Happy Birthday to Rick Elice!
November 17th, 2006Jersey Boys Blog wishes a Happy Birthday to Rick Elice!
Along with Bob Gaudio celebrating his 64th birthday today, Jersey Boys‘ co-writer Rick Elice is celebrating his 51st birthday!!
Rick Elice saw his first Broadway show at the age of three. From that day on, he dreamed of working in the theater. From the age of 19, he has. He has a BA from Cornell University and MFA from Yale Drama School. From 1982 through 2000, he served as creative director at Serino Coyne, where he produced ad campaigns for some 300 Broadway shows, from A Chorus Line to The Lion King. Since 2000, he has served as creative consultant for the Walt Disney Studios. In addition, to his Broadway production and promotion gigs, he wrote a popular thriller, Double Double, that’s been translated into 16 languages. As an actor, he has appeared Off-Broadway in Elaine May’s comedy, Adult Entertainment.
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.â€
