November 21, 2007

Jeff Leibow Gets His Big Break in Jersey Boys!

November 21st, 2007

Chad Jones of InsideBayArea.com notes that it’s not often that a performer goes from gigs at the Willows Theatre Company in Concord, TheatreWorks in Mountain View and Pleasanton Playhouse in Pleasanton to one of the hottest Broadway musicals in recent memory. That’s exactly what has happened to Jeff Leibow, a former Pleasanton resident who now lives with his wife, Melody, in East Palo Alto. But he won’t be spending much time at home. Leibow is currently onstage at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, where he’s playing Nick Massi, one of the Four Seasons in the hit musical “Jersey Boys.”

This is Leibow’s big break. After an exhausting audition process that took him from Las Vegas to Los Angeles to New York, Leibow received word that he got the gig while having lunch with his wife.

“I threw my arms up in the air, like Rocky, and wanted to scream, but we were in a restaurant, and I didn’t want to seem like a crazy man,” Leibow says.

Rehearsals in New York have been intense. The new cast learned the score in two days with one day of review, then immediately started blocking. The company flew to San Francisco last week, and performances began yesterday.

So far, Leibow says he’s bonding with his fellow Seasons — Rick Faugno (Frankie Valli), Bryan McElroy (Tommy DeVito) and Andrew Rannells (Bob Gaudio).

“Honestly, I’ve never been in a cast so humble, so easy to work with,” Leibow says. “Usually there’s one or two actors who need to be at the top of the hierarchy, who wave their arms and shout, ‘I’m the best.’ But this group is so focused on making this show good. They’re so easy to get along with and so incredibly talented. Maybe I’m just in a dream state because this is such a great experience.”

4 Comments »

  1. Love it! Jeff’s a great Nick, too.

    Comment by Leanna — November 21, 2007 @ 2:29 pm

  2. Jeff’s Nick is great. Different from how I’ve seen other people play Nick but it still works. And he gets bonus points in my book for being from the Bay Area and a UC Davis alumnus.

    Comment by Mike — November 21, 2007 @ 2:58 pm

  3. Thanks so much for posting this article. I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff this past summer as I took my place in the Standing Room area at the August Wilson and thought to myself, “Now there is a guy who would represent this show well.”

    (If I was at the restaurant when you got the good news, I would’ve said- go for it…as an actor, I bet you could’ve done a great ‘crazy man’.)

    Jeff, I wish you and the rest of the cast, all the best in Jersey Boys and really look forward to the day I’ll get to see you on stage.

    Comment by Audrey — November 22, 2007 @ 8:36 am

  4. Break a leg Jeff! Make yourself and the SF Bay Area proud!

    Comment by Tina Cherie — January 20, 2008 @ 10:45 pm

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