I Blinked My Eyes, And We Were Done (Nov. 27)

before the dinner break, we were 82% of the way through the show...

"we'll get through fallen angel by the end of the night", i said to myself.

this evening, as i walked to my bus stop to take the tiring ride back, it amazed me that we just did the entire show!

now sure, the finale was a rough tech - we need to work out our spacing, the lights, the guitar balance, the costumes and wigs. but we ran it. the full company on stage. and at the black out, there was a cheer.

so what does that mean now? now we run the show. we clean up the rough spots. we get all the questions answered. i try to figure out what the hell to do with my hair and which black shoes i wear for which scenes...

i also want to take a second to talk about one of my cast mates; you see, my friends, when you are doing tech - many times you have to go back and run a scene a few times so the lighting and sound cues go perfectly. we, on average, are running scenes four times through to get things where they need to be. also in our show, the Frankie Valli character sings something like 26 songs in one night (a heavy load for any performer). our Frankie, Christopher Kale Jones, has been out there in tech, on stage, for about 7 hours/day. he is giving everything he has at all times and i just want to say i take off my hat to him for working so hard and singing as much as he is. that boy has pipes of steel and i can't imagine how tired he must be as he gets home every night. i just want him to know that we are all behind him and we think he is doing a fantastic job.

that being said, i also want to say how 1) our other three leads (Deven May, Erich Bergen and Michael Ingersoll) are all taking this show and making it into a tremendous piece of theatre every time they are on stage. 2) our Jersey Girls (Jackie Seiden, Melissa Strom and Sandra DeNise) are gorgeous and tearing up the stage. 3) all the ensemble in this show have been so supportive of each other and it's been such a privilege working with them.

okay, enough ass-kissing. the truth is, all these people know i love them and this cast is fucking incredible...

...and come December 10, San Francisco is going to be on its ass. seriously, the first National company of Jersey Boys is going to take this show and kick the crap out of the Bay area.

Tech Rehearsal = Less Blogs (Nov.25)

hello dear readers...

well i want to apologize for not posting in about 5 days. i might blame it on the tech rehearsals. i might blame it on the fact that the only place i have internet in my apartment is the north kitchen counter (i wish the people i was stealing it from would have a better connection rate). i might even blame it on the fact that i was at the theatre at 12:30pm yesterday and got back home at 12:45am.

nevertheless, i am excited to finally get some downtime during this second "10 out of 12" day to post some thoughts and catch you all up.

let's actually start on our day off - thanksgiving. the majority of the cast, musicians, and crew met at some French restaurant for a very nice sit down thanksgiving meal. i was even surprised with a wonderful rendition of "happy birthday" and some delicious chocolate and vanilla cake. a BIG thank you to Jennifer Evans for setting that up (so sweet). after that, about 14 of us escaped to the AMC on Ven Ness to catch "For Your Consideration" (pretty good, but not great), and about 45 minutes later, Taylor Sternberg (one of our swings) and i found ourselves walking into the new James Bond movie (freaking awesome). so all in all, a very nice and relaxed birthday. i will say that i missed my family and sarah a ton...but to have my new "second family" looking after me made for a great 29th year.

and the day off was well worth it...because we don't have another one due for 10 more days...ouch.

yesterday started the intense tech i have been dreading. we actually got through almost the entire first act and that includes the fact that our Four Seasons had to escape for about two hours to sing at the tree lighting at Union Square. but we plugged away; Sherry/Big Girls/Walk Like a Man segment? DONE. Boyfriend's Back? DONE. Oh What a Night? DONE. this cast and crew has been busting their butts, even at 11pm, to get the job done. we drink or water and energy drinks, we grab a quick snack when we have a second, and we try to keep our bitching down to a minimum.

today we started up the end of Act 1. right before "My Eyes Adored You", into "Dawn", and into the last segment when Norm Waxman blows the lid off Tommy's debt (am i spoiling this for those of you who haven't seen it?). we have 2 more hours of rehearsal before we get our dinner break (i'm thinking Thai food tonight), and i anticipate if we keep going at the rate we are going, we will be completely done with tech by next tuesday with ample opportunity to run the show a few times before we open in previews.

