Jersey Boys Blog

Photos courtesy of John Howard.

By Audrey Rockman, Jersey Boys Blog Special Correspondent

Many of us have anxiously awaited the release of “Farm Girl in New York” (http://www.farmgirlny.com/), since first learning about the project last summer, but probably no one more so than Bobby Spencer, himself. The film, which was selected for screening at the four-day Big Apple Film Festival, showed at New York City’s Tribeca Cinemas on November 15th to a sold out group. The 6 pm schedule began with three short films. Of the 54 films in the festival, only five were longer than the 82 minute ‘Farm Girl’; some less than ten minutes.

J. Robert Spencer first conceived the story line of two guys setting up a fictitious audition in NYC to meet girls- years ago and went on to collaborate with friend, Jeffrey Schecter and Josh Wade in writing it when the three were living in Los Angeles. It was put on ice for a while when Bobby was cast as the late Nick Massi in Jersey Boys as the 2006 Tony winning show did its pre-Broadway run in La Jolla. Last summer, Bobby had a chance to share the script and vision with Joseph J. Grano, Jr., one of the JB producers. Mr. Grano liked what he saw and gave the nod for the project, assuming the role of Executive Producer, and Bobby was on his way- directing the film, beginning just a year ago.

As Bobby told the story from the front of the screening room after-wards, his producer, Tai Burkholder, was on him the first few days into shooting because they were already behind schedule, which could have invited budget problems. With relentless, often 12 hour days, four days a week, they were soon- not only back on schedule- but managed to wrap up the filming stage three days ahead of schedule. Bobby and ‘Schecky’ (as Jeff goes by) were busy evenings and off-days with their respective Broadway roles; Bobby in Jersey Boys, and Schecter as Mike in A Chorus Line.

For Jersey Boys fans, it was nice to see musical credits for OBC member Tituss Burgess- as well as seeing Heather Ferguson and Michael Longoria with parts in the film, but who got a noticeable reaction when he appeared on camera in a street scene? Our own former August Wilson security guard, Dave McCoy!

Given that it was a show night, strike or not, cast members were not available, since strike guidelines dictate that all performers sign in and spend some time at the theater. Personally in need of a ticket, I got to the box office about 20 minutes before it opened, an hour before the screening, having heard there might be ten tickets held back for sale at the door in view of the sell-out.

With promotional coverage including a national ‘Today Show’ interview that morning, one can only hope that tickets will be left in a 100 seat theater. Besides, you know tickets are hot when the first person standing in line hoping to get tickets for some key people, is Tai, the show’s producer! Fortunately, most of the people were able to get a seat against all odds on that somewhat rainy night.

Bobby had alerted the Today Show audience that the movie was ‘stupid’ with a huge dose of fun. I was prepared for a film that might have been more conducive to the mindset of my college days at Virginia Tech, but that was not the case. I had also braced myself for slapstick to be a dominant theme, but I was not completely on target there, either.

Sure, there was a lot of silliness with the employees of the Oink, Oink Grocery Store and Jeff’s character talking on the phone at work with a brawl going on in the hall behind him as well as the proverbial revolving bedroom door of Josh’s character, all the while, Jeff is working at his computer, oblivious to his roommate’s ‘auditioning’ of women.

But there was also a quirky relationship between two friends- Sam (Jeffrey Schecter) and Matt (Josh Wade), who were well cast for these roles. It was hard to imagine, what Bobby told the audience during the Q & A after-wards- that the roles had started out matched up exactly opposite. Every actor in the film was cast in the perfect slot in my opinion- with professional camera work and editing. Bobby explained how budget considerations forced them to come up with creative filming solutions when time was not on their side.

The evolving love story between Mary (Alison Munn- currently in the TV series, Carpool) and Sam was touching…okay, by Hollywood standards. Sam struggles with art- the script he has in the stage reading- imitating life as he stumbles with those three little words as he plays opposite Mary, the object of his affection. It is an endearing story with lots of humor that only occasionally falls on the side of ‘stupid’, like when Mary asks Sam where he lives and Sam replies… the Upper West Side, just like her. Then she asks what street- bingo, once again; and then she asks how is he getting there- walking is his reply. She is hearing this all in blue, but he’s somehow thinking brown. It’s cute enough to frustrate Bob Gaudio as when he has to explain to Tommy what it means to ‘walk like a man’. Overall, the film, with Schecter’s lovestruck character, was endearing- yeah, with some slapstick, stupid aspects to it. If you get a chance to see it, don’t pass it up- there’s a lot of entertainment here…

Bobby has several options for its larger exposure/ distribution which he is considering. Fortunately, for the geographically-challenged, he joked that it could be sold in a year on DVD for a mere $80 with shipping and handling at a reasonable $100. That’s a ‘Jersey Boy in New York’ for ya…