Quick Post - Check It Out (Feb.23)

okay...it's almost 1am but i wanted to post just a few quick things:

1) a HUGE congrats to Taylor Sternberg who went on for Brandon tonight and freaking rocked! i love our swings...they are all fantastic.

2) check out my homepage (www.ericgutman.com) for some great articles on our 'Jersey Girls' and a wonderful interview with our Four Seasons.

3) go RIGHT NOW to Broadway.com and check out a great video feature on our show! Deven May leads the cameras backstage where you can see an inside look into what happens behind the scenes...even yours truly has a quick cameo about halfway or so into the segment.

okay - peace out Jersey Boys fans - i'm tired and i have a sweet dog at my feet and a pretty girl next to me...good night!

Have to Blog (Feb.15)

first off, a very happy valentine's day to everyone. hope it was great with your loved ones and all the sweet crap.

moving on...

valentine's day evening performance was very exciting. Rick Faugno (who plays our Joey) went on as Frankie Valli which became the first major substitution we have had in the show so far. and truly...he was fantastic. the entire cast has this surge of energy from the get-go having one of our ensemble members go on as one of the "Four" (i even saw Michael Ingersoll - our Nick Massi - give a wink and smile to him as he turned upstage to sing "Silhouettes").

the show actually flew by. all the excitement and adrenaline and before you know it, we are at "Who Loves You" and Rick has finished a stunning debut as Frankie. and i'm proud to say, though we have been instructed in the past not to do it, as Rick took his bow, the entire ensemble joined the audience in applauding his performance.

and one performance became two as Chris Jones is stuck in NYC in that disgusting snow storm, and Rick went on again tonight. two in a row. hit them out of the park both times.

the rest of the weekend continues the excitement. simply because if Chris stays stuck in NYC, the Jarrod goes back on. additionally, Nate Klau is gone the rest of the weekend for a family get together, so Erik Bates and Doug Crawford both split his track throughout the weekend...which means as of Saturday, everyone in the cast will have gone on at some point!

so that's the excitement of the week...

...oh wait, one more thing.

can't say much because we are waiting for details. but you might want to put March 19 on your schedules. and you might want to set your Tivo's and DVR's. and you might want to set it to NBC.

...maybe...perhaps...we'll see...

i have the best job in the world.

I Shook Joe Montana's Hand (Feb.12)

yes...THE Joe Montana...NFL Hall of Fame quarterback. he was at our Sunday matinee and he brought about 20 people and he loved it. he was a super nice guy and really appreciated the show...my favorite part was when Joe Siravo (our Gyp DeCarlo) asked Joe to sign OUR playbill...why didn't i think of that?

so Sunday worked out pretty well overall. i actually know that a few celebrities have also seen our show since we opened; David Alan Grier (he actually just did "The Wiz" that Des directed at La Jolla Playhouse) and Chris Issac (i was pretty bummed i didn't get to meet him) are two that comes to mind. I think Los Angeles will be full of celebrities - i can't wait for that opening night.

so the past week was great. i can't tell you how nice it was to have Thursday off from understudy rehearsals...to have that full afternoon at home to just relax was a huge change of pace for the rest of the weekend, and i am thrilled that Tripp and Patty have made the decision to pretty much keep every week like that. so for now on, i have rehearsals for 4 or so hours on Fridays only.

i also mentioned in the Grammy blog that we have been extended in San Fran. We are on sale through April 8 and LA has gone "official" as May 25 through August 5. Even Chicago has finally gone on sale to American Express cardholders. so if you have an Amex, start getting those tickets before they are gone!

speaking of tickets...

so before i got the show, i worked for a place called Big Time Worldwide. they are probably the biggest ticket brokerage in Detroit, and i got a great drunk-dial the other night from two of my old coworkers, Lori B and Melissa ("B to the Auer - What, What?"). they called me from VIP floor seats at the Detroit Pistons game (p.s. sarah and i miss our Pistons) just to say they were thinking of me and that the office isn't the same since i left. apparently, without me in the concert and theatre department, constantly swearing and slamming the phone down, the morale in the office is lower than it should be. well let me just tell my Big Time friends (that's everyone there at Town Center) that i miss them too and i can't wait for them all to take a road trip out to see the show. for Joel: thank you again for supporting me when i told you that i got the show. you were a very fair and reasonable boss and maybe you'll have an office open in a few years when i'm done here. and also let me know if you want my address to forward me last year's Super Bowl bonus. and as for Lori and Melissa, can't wait to see you guys sometime next year. drinks and Dairy Queen after the show!

next thing to talk about is Vegas. so with Miles and I both getting married within about 2 weeks of each other, the other guys in the cast have talked about getting about 20 of us together after a Sunday show, jumping in a shuttle, and taking 2 days in Vegas for a dual-bachelor party. i freaking LOVE this idea and though it is a party for me, i have already started working on flights. here's the rub though, i can't find anything under $150/person and i really want to get closer to $120 to make it more affordable for the whole group. even going through "group departments" with different airlines, their fares are actually more expensive than what i could find online. so anyone reading this - if you have good ties with travel companies and can hook up about 20 people, let me know.

think i'll end it here for now. it's late monday night and Sarah and Toby the dog have been asleep for awhile already. will write more later this week.

