Happy Birthday to Rick Elice!
November 17th, 2008
The stars are definitely in alignment today–as not one–but two Jersey Boys geniuses are celebrating their birthdays!! We wish Jersey Boys co-writer Rick Elice a very Happy Birthday today!
How did the Jersey Boys project happen? Elice and Marshall Brickman were looking to do something together. As luck would have it, friends had arranged a meeting with Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio, the last two active members of the group and the ones who controlled the Four Seasons’ rights. Brickman says, “They wanted to do their ‘Mama Mia.’ We had a lunch with them and they opened up about their early life, about getting mobbed up, and it was just a wonderful story. It was Shakespearean. It had love, hate, betrayal, jealousy.†And what a story Rick and Marshall told!!
Following the success of Jersey Boys, Brickman and Elice collaborated on Turn of the Century, the new Tommy Tune-directed musical about late-20th-century performers traveling 100 years back in time and singing songs that would become famous. This musical ended its run November 2 at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. Co-librettist Rick Elice told the Chicago Tribune that he and co-writer Marshall Brickman and director Tune have been meeting to discuss refinements for future mountings.
“We’re hoping to get to New York next summer,” Elice told the paper. “And we want to try and take the piece to another [out-of-town] theatre before then.”
Additionally, Elice and Brickman will be back in Chicago in November 2009 for the world premiere pre-Broadway run of the musical The Addams Family, for which they are writing the libretto!
We wish Rick Elice all the best on his birthday and are looking SO forward to his upcoming projects!!
Have a Happy Birthday Rick! The few times I’ve met you it was always a wonderful moment, you treat JB fans like the cast does. You’re a very warm, funny and generous man
It was such a pleasure to meet you.
Thank You, Jody
Comment by Jody Cardillo — November 17, 2008 @ 10:46 am
Pondering your luminous writing; following your future projects; reflecting on your everyday story-telling and warm personality… all of it makes the hair on the back of one’s neck stand up and thank God for the day YOU were born, Rick.
Comment by Audrey — November 17, 2008 @ 1:52 pm
Happy Birthday, Rick! I know I speak for thousands of Jersey Boys fans when I say, “we think the world of you.” IE
Comment by irene eizen — November 17, 2008 @ 9:54 pm
Happy Birthday Rick!
You are definitely One in a Million…bringing us the Jersey Boys phenomenon…Turn of the Century & the soon to be Addams Family on the horizon.
Hope you are having a blast on your special day…thanks for your friendship!
Comment by NewJerseyLasagna — November 17, 2008 @ 10:27 pm
Rick, you’ve added so much to my and so many others’ lives that I’m so thrilled you’ve experienced such great success with “Jersey Boys”. “Do good things, and good things happenâ€, as they say.
Rick, may all your wishes re “Turn of the Century†( and “The Addams Family†come true in this new and wonderful birthday year. Hope your day was as great as you have been to all of us.
Comment by Howard Tucker — November 17, 2008 @ 10:47 pm
Happy birthday, Rick. Thanks so much for what you’ve given to Jersey Boys fans and for what’s to come in the future. Continued success.
Comment by stubbleyou — November 17, 2008 @ 11:53 pm
Rick, I am almost certain that everyone who sat down at their computer to wish you a Happy Birthday here and on the November Birthday Forum link had a great big smile on their face as they composed their messages for you. You’ve brought joy to our lives through Jersey Boys and you have welcomed us as friends. You have a unique way of making people feel special as they wish you a Happy Birthday! Looking forward to your new productions!
Comment by LuluThompson — November 18, 2008 @ 12:08 am
Rick, I was fortunate to meet and talk with you after John Lloyd Young’s concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center earlier this year. You’re bright, funny, and personable, and it was thrill talking with you about “Jersey Boys” and your other upcoming projects. Hoping you had a special time on your birthday yesterday, and wishing you all the best for a great year ahead. I can’t wait to see both “Turn of the Century” and “The Addams Family” on Broadway. Happy birthday!!
Comment by Len Gersten — November 18, 2008 @ 5:01 pm