of course, by writing this, i could be jinxing the whole thing.

all i know is we are all tired and we have 6 more days to go before we perform for an audience. we need to keep keep on our vitamins and sleep and pray that we stay focused as well as we have been doing the last week.

lastly - i want to say how much i appreciate getting emails from those of you who are reading this. i don't just mean my family and friends either...i mean all you fantastic Jersey Boys fans across the Country just sending your thoughts...please keep it up (i share them with everyone).

until the next time...

In the Thick of It (Nov.20)

you want some news from the front...how's this for you?

i am writing to you from my dressing room (2nd floor, sharing with the very talented Miles Aubrey), and over the speaker i am hearing them running the Donnie/Stosh scene, complete with gun shot. it's loud. (don't worry mothers, they are wearing earplugs).

let's catch you up...

yesterday i took the #24 to the #38 bus to the wonderful Curran Theatre in the heart of Nob Hill. saw some of our fantastic crew outside taking a smoke break...these guys are the heroes of the show. driving from city to city, many times without sleep, and immediately constructing our set and lights will intense attention to detail and safety. They are always on hand for prop moves and anything that goes wrong and yet they never get to take a bow. Make sure you read all your programs and take the time to check all of them out at the back of the books.

walked into the theatre and jumped onto the stage to see the set. the beautiful, steel and wood monster immediately felt like home and yet again, it hit me a little bit more that i am involved in this show.

took the time to walk around the area a little bit. find the closest places to eat for dinner breaks, where my closest bus stop is to get home, etc, and then found my way to my dressing room (mentioned above).

we took the first 30+ minutes or so getting ourselves familiar with the set, the crossover under and over the stage, and where the wardrobe, hair, and management offices are - and then we had the typical "half hour" to get into costumes for Act 1 Scene 1.

we didn't get too far last night. page 14 to be exact. but we ran every transition for safety onstage and off, and had the time to get into all our costumes (i think my first suit is very sharp and i love dressing as a policeman...hope sarah will too...haha).

today has been a different story. we have been working now for 2 1/2 hours and barely have gone through 8 pages. things have been slow due to some big scene changes and traffic problems, but we forge ahead, like always, to try and get as far as we can until we have to break for dinner and then end of the night at 10:30pm.

it's weird to me that we start performing for the public in just 9 short days. i wish everyone could understand the process that goes into a show like this...how many people are involved...what it takes to run smooth. i guess that's the magic of theatre when some people think we showed up the day before and the monster tames itself.

well my friends, it's just the opposite. out in the audience are easily 50 people that have to do with this show constantly working and making adjustments. choreographers, directors, music directors, lighting designers, props, scenic designers, stage automation, sound designers, carpenters, deck hands...even the man himself, Bob Gaudio, is in the audience making sure the story is being told right.

nonetheless, we are all doing well. not staying out late because we know the next 9 days is going to be rough, and everyone is looking out for each other and not getting bitchy (yet). i think we are all excited for a day off on Thursday...enjoy some turkey and maybe all go to a movie.

so i'm off for now. almost time for my next scene. keep reading and keep sending emails.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco (Nov.19)

Well friends...after a very uncomfortable flight on Northwest (no pillows, no movie, $5 box of wheat thins, baby oreo cookies, and some sort of gross cheddar cheese spread), I am in the City by the Bay.

Sarah and I will be staying in the "panhandle" district with one of her best friends, Liz, and her dog, Tambu. It's a very interesting little apartment with a really nice kitchen (new counter tops, cupboards, fridge and stove), a HUGE bathroom, and two bedrooms. No real "living area" to speak of and for some reason, a window from the big bathroom goes directly into a vacant grocery store...time to speak to someone about locks.

Either way, it's going to be a snug, but fantastic place to live - just a few blocks from the lower Haight district, and surrounded by some great parks, bars, and only about 2 miles from the theatre.

