Actor Chosen for Nick Massi Role in JB National Tour
August 31st, 2006Chicago Sun Theatre Critic Hedy Weiss reports that Michael Ingersoll has won a lead role in the Jersey Boys’ national tour.
Weiss noted that when the Pegasus Players’ production of Jonathan Larson’s musical tick, tick … BOOM! opened here in May, actor Michael Ingersoll — who had moved to Chicago just seven months earlier — it earned raves. In her review of the show, Weiss mentioned that she was tempted to slip Ingersoll a note with the message: “Start learning the score for Jersey Boys; you might have a real shot at that hit show’s national tour.”
Well, it is now official: Ingersoll, 27, has been cast as Nick Massi in the first national touring company of Jersey Boys.
Rehearsals for Jersey Boys will begin in late October, right after Ingersoll closes in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change at the Metropolis Theatre in Arlington Heights, where he will co-star with his wife, actress Angela Ingersoll, beginning Sept. 14.
The Jersey Boys tour is set to open in December for a 14-week run in San Francisco, with a visit to Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre, scheduled for May through July 2007. There’s no word yet on any Chicago date.
What’s Ingersoll saying about the big news? He confessed,
“Frankly, when that mention of ‘Jersey Boys’ appeared in the review, I hadn’t even heard of the show. “And I still haven’t seen the Broadway production yet — just clips on the Internet.”