Jersey Boys Blog

By Howard Tucker, Special Correspondent

The Actress, Singer, and Casting Director

For one night only, Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 8:15 PM at the Laurie Beechman Theater, Jersey Boys friend and fan, and my friend of seventeen years, Jana Robbins (www.janarobbins.com), will reprise her one woman cabaret act, “ONE HELL OF A RIDE!: The Songs of Cy Coleman”, which ran for three months in New York, and toured the country.

The Laurie Beechman Theater is located at the West Bank Cafe 407 West 42nd Street. Doors open for dinner at 7:15PM and you can call for reservations at 212-695-6909.

Like the Jersey Boys cast members, Jana has appeared in benefit performances for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids. She produced the Gypsy company’s AIDS benefit starring Tyne Daly and Jule Styne.

I met Jana in 1990 through an aspiring actor friend when she starred in Gypsy as Mazeppa—“the bump it with a trumpet stripper”—and was the standby for Tyne Daly in the lead of Mama Rose, a role she played for 40 performances to critical acclaim.

Her Broadway, off-Broadway, and touring roles read like a history of Broadway: Mama Rose in Gypsy; Aldonza in Man Of La Mancha; Fanny Brice in Funny Girl; The Leader in Zorba; Anita in West Side Story; Sally Bowles in Cabaret; Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Bessie Berger in Awake and Sing, and many others! Most recently, Jana played a wonderful Lee Green (AKA Lillian Greenberg) opposite Valerie Harper in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, after covering both Linda Lavin and Michele Lee on Broadway in what is arguably my favorite non-musical.

She has also done considerable film and television. Her television shows include roles on “Cheers,” “JAG,” “Babylon 5,” “Roseanne,” “Law and Order,” “L & O: SVU,” and “L & O: Criminal Intent.” Her feature films include “Haunted Heart” starring Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis; “Executive Target” starring Michael Madsen & Roy Scheider; and “The Last Days of Frankie the Fly” starring Dennis Hopper, Daryl Hannah & Kiefer Sutherland. Jana also helped to develop,cast and produce this film.

Her CD, “Jana Robbins: Face to Face” on Original Cast Records, is available at Footlights, CDBaby.com, and Amazon.com.

The Producer

Jana’s production company– Better World Productions –is dedicated to making a difference in the quality of our lives by “presenting theater and film entertainment that inspires us to create a Better World.”

Jana made her Broadway producing debut with Little Women starring Sutton Foster and Maureen McGovern, and her Off-Broadway producing debut with I Love You Because at The Village Theater on Bleeker Street.

Jana’s present production, is The Great Game by D. Tucker Smith, directed by 2006 Tony-nominated Wilson Milam (The Lieutenant of Inishmore). The Great Game has played at Duke University in North Carolina to glowing reviews, and the producers and investors (of which I’m one) are hoping to see it on Broadway in time for the 2008 Tony Awards. (I have my tux ready, Jana!)

“ONE HELL OF A RIDE”–Wednesday April 18, 2007

The following is Jana’s message to all of us who have celebrated these marvelous years with her and to her newest fans:

To My Friends:

April 18 this year will be a special evening, and I’m thrilled to be doing a newly directed version of “ONE HELL OF A RIDE (The Songs of Cy Coleman)” that night at The Laurie Beechman Theater, when I will also invite my Mother to join me on stage for a song and to make her NYC cabaret debut just 4 weeks before her 85th Birthday.

I really hope that you will be there.

Love,
Jana