November 12, 2015

Jersey Boys Original Cast Members Peter Gregus, Mark Lotito & Sara Schmidt Reflect on Ten Years on @BroadwayWorld! #JerseyBoys10

November 12th, 2015
From top: Mark Lotito, Sara Schmidt & Peter Gregus (Photo Credit: Walter McBride)

From top: Mark Lotito, Sara Schmidt & Peter Gregus (Photo Credit: Walter McBride)

Great interview with JB original cast members Peter Gregus (who began at La Jolla Playhouse), Mark Lotito, and Sara Schmidt, who have some wonderful reflections on their time with JB and why the show has been such a big success.

One of the unique things about the show is the role that the audience plays.

Mark Lotito: Yes, as hard as this is to believe, it is never the same from night to night.

Sara Schmidt: It’s true, even though it’s the same fourteen people on stage, there’s 1,222 new people in the audience.

Peter Gegus: It’s so funny because right from the beginning, Des [McAnuff], our director said you can’t judge an audience as a single entity, they’re not one person, they are thousands of people and they’re all receiving the show in a different way. So whether they’re receiving it in a gregarious, loud way, or in a quiet introspective way, you can’t take all that on, you have to play to the audience that’s in front of you, but know that they’re getting the story, know that they’re involved and invested in it.

I had the honor of being dance captain for five years, so I was able to come out and watch the show once or twice a month, so I knew on various nights, a quieter Wednesday for example, I’d go backstage and the cast would be like, ‘wow, they’re really quiet tonight,’ and I’d be like, ‘no they’re not, they’re just ingesting it in a different way but they’re still enthusiastic.’ And I feel that way today, the audiences are from all over the world now, that’s a big part of who we’re entertaining now, it’s a very different audience from the first couple of years, but still, at the end of the day, people who speak no english at all, they hear ‘Oh What a Night’ and they recognize it and they connect with the music on a whole different level. It’s really amazing.

Click HERE to read the full interview.

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