Spent the mid-afternoon walking around the area with Liz. Finding the grocery store, drug store, hardware store...um, Popeye's Chicken is one block away, thank you!

Tomorrow the hell starts. 7 out of 8 1/2 hours the next 3 days, then we do get Thanksgiving off (happy birthday to me), and then from Nov.25 until previews start, we do our 10 out of 12 hour rehearsals. Suffice to say, the next 10 days are not going to be fun...for us, for the orchestra, for the crew, everyone...100% sucking at all time.

But come December 1...well...that's what I have been waiting 29 years for.

More to come - please keep the emails and comments coming - I love hearing from everyone!

First Open Rehearsal (Nov.16)

i am going to start this simply by stating i am so tired.

tired of packing. tired of stressing about traveling to San Fran. tired of spending stupid money on food in New York...

...tired of complaining about it.

so short blog tonight:

today, we performed at an invited rehearsal to about 40 people, including two of our producers at the Dodgers (Michael David and Lauren Mitchell), Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman (the book writers), and John Lloyd Young (Frankie Valli in the Broadway cast). we received a very warm reception from them and i can't tell you how nice it was to get applause and laughs...and to feel the energy that they were giving off. even Sarah was able to attend and it was great seeing her smile at me when i could catch her glance.

tomorrow, about 40 more people are coming along with most of the Broadway cast. it's going to be nice...getting our send off with them there cheering us on. kind of a last "we are behind you" as we head West.

so tomorrow, we end rehearsal at 3pm, i pack up the car with Sarah and Toby the Dog, and we start the 10 hour drive back to Michigan (to check on the storage unit and give the parents a last hug), and 12:32pm my flight for San Fran takes off.

so bloggers, i probably won't write again until i am in San Fran (sorry Audrey)...with a slight case of jet lag and definitely a beer or two in me.

lastly, i just want to give a shout out to my parents, Howard and Karen, and Margo and Jeff. i love that i have been able to keep in touch with them easier through this and i thank them all for their constant support and unreal enthusiasm for everything i am doing. it is nice to have parents that support their children who are involved in the arts (not the easiest job to pursue) - and though it looks like they won't be able to attend opening night (can i PLEASE have some tickets), i thank them for everything and wish they could be there every night...

...also, my step mom Karen, makes the BEST desserts, and maybe now she will send me to San Fran with some delicious peanut butter squares!

wish me and all my cast mates and company safe travels. see you in California.

Focus People, Focus (Nov,14)

We staged the curtain call today...for almost two hours...over and over again...

"Bow on 1 and 5". "Keep moving". "Anticipate". "Do it again".

I have been involved in many curtain calls in my life but never have they been so choregraphed (that's not a bad thing at all - i LOVE Sergio, Kelly, and Danny). We literally are counting 1-2-3-4 for our full company bow, 5-6-7-8 for the turn to our conductor, etc, etc...

But we also started running the show. Yes, of course, there were a few stops here and there to work on transitions and spacing, but we are definitely hitting the home stretch here in New York.

...which leads me to my next comment: i am starting to get unfocused. Not because i am not having fun - because I truly am - it's the fact that my head stats jumping to other things; when am I going to pack? What time do I have to leave for Michigan on Friday and how much time will I have back home before I fly on Sunday? Why does the US Post Office suck so bad and why can't the figure out how to forward me any of my fucking mail? I am happy to say that others in the company are also saying they are having trouble focusing...but I need to make a better effort these next few days...especially with invited guests coming to see us Thursday and Friday.

The big news of the day is they announced understudy positions for us today. I am THRILLED to announce that I am going to be understudying both the Tommy DeVito and Bob Gaudio roles. I certainly am going to have big shoes to fill (Deven May is freaking unreal and Erich Bergen wears bigger shoes than me...haha!) - but how wonderful to have the chance to learn two of the leads in this remarkable show.

Lastly - found out that a few more parents are keeping up with my blog to check on their children. I leave tonight with a few special comments to them about their kids.

