Joseph Leo Bwarie and the Challenges of the Frankie Valli Role
July 21st, 2011
Joseph Leo Bwarie (Photo by: Joan Marcus)
Blogger Damien Jacques has posted a recent interview with JERSEY BOYS national tour’s Frankie Valli, Joseph Leo Bwarie, who chats about the process of becoming and playing legendary pop star Frankie Valli. Here’s a preview:
The final callback is the moment of truth for an actor. You have made it to the short list, beating out perhaps hundreds of competitors to be among the three or four or five stage artists placed under the casting microscope in a high stakes audition. Your career could be changed forever by the outcome.Pressure? Add this to the mix. You would be playing a real, high profile person who has final approval on whether you get the job.
This is the process for casting the actors who portray singer Frankie Valli in the hit musical “Jersey Boys.” The title refers to Valli’s band The Four Seasons. The musical tells the story of their rough and tumble rise from the streets of New Jersey to pop-rock superstardom in the 1960s.
Add the understudies for each troupe, and there are a lot of Frankie Valli impersonators running around. They must be dark, diminutive – Valli is reportedly 5′ 4″ – and be able to hit those high notes.
“I’m a whopping 5-6,” reports Joseph Leo Bwarie, the actor who is portraying Frankie here. “Everybody says I look just like him, and I say, you must have been sitting in the balcony.”
Visit OnMilwaukee.com to read the entire post.
Love Joe!
Comment by JuliaTucker — July 21, 2011 @ 7:10 pm