Stay Classy, San Diego (Oct.30)

hello all. this blog is being writen from our pimp pad in downtown San Diego on the 27th floor of a high-rise condo building overlooking the water and most of downtown... ...how's your view?

so let's catch you all up:

this city so far has had its ups and downs for sure. the city itself is just wonderful and we are really enjoying the theatre and the audiences. obviously, with the horrible fires that engulfed most of the area, last week was pretty scary for everyone. my heart goes out to the hundreds of thousands of people who had to be evacuated from their home, even for just a day or two, and all of our prayers are with those who lose their homes and cherished items to the fