ rendition of “Beggin’” on tonight’s American Idol?

Some trivia about “Beggn’”: The song, co-written by Bob Gaudio and The Angels’ Peggy Farina, peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 for The Four Seasons. Of course, that wasn’t the end of the road for this amazing song! In 2007, French disk jockey Pilooski re-edited and released his version of the Four Seasons’ song that reached #32 in the UK and #1 on the UK Dance Chart. Also in 2007, the Norwegian hip-hop group Madcon recorded and released a new rendition of the song that became very popular in Norway, reaching #1 on the charts and was a huge hit all over Europe! This song appeared in the live finale of season 3 of America’s Best Dance Crew in which finalists Beat Freaks and Quest Crew performed together. It was also used in the episode “Battle Scars” of season 6 of CSI: NY, in the “Meet the Top 20″ episode of So You Think You Can Dance, and it was featured in the Season 2 promo for AMC’s Mad Men! And, how many of you guys remember “Beggin’” in the Adidas commercial in 2008?!

Did we forget something? How ’bout one of the greatest moments on the stage in Act 2 of JERSEY BOYS–and the #14 track on the certified platinum JB OBCR! To quote Barry Belson, “I love this record!”

Click HERE to watch the video interview with legendary Frankie Valli! The pop icon chats with Dan Taylor in the CBS-FM studio in New York about the upcoming film adapation of JERSEY BOYS. Valli admits the movie will be a bit different from the stage production because of the type of experience the audience is exposed to with the different mediums.

Dominic Scaglione, Jr. and Quinn VanAntwerp during their JBB Exclusive Interview

Nicky was right, “Sometimes it just clicks with people.” During our JBB Exclusive Interview last month with castmates Dominic Scaglione, Jr. and Quinn VanAntwerp, we had the awesome experience to chat with the guys not just about their amazing journeys that they’ve had playing pop icons Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio over the past several years in various companies, but also what they’ve learned from each other both on-stage and off-stage!

Jersey Boys Blog: You guys were amazing as Frankie and Bob at yesterday’s matinee! Thinking back, you have both been in three Jersey Boys’ companies, right? Quinn, you’ve been in Toronto, the first national tour, now Broadway, and Dom, you’ve been in Vegas, Broadway, Chicago, and back to Broadway. I’ve been curious: How tough is it to play the same role in so many different companies?

Quinn VanAntwerp: Thanks! What’s funny about it is that every foursome I feel is wonderfully different. I think what has been interesting from an acting perspective is that you either decide, ‘This is my performance—always–regardless of who’s opposite of me.’ Or, you kind of realize that the best part of changing companies is that the new foursome changes your performance in a very big way.

What happened with us (looking over to Dom), we had never met each other before, and Richard Hester (JB Production Supervisor) came in and said, ‘Have you guys been rehearsing together?’

We said, ‘No, today was the first time we’ve ever done any of the scenes together.’

But, sometimes you just click with people.

Dominic Scaglione, Jr.: It’s respect, too. The click is what’s most important, but sometimes, you feel that organic chemistry with people. For my Frankie, I always love respecting my Bobs. I always develop a certain relationship with the guys who play Bob.

When Quinn and I got together, it was very special. There was something there. Even my parents, who have seen the show so many times, and also a lot of people have said that about our chemistry. It was there from the very beginning and we’re still growing, but it was really quick (snapped his fingers). Not to take anything away from the other companies…

QV: I actually feel that way with you and with this group of five guys right now. We spend a lot of time together; we hang out a lot on days off. Me, him, and Matt Bogart spend almost all of our days off together. We used to have a Facebook fan page, much to the chagrin of his wife. (massive laughs from Dom & Quinn). Read the rest of this entry »

Hey Everybody,

It’s Jeff Leibow, Nick Massi in JERSEY BOYS Las Vegas. I thought you guys who read JB Blog would like an opportunity to bid on an original doodle that is currently up for auction on eBay for NF Awareness Month.

Here is the link to the auction:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Jersey-Boys-Las-Vegas-Original-Doodle-/251056936537?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a7428d659#ht_1284wt_1141

For other celebrity doodles, click HERE.

Let’s start some friendly competition, and raise some money for a great cause!

Thank you! I am, as always, grateful for all you do to help my charity efforts.

Cheers,
Jeff

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the marvelous moms out there! To salute you, here’s Frankie Valley’s (yes, that’s what the record says) fabulous rendition of “My Mother’s Eyes”!

“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962, and released on the 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.

The Four Seasons released a cover of the song as a single in 1965 (with the title “Don’t Think Twice”) under the pseudonym The Wonder Who? Their rendition peaked at the #12 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on December 25, 1965, as their monster hit, “Let’s Hang On” remained in the Top 5.

Do any of you guys recall The Four Seasons singing “Don’t Think Twice” in concert? I’ve only heard it live once, at a Cleveland concert back in 1988, one of my favorite Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons concerts, ever! It obviously wasn’t in the night’s set list, but a guy yelled out, “Hey, Frankie, How ’bout singin’ ‘Don’t Think Twice’?” and Frankie obliged! It was a short and sweet rendition and the sold out crowd loved it!

Saturday Matinee, April 14, 2012: Jersey Boys Blog Returns to Jersey Boys Broadway!

A Saturday “kind of love” is an understatement…that’s probably the best description of our return to seeing the magnificent JERSEY BOYS Broadway performance last month!

Posters on the JBB Forum weren’t exaggerating when they said that Andy Karl “put new details” into the “Tommy DeVito role.” Wow! From the beginning of the show, when he says, “That’s our song…”—you won’t be able to take your eyes off his take-charge, charismatic persona as he sings “Silhouettes,” takes young Frankie under his wing, and runs the group from their early struggling days to their first big hits. As the power in the group shifts and the group gets wind of Tommy’s troubles, the nuances in Andy’s portrayal are worth the price of admission, to put it mildly…and the sit-down scene in Gyp’s basement is explosive!

Matt Bogart continues to make his portrayal of “Nick Massi” his own with his deadpan delivery throughout the show, including our favorite line, “The million guys, where are they?” Matt’s idiosyncrasies as Nicky were spot on throughout the show with even his straight lines getting laughs from the audience! When he finally has the chance to go off about Tommy, the audience was in hysterics, along with nonstop applause! Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, we’ve done it–a JBB poll asking who you’d like to see play “Frankie Valli” in the JERSEY BOYS movie! In this poll, we’re suggesting actors who have not played the Frankie role on stage. Yes, we used our imaginations and came up with a large list of talented young actors and we are so curious to see who you’d choose. Feel free add any other actors that you’d prefer.

Our Twitter followers have stated that they’re not thrilled with our list! So, don’t worry, we will be doing the same poll with current and past “Frankie” JB actors next month!

For the first week in May, JERSEY BOYS grossed $910,791 and had an 87.7% attendance rate. The 39 shows on the boards grossed $25,216,795, slipping slightly over 3% from the previous week’s totals.

Below are the Top 10 Grosses from BroadwayWorld.com for the week ending May 6, 2012.

1. The Lion King $1,795,178
2. Wicked $1,643,258
3. The Book Of Mormon $1,605,867
4. Evita $1,533,055
5. Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark $1,286,567
6. Nice Work If You Can Get It $1,022,115
7. Death Of A Salesman $943,884
8. Jersey Boys $910,791
9. Newsies $907,388
10. The Phantom Of The Opera $893,609

John Michael Coppola

Exciting news to report about former JB Chicago cast member John Michael Coppola! He will be performing concerts in Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York this summer with an amazing night of music and stories in store for the audience! Below are the upcoming dates:

Wednesday, June 6, 2012 (7PM Show SOLD OUT!)
Sun City Community of Huntley
Huntley, Illinois 60142
2PM MATINEE ADDED DUE TO OVERWHELMING DEMAND!!!
For Huntley tickets, please call (847) 515-7650

Monday, July 16, 2012, 7:30pm
Westminster Arts Center
Bloomfield, NJ 07003

Saturday, July 21, 8:00pm
Ridgefield Playhouse
Ridgefield, CT 06877
(203) 438 - 5795

Friday, July 27, 8:00pm
Major Bowes Auditorium
White Plains, NY 10605

For details on purchasing tickets and future dates, click HERE to visit JMC’s concert page!

This coming Monday, May 14th at 7pm, direct from Jersey Boys, Russell Fischer will make his New York Cabaret debut in UNCHARTED at The Triad Theatre, 158 West 72nd Street. Mr. Fischer revisits performing experiences from his backyard to Broadway, drawing inspiration from Musical Theater to Pop/Rock. UNCHARTED is co-written by Fischer and Peter Gregus (Jersey Boys), directed by Gregus with musical direction by Joshua Stephen Kartes.

Russell Fischer: UNCHARTED is a presentation of Lee Summers’ Just A Piano Concert Series, which celebrates its sixth year at the Triad Theatre. Since 2006 The Just A Piano Series has presented top recording artists, Broadway stars, Tony Award and Grammy Award Winners in a beautiful intimate setting.

In his JBB EXCLUSIVE Interview, Russell gave us some wonderful details on his upcoming performance at The Triad and it’s going to be an awesome evening!

For More Information Find Russell Fischer: UNCHARTED and Lee Summers’ Just A PianoConcert Series on Facebook.

Cover $15 + 2-drink minimum (cash only). Advance sales and more information: www.brownpapertickets.com.

The Triad Theatre is located at 158 West 72nd Street (between Broadway & Columbus). For More information visit: www.triadnyc.com.

Legendary Frankie Valli stated, “Believe it or not, I’ve never been on what everybody calls a vacation in my life I am on vacation. I do what I love and when you’re doing what you love, there’s nothing better than that.”

