Jersey Boys’ Supporting Actors: Part One
March 10th, 2006The Jersey Boys Blog is long overdue in spotlighting the eight versatile supporting actors who play multiple roles in the smash ht musical. These actors, Tituss Burgess, Steve Gouveia, Peter Gregus, Donnie Kehr, John Leone, Mark Lotito, Michael Longoria, and Dominic Nolfi, play everything from a horoscope-obsessed record producer to a deejay to a tough mobster. In Part I, we’re going to highlight the careers of Titus Burgess, Steve Gouveia, and Peter Gregus.
Tituss Burgess: A native of Athens, Georgia, Tituss Burgess grew up singing in his church and began directing the choir during his junior year in high school. After graduating in 2001 with a BA in Music from the University of Georgia, Burgess moved to New York City in 2003. Shortly after moving to the Big Apple, he left town to perform for ten months in “The Festival of the Lion King” at Walt Disney World. Once back in NYC, he landed a four-month gig at a Connecticut production of “La Cage aux Folles.”
Following his great performance during La Jolla Playhouse’s run of Jersey Boys, Burgess made his Broadway debut as Eddie in Good Vibrations. In the Broadway production of Jersey Boys, Burgess plays multiple roles including Hal Miller, singing “An Angel Cried,” a rap artist singing the French version of “Oh What a Night,” and a deejay.
Burgess will perform a night of all original R & B music on Monday, March 13 at The Bitter End (147 Bleecker St, between Thompson & LaGuardia) beginning at 9PM.
Steve Gouveia: Jersey Boys marks Steve Gouveia’s Broadway debut, where he plays 50′s musician Hank Majewski, in addition to several other roles. Gouveia is also understudy for the parts of Bob Gaudio and Nick Massi.
Gouveia has performed in a number of regional productions including Jersey Boys at La Jolla Playhouse, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues, Hair, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Peter Gregus: In Jersey Boys, Peter Gregus plays the astrology-obsessed record producer and lyricist Bob Crewe. Additionally, he is dance captain and fight captain in the production.
Over the past several years, Gregus has performed on Broadway in the original cast of Contact and in Ain’t Broadway Grand. Other New York theatre performances have included A Christmas Carol (Madison Square Garden) and Sinatra (for Des McAnuff, Radio City). On film, he was cast as an accountant in “The Producers” and has had television roles in daytime soap operas “All My Children” and “Days of Our Lives.”
Critics have been impressed with the actors. According to Nytheatre.com’s Mark Denton, “Steve Gouveia and Tituss Burgess play seemingly a hundred other characters—everyone else in the crowded, almost-epic story.” Additonally, Denton notes that Gregus plays Four Seasons’ producer and guiding spirit, Bob Crewe, “with enormous panache and good humor.”
Coming Soon: Part Two–featuring Donnie Kehr, Michael Longoria, and Mark Lotito.
