Jersey Boys Blog

We’re excited to present another interview with one of the Jersey Girls–Sara Schmidt! Before her Sunday afternoon performance on August 5, Sara chatted about what’s been happening over the past year, the excitement of her upcoming “Journey to Jersey Boys” show, how she thinks the show and the many characters she plays have evolved since the early days, and some other surprising details.

JBB: Thanks for meeting with us, Sara! Great to see you again! The last time we chatted was right after the Tonys. Have there been any major unexpected surprises over the last year or so?

SS: The fact that we’re all still here. The fact that as a company, not many people have left. Some have moved on to play Jersey Boys on the tour, but we’ve been really lucky to stick together as a whole group. We get along; it works really well; it’s still a fantastic show; and it’s fun. I’m just amazed that a year later, we’re all still together.

JBB: Your upcoming “Journey to Jersey Boys” show sounds incredible! Are you excited about the big show next week?

SS: It’s an honor to be a part of it! We had our first rehearsal a couple weeks ago. These are the people that I sit with on a nightly basis and see every day and I know they are talented in Jersey Boys, but when these girls and Travis opened their mouths to sing, it was very special! It’s so nice to hear everybody do what they do best–Jennifer, Erica, and Heather, especially!

JBB: How do you think Jersey Boys has evolved since the early days on Broadway?

SS: That’s tough; hopefully it hasn’t changed too much because the director would be upset with us (chuckles).

Compared to the very beginning, it’s a lot smoother; it’s slick; and it just flows together really quickly and seamlessly. Where, in the beginning, you’re just still getting used to it and you’re not sure what’s going on with costume changes, wigs, and backstage patterns. That’s all really simple now. Also, when you’re doing a show this long, there’s more of an understanding of how to conserve your energy and give exactly what you need to do, so you can maintain yourself and the show for the whole three hours a night.

JBB: What percentage of the show happens backstage that we don’t see?

SS: There’s a whole process backstage with everybody. You know if you’re going on the right side or the left side of somebody, and the same thing happens every night, and you expect that person to be there. If they’re not there, we think, ‘What’s going on?’ There’s a whole different thing going on backstage!

JBB: You play so many characters in Jersey Boys. How do you think they’ve changed or evolved over time?

SS: I hope I’ve gotten better at it with the timing of jokes. I also think I’ve gotten better at set changes, or simple things like the pushing in of a chair—not to take away from what the main characters are doing on stage.

For example, in the church scene, I think the five of us that are on stage at any given night have a really good sense of how to read the audience and how to play the joke. We’ve done it so many times. If we have a really dead audience, you can do a little bit more; if we have a really smart audience, we can do a bit less. At that point, you can kind of read it, and then that sets it up for Frankie and Mary Delgado’s pizza scene. Then, they can have a sense of what the audience is on any given night. Friday audiences are much different than Tuesday nights; Wednesday afternoons are different than Sundays. So, you just have to have a sense of who you’re performing for, and that’s gotten easier as we’ve done it so many times. I know you have to keep the show the same every night, but there’s a delicate balance of being able to sense who you’re with.

JBB: Do you think there’s a certain audience that brings out the best in the production?

SS: All the audiences we have are great; and every single person that comes is great. But the people who are truly from New Jersey and grew up with this music at this time, those men that stand up and get weepy thinking about it, bring out the best. They are just so excited. The four actors that play The Four Seasons stop becoming actors and the audiences are so taken with them, that it becomes a reality rather a Broadway show, which is pretty cool. It looks like the men in the audience have just had the best three hours of their lives that they’ve had in a long time.

JBB: Is there anything that you’ve discovered about yourself since becoming a Jersey Boys cast member that you didn’t know before?

SS: That I really like this job! I’m a happy person; I enjoy coming to work! It’s the best part of my day. It’s nice having a job that you know you’re going to have for a while. You don’t have to stress about the auditions. At one point, I looked through a newspaper one day, and realized that I had auditioned for 80-85% of the shows. I’m proud of being in Jersey Boys, and it’s really nice to come to work every day!

Thank you again to Sara Schmidt for taking the time for this fascinating interview and we wish her all the best on Broadway!