Mama Strom: You have a lovely daughter. She is a constant joy (and my favorite) to bother during rehearsal. Between her Dr. Pepper commercial (I've never wanted a mediocre beverage so much in my life), or the headshots on her website slowly transitioning from "Smiley Melissa" to "Serious Melissa", she always makes me laugh and I hope to meet you if we ever get to Texas...just to see if your smile is as nice as hers.

Taylor's mom: Your son is like the little brother I always wanted. He is always focused during rehearsals (on his first-person video games on his computer), always up for great conversation (about the new video games he is going to be getting), or working very hard on all the parts he is going to be swinging (all while browsing the internet for killer video games). All kidding aside - he is doing great and he cracks me up every day. Oh...and I actually do have two younger brothers...but I thought it was a nice thing to say :)

Jackie's mom: Jackie bought me a cookie today. But she ate it before I could get it.

That's it for now folks - I'll post again before I head off to San Fran! Send good thoughts our way!

You're Never Fully Staged Without a Smile (Nov.11)

Are we done staging the show? Yes.
Have we learned all the music from top to bottom? Yes.
Do we need to clean it all up? Yes.

So I can't necessarily say we are done...not even close...because we still are working out transitions (what a surprise), making sure we have our harmonies down, getting our blocking and lines right, and for me - making sure my bass lines are down...I love being a rock star.

Real quick...turns out that some of my fellow cast member's parents are reading my blog. Here's the deal - send me $20 and I will give you all the dirt on your children. Let me sum it up quick for those that I know are reading this:

Lloyd and Janet: Your son is kicking ass as Frankie Valli. He is a joy to work with and you are both going to be sobbing with pride at our opening. Come say hi to me after the show...I'm the jackass that wears the gorilla mask in the first act.

Jackie's mom: I love your daughter. She reminds me of all my close friends from college and she cracks me up. She also steals half my lunch. Please send her food.

Tomorrow is our day off (thank God). But we all are heading out to celebrate Jersey Boys 1 year birthday on Broadway. Really looking forward to spending more time with the Broadway cast and trade stories. Almost feels like they are passing the torch to us...and they are all so damn nice.

Anyway - that's today's blog. Not too much to say. Next week means five more rehearsals before we pack up our trunks and head to San Fran...

...half hour, people.

Publicity Makes Us Official (Nov.9)

Well today was a whirlwind. I felt like we were at the rehearsal space for 18 hours. That being said, let me break down the day for you.

10am: We arrived at the rehearsal space and immediately started running "Cry For Me" and the scene immediately before and after it. From there, we jumped to Bob Crewe's apartment scene (with me as the stunning and show stopping "Mica"...pretty much I hand off some milk and act super gay) and then transitioned directly into "Sherry", "Big Girls Don't Cry", and "Walk Like a Man". Lastly, we do a very smooth transition into Frankie's last monologue and into the finale "Who Loves You" (very proud of Melissa entering in on the right chorus and deciding not to amaze us with her dance solo like the other day).

10:20am: run it again. pay attention to the transitions! smoother! faster! do it again!

10:45am: run it again. did i mention you need to work on the transitions?

11am: break time as the press people entered and got into their seats.

11:30am: in front of some fantastic people from playbill.com, broadway.com, broadwayworld.com...not to mention our producers, office staff, and publicity personnel...we performed our little hearts out...tried to pace ourselves in front of our first official audience...and did, what i think was, a pretty damn good first run of some key moments in the show.

From there, it was all about getting cast pictures, interviews, and handshakes to the people that wanted them and then back to business. i am very excited to start seeing some things pop up on theatre websites around (i will, of course, post them on my home page) with information of our tour and some great shots of our Four Seasons (have i mentioned lately how fantastic the four of them are working together?).

After lunch (i am SOOOO sick of Pax), we continued blocking Act II (page 24 people!) and then off to another amazing NYC experience...

