Sneak Peek of Nick Cosgrove’s Sun Times Interview!
May 18th, 2012Nick Cosgrove, who plays Frankie Valli at the Tuesday evening shows and at Wednesday matinees in the JERSEY BOYS first national tour company, recently spoke with reporter Miriam De Nunzio. The 24-year-old actor from Park Ridge with a four-octave vocal range, talked to the Sun-Times about playing to the hometown crowd. Below is a preview:
Question: How did you decide that a life in theater was the road you wanted to take?
Nick Cosgrove: I sang before I could talk, and I didn’t talk until I was 3. But then I started watching “Sesame Street†and my mom got me these Disney DVDs and suddenly I was singing all over the house. Then I started singing in church at Our Lady of Ransom in Niles and cantoring when I was in second grade. I was so short I couldn’t even reach the podium. But I liked singing in front of people. The first time I officially performed in a play was at Maine South when they were having auditions at my grammar school for third-graders [to play the kids] for “The Will Rogers Follies.†I played they youngest one, Freddie Rogers. That led to a talent show at my grammar school where I dressed up in a pinstriped suit and sang Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York.â€
Visit SunTimes.com for the full interview with Nick.
Park Ridge was where I was visiting in November, 1962 when “Big Girls Don’t Cry” was topping the charts! Chicago figured prominently in the rise of early Four Seasons songs to the top of the charts! I flipped back and forth between WLS 890, the Top 40 station, and WYNR 1390(Winner), the R & B station, and sometimes heard BGDC twice an hour! WYNR had just previously been WGES, which was one of the first stations where Vivian Carter, the “Vee” of Vee-Jay Records, had worked. Even though there had been some controversy over a recent format shift, WYNR remained a Rhythm and Blues leaning station, and the Vee Jay executives were close to the people there, and broke the Four Seasons records very early. That probably was one reason that BGDC and “Sherry” became #1 Hits on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Charts, as well as the Hot 100.
Comment by Ted Hammond — May 18, 2012 @ 11:36 pm
Just as a background for this lame attempt at a joke, Park Ridge is a part of Maine Township, as is Des Plaines.
Perhaps Nick Cosgrove will someday write a musical about growing up in Park Ridge. One of the musical numbers will have the line:
The Rain In Maine,
Falls Mainly On Des Plaines!
Comment by Ted — August 17, 2013 @ 6:38 am