June 19, 2011

Jersey Boys Work Their Way Back to Cleveland June 22-July 17 at Playhouse Square!

June 19th, 2011

With the JERSEY BOYS national tour production returning to Cleveland’s Playhouse Square July 22-July 17, Vidny.com’s John Benson has a fun preview and interview with Joseph Leo Bwarie, who shares from interesting stories about the tour’s first time in Cleveland. Here’s a sneak peek:

The idea that a musical about a rough and tumble group would lead to fisticuffs in the audience didn’t surprise “Jersey Boys” lead Joseph Bwarie. What did catch the California native off guard was the fact a fight famously took place in Cleveland during opening night of the Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons musical a few years ago at Playhouse Square.

“It had to do with someone yelling and someone’s older mother,” said Bwarie, calling from St. Louis. “And everyone in Cleveland is so nice, that’s why it was shocking to us. Like when we played Rhode Island, there’s a lot of Jersey guys there. So, sure, maybe there’s a big Italian brawl. But Cleveland?”

Cleveland rocks and Cleveland brawls, apparently; however, this is nothing new to Bwarie, who over the past four years has been in more than 1,000 “Jersey Boy” productions. He said when it comes to fights in the audience, the show must go on.

“What happens is they fight as much as they can during the show without causing a huge scene and then they take it to the lobby,” Bwarie said. “Now production-wise, there will be nights where something technically goes wrong or we have a fire alarm or medical emergency and we stop the show. But for just fights, we don’t stop the show. We keep going.”

Considering the cast is playing a bunch of tough Jersey boys, it’s apropos they take on the rough personas of Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi, a group of blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks, and don’t let a scrap here or there in the audience interrupt their show.

Read the full story on Vindy.com.

1 Comment »

  1. lol People actually fight during the show? How embarrassing.

    Comment by Mirra — July 2, 2011 @ 5:48 pm

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