...tonight was the unveiling of our director's, Des McAnuff, caricature at Sardi's! Walking into Sardi's and seeing some heavy hitters in the Broadway world was crazy enough...but seeing our dopplegangers - the original Broadway Jersey Boys company - there as well was a trip! i wanted each cast member to stand against the other playing the same part in an all-out cage match for true domination...but instead we all had some drinks together and it was nice really feeling like one big, extended family.

My favorite part of the day though was Des chatting with a few of us at break and saying that he wants to think up something clever to say after getting his caricature. he then turned to me and said "some people said that you should write some good one-liners for me". Giving it some thought, i wrote down a few ideas. i end this blog with my favorite...only those of you really keen to the Broadway scene will enjoy it:

"I almost didn't come today because I'm still upset at being shunned before of getting my caricature after my mass success with 'Dracula'".

Act One's Got Nothin' On Me (Nov.6)

Well my dear readers...Act One is blocked, staged, rehearsed and fully on it's feet.

As of 6:05 pm tonight (the things we do for our craft...going five minutes over), the last notes of "Dawn" were sung, Norm Waxman approaches the Seasons, Tommy deviate enters on the bridge, the "Walk Like a Man" reprise was sung...and if we had lights, the blackout would have been awesome.

So what does this mean next in the exciting ongoing adventures of Super Guter and his wild band of Jersey Boys and Girls...? Act Two starts tomorrow. And if I don't get the bass charts down for my Joe Long character, then I am going to look like a real asshole.

Also went for costume fitting #2 today. Did you know that I was told that I'm one of the tallest members of the cast they had to fit (when was 5'9" tall?). Either way, I tried on the "Four Lovers" jacket that is being built for me, the gorilla mask came in (I can see through it a lot easier than the rehearsal one), and a few more pairs of pants. Also, we went over the finale number musically with Ron today and I'm loving singing some higher stuff...a big thank you to Riccolla and Emergen-C.

Oh...and the rumor is that this Thursday, some press people are coming over to the rehearsal to take some pics and video feeds...so it looks like we might all need to curb the fart jokes for 10 minutes. Also, the cast was invited to Sardi's Thursday evening for the unveiling of Des' Sardi's character. FUN!

Anyway - just wanted to update a little bit for everyone. Now that I know that more people are reading (and hopefully enjoying), I will do my best to blog at least 4 times/week.

62.8% done... (Nov.4)

Hello all my loyal readers...okay, that means my parents, my friend Joe, and my aunt Sha.

Actually...I have been getting some emails lately from people who have read my blog and it's great to know that people who care about this show have really been able to enjoy what I have been writing...and perhaps give some insight to this unbelievable experience.

Moving on...

Today we staged through "Dawn (Go Away)"..which means we have about 4 pages left of Act One. What that also means is that on November 17, we are done with rehearsal and thusly (yes, I used the word "thusly"), we have 11 1/2 days left of working rehearsals before we pack up NYC and head to tech hell which will be known as San Francisco.

Also, I found out yesterday that I will be playing live guitar for about 4 or 5 songs and that is HUGE for me. I mean, I have been playing guitar for almost 20 years and I was a little heartbroken when I first was told we are not live...I find it a real honor that they feel my ability is good enough to plug in and play. A big shout out to my buddy Miles Aubrey (plays Nick Devito and others in the show) who is also playing live (guitar and drums)...and is a freaking incredible player!

So what's next? Finish Act One. Run Act One. Work on Act One. Stage Act Two??? God willing. All I know is every day I wake up at 8:23am, walk Toby the dog, get ready, go on the subway, and have the best 8 hours of my life. I am getting paid to watch Tony award winners direct and make jokes with us (p.s. I heard Des play an original song on acoustic guitar today and it was super cool...he also liked my "The Who" shirt I wore today). I am hopeful that they tell us who we are going to be understudying soon so I can start working on other characters I am going to play. Also, they are hiring a third male swing - who probably won't be getting into things until mid-next week - poor bastard.

That's it for now folks...keep those comments and emails coming. And please feel free to share this with anyone else that might get a kick out of it.