June 17, 2006

Spotlight on JB Producer Grano

June 17th, 2006

In today’s New York Times’ “Your Money” column, longtime Wall Street executive Joseph J. Grano, Jr. is profiled.

Had Mr. Grano not chosen Frankie Valli to entertain some Merrill Lynch stockbrokers back in the 1970′s, Joseph J. Grano Jr. would not have been on stage at Radio City Music Hall at the Tony Awards last week. Turns out Grano helped to finance Jersey Boys, a Broadway show about Valli and the Four Seasons, which won the Tony for best musical.

The show’s backers were on the verge of recouping their investment before the award, said Mr. Grano, who received credit as a producer. With the show’s run having been extended into mid-2007, it could be “one of the all-time greats in terms of commercial success,” he said.

Mr. Grano said he befriended Mr. Valli and his songwriter, Bob Gaudio, about 28 years ago. Mr. Grano has been a financial adviser to the musicians and a few years ago helped to underwrite another musical by Mr. Gaudio, Peggy Sue Got Married.

That show, which opened in London in 2001, never made the leap to Broadway, in part because the 9/11 attack in New York made it too commercially risky. But Mr. Grano has not given up hope for Peggy Sue. “If I were to do another one,” he said, “it would be that one.”

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