Grammy Award (Feb.11)

will post an update on last week tomorrow when i have more time on my day off...

...however...

wanted to post that Bob Gaudio has just won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album for Jersey Boys.

A huge congrats goes out to Bob, Bob Crewe, Ron Melrose (music director, vocal arranger, incidental music arranger), Steve Orich (orchestrator), Des, and all the producers of this wonderful album!

more to come tomorrow.

...by the way, we have been extended through April 8 in San Fran!

Tommy DeVito Delivers (Feb.4)

hello all...how was your week? mine was tiring.

monday: gym, wedding errands, and a fantastic homeade chicken pot pie dinner.
tuesday: gym, wedding errans, and some fantastic chicken pot pie leftovers.
wednesday: two shows, and really wishing i had more chicken pot pie.
thursday: 5 hour understudy rehearsal and evening show.

and what did i do Friday? i happened to do a put-in for the Tommy DeVito role. some of the creative staff were there (Ron, Holly-Anne, Richard, and Marri Sugarman from casting) and as before, Sarah and a few cast members showed up to show their support. Even our alternate Frankie Valli, Jarrod Spector, brought his girlfriend and his parents (love Chuck and Beth!!!!).

overall, it went very well. a few missed lines or stalled cues from a few of us, and we did need to run a few transitions over again (i was getting a little pissed after we had to stop for the 4th time to get into the Gyp's Basement scene...hard to keep that intensity up). but i think everyone did really well.

actually, i want to talk about two people specifically: Jennifer Evans and Doug Crawford.

Jen and Doug are two of our swings, Jen is the ONLY swing we have for the girls, so at every rehearsal, she usually plays all three girls as much as she can. she is also our asst. dance captain, so when she's not playing all three roles, she is watching the rest of the show and going through all the dances behind us to make sure we are hitting our spots the right way. so though Jen played specifically Jackie Seiden's track at the put-in, every rehearsal we have had up until then, she has literally played 3 different tracks at once, while being our asst. dance captain, and probably the most genuinely nice person i have ever gotten to work with.

then there's Doug Crawford. you see, unlike Taylor Sternberg and Erik Bates, who have been with us since day one of rehearsal in NYC, Doug showed up on our first tech day here in San Francisco. from there, he sat in the audience, script in hand, and wasn't able to have one minute of rehearsal until we were done not only with tech, but previews. So for the most part, Doug, who is covering three principle roles (Nick Massi, Gyp DeCarlo and Bob Crewe) as well as three ensemble tracks, has had maybe 50 hours total of stage time...and that's not per track...that's total...six tracks. He has risen to the occasion every single rehearsal with lines learned, dances worked on, and harmonies very close to pitch-perfect. and he's a nice guy on top of that...freaking ridiculous.

it's quite amazing to me that all of our swings are able to juggle these tasks as well as ours do...and i can't wait until next weekend when Jen goes on for Jackie, and the week after that when Taylor is back on in the Joey track, and then Doug and Erik takes turns the weekend after for Nate's track.

a nice change to mix things up for us.

other than that...let's talk about more car woes, shall we?

sarah and i are driving to the theatre yesterday evening, minding our own business, when we are rear-ended at the corner of Taylor and Ellis. i get out of the car to approach the lovely crackhead behind the wheel, and she keeps repeating, "there's no damage, there's no damage." i disagreed with her and before we both decided to drive around the corner to exchange insurance information, i took down her license plate in the rare occurance that she decides to drive away...

...she drove away.

so tonight consisted of going to the police station to file a hit-and-run report, calling the insurance company to file that claim, and hopefully, in a few days, find this lady so i can get her in a crap load of trouble.

"Tommy DeVito delivers".

lastly, a big thank you to Jarrod's parents for having us over to their hotel suite tonight to watch the rest of the Super Bowl after we got out of the show. A very nice spread of Italian meats, veggies and chip dips, and lots and lots of sweets. it was nice to have a small get together and watch the Colts put the Bears in their place (sorry Jackie and my Chicago friends). and up until Melissa Strom showed up, we were at 100% Jewish occupancy in the room (not that i don't love Melissa, i mean she did make marshmallow/fudge brownies).

easier week coming up...don't have understudy rehearsals on Thursday because i have now gone through both my understudy parts...so a nice relaxing week full of going to the gym, doing wedding errands (full steam ahead - 85 days) and a few trips to the dog park to hopefully tire Toby out so i can get some sleep.

i continue to love your emails and comments on the blog...keep them up.