Frankie Valli Meets JB Toronto’s ‘Frankie’ Jeff Madden!
November 2nd, 2009
Frankie Valli, right, sat down with his stage counterpart Jeff Madden, left, who has the role of the singer in JERSEY BOYS. (Photo Credit: RENÉ JOHNSTON/TORONTO STAR)
Toronto Star’s Theatre Critic Richard Ouzounian covers the meeting of two JERSEY BOYS–Frankie Valli – the lead singer of The Four Seasons – and Jeff Madden – the actor who’s playing him in Jersey Boys – walked across the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel and shook hands like old friends.
And in a way, they were.
Valli had been allowing the younger man to live his life on the stage of the Toronto Centre for the Arts, while Madden had poured all his energies for the past year into playing Valli.
Valli was in town prior to his Nov. 6 appearance at Massey Hall, an interesting chance for Torontonians to compare “the real thing” with the Jersey Boys version at the same time.
Madden is understandably the more nervous of the pair. (“I’ve had a knot in my gut for days,” he confides privately before the meeting starts.) After all, you don’t meet icons every day.
On the other hand, Valli is easygoing and gracious. He’s sat down with other guys who’ve played him in Jersey Boys before – since, as he puts it, “there’s seven other companies of the show out there.”
But there’s instantly something special between these two.
“You know, I must have seen the show over 20 times,” Valli says, “sometimes I still think it’s a dream and maybe I’ll wake up and find it isn’t real.”
“That’s kind of how I feel, too,” grins Madden.
Visit TheStar.com to read the full details on the two performers’ meeting.
Read the full article for very insightful comments from Frankie Valli.
This is a great article and it must be very gratifying for the various ‘Frankies’ that Frankie Valli would take the time and effort to meet with them to first acknowledge, recognize and validate them for the monumental role they are performing and offer encouragement and provide very astute advice and perspective into handling and balancing both their professional and personal lives, which any performer and particularly those in live entertainment should aspire to adhere to.
Comment by Sylvia — November 3, 2009 @ 10:26 pm