With JERSEY BOYS making a return visit to the Fox Theatre in Atlanta from May 22-June 10, Kristi Casey Sanders has a fabulous interview with JB co-writer Rick Elice, who explains how and why the show happened:

According to Jersey Boys’ co-creator Rick Elice, the show exists because of three miracles that took place between October 2003 and October 2004. The first: Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio gave Elice and writing partner Marshall Brickman permission to create a musical based on their lives using Four Seasons music. The second: Broadway director-producer Des McAnuff committed to the project before one line of dialogue had been written. And the third: Valli and Gaudio first saw the musical in a theater, surrounded by an enthusiastic audience, instead of in a barren rehearsal hall, where they might have been tempted to pull the plug on the whole project.

“The gods of theater were smiling on all of us when we were making this show,” Elice says.

Visit EncoreAtlanta.com for the full interview.

**One of our fave followers on Twitter just made an excellent point: “4 miracles …. the 4th is the Rick Elice & Marshall Brickman partnership.” We couldn’t agree more!!

BREAKING NEWS from BroadwayWorld.com: JERSEY BOYS, the Tony, Olivier and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical, has announced the return of John Lloyd Young who won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role as Frankie Valli. Young will again perform the role of Frankie Valli on Broadway from Tuesday, July 3 through Sunday, September 30.

John Lloyd Young won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World awards for his Broadway debut as Frankie Valli. He is the lead singer on the Grammy-winning, certified-Platinum JERSEY BOYS original Broadway cast album. Young played Marius in Les Miserables at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and guest starred on “Glee.” Offstage, Young is a successful artist. His pieces sell at East and West Coast fine art galleries, have raised tens of thousands for charity, and a JLY piece hangs at L.A.’s famed restaurant, Spago. Young will soon present his debut album. www.johnlloydyoung.com

JERSEY BOYS opened on Broadway to critical acclaim on November 6, 2005 at the August Wilson Theatre. The show is currently playing in New York; Las Vegas; London; Auckland, New Zealand; in cities across the U.S. on two National Tours and a production will open in Singapore in November 2012.

John Lloyd Young will be joined on Broadway by Matt Bogart (Nick Massi), Quinn VanAntwerp (Bob Gaudio) and Andy Karl (Tommy DeVito) as The Four Seasons; with Peter Gregus and Mark Lotito. The cast also includes Miles Aubrey, Erik Bates, Jared Bradshaw, Cara Cooper, Ken Dow, John Edwards, Russell Fischer, Katie O’Toole, Joe Payne, Jessica Rush, Dominic Scaglione Jr., Nathan Scherich, Sara Schmidt and Taylor Sternberg.

WELCOME BACK, JLY!!

So, how surprised are you guys about this BIG NEWS about JLY?!?

JERSEY BOYS Broadway’s Jarrod Spector made an announcement on Twitter this morning:

My big news: After 1400 performances as Frankie Valli, I am leaving Jersey Boys as of June 4th to do a new show. More to come…

Jarrod has played the role of pop icon Frankie Valli on Broadway since September 30, 2008, after rave performances in the same role in the JB San Francisco and Chicago companies.

We congratulate Jarrod on his phenomenal JERSEY BOYS run and wish him the best in his upcoming future endeavors!

Jersey Boys second national tour swing cast member Carlos Valdes

The Marietta Daily Journal’s Davia L. Mosley has a terrific interview with JERSEY BOYS second national tour swing cast member, Frankie Valli understudy, and Pebblebrook graduate Carlos Valdes. Carlos is a member of the JB Company who will be playing at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta from May 22 through June 10.

Valdes, 23, came to the U.S. when he was 5. His family moved to Miami first and settled in Marietta when he was around 12 years old. He said actors such as Jim Carrey got him interested in performing.

Valdes had the chance to play the Valli role a while back and the reporter asked him about the experience:

“It was definitely, absolutely the most difficult, unbelievable theater experience I have ever had in my entire life,” he said. “It’s a 2½-hour show, and Frankie Valli practically never leaves the stage. It’s pretty much non-stop energy. I remember the first time was like this purging, Baptismal experience.”

Portraying the music legend is a responsibility he is proud to take on. “I feel so fortunate and humbled by that experience simply because you get the chance to render an American cultural icon on stage,” Valdes said. “People not only get to have a glimpse into an incredibly important figure in the development American culture and music — I get to tell a touching and personal story. People are there reliving that music and reliving that time.”

Click HERE to read the full story.

Time to VOTE!! It’s time for the 2012 BroadwayWorld.com Awards! Vote for JERSEY BOYS in the following categories:

• Best Long-Running Broadway Show
• Best Touring Production

Click HERE to vote.

Russ Simmons gives a fabulous review to the JERSEY BOYS second national tour’s production athe Music Hall in Kansas City. Here’s a preview:

The rousing, well-staged and engaging touring production of “Jersey Boys,” now on stage at Kansas City’s Music Hall, goes a long way to dispel the negative connotations usually associated with jukebox musicals.

“Jersey Boys” is an energetic crowd pleaser. As the group asks the audience the musical question “Who Loves You?” at the show’s finale, it’s clear that the affection goes both ways.

Visit Fox4KC.com to read the full review.