Paul Anka’s Jersey Boys’ Aspirations
December 18th, 2008Jerry Fink of the Las Vegas Sun has an interesting Q&A with the legendary Paul Anka in today’s edition. In a recent phone conversation, Anka talked about making a musical about his life. Turns out, the crooner of hits such as “Diana” and “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” has been inspired by JERSEY BOYS!
Six years ago Frankie Valli mentioned during an interview that he had just sold the rights to the Four Seasons’ story to be turned into a musical — a story that eventually became the Tony-winning “Jersey Boys†and is now playing at the Palazzo. Now, here was Anka, 67, talking about his “Jersey Boys†aspirations.
Q: What are you busy with these days?
A: What’s happened is I’m writing (an autobiography). I’m halfway done. I’m writing it with an editor over at Rolling Stone. From that, it’s kind of gotten out there about the book. I think with the success of “Jersey Boys†and Billy Joel (his musical “Movin’ Outâ€), I think there’s an open window for the indigenous type of things of pop music. I heard from two entities, very viable and important. I met with them recently. We went over a lot of material. We put something together and we’re going to meet out here again soon and pursue it and see where we go from there.
Q: What is the concept?
A: They want to do exactly what was done with “Jersey Boys.â€
Q: Would you bring it to Vegas?
A: I think yes if we have the success of “Jersey Boys.†But a lot of them don’t make it. Don’t think all of them have done well going from Broadway to Vegas. But I think because of my associations there and the content of the story it would have a real good shot there. But I don’t know yet if it would fit the mold.
Interesting…I was watching something on TV last night about the Bee Gees in negotiation with a hotel in Vegas to produce a show similar to Jersey Boys about their career. Hmmm…seems like our JB’s have started something here!
Comment by Helen — December 19, 2008 @ 5:52 am
I think Paul Ankas life story would be very interesting. We just saw him in concert, the man is still a great talent. I never knew he wrote over 2000 songs. I knew it was alot but not that many! Paul also shows videos of his life,from Diana to the present,it’s great.
Comment by THEA — December 24, 2008 @ 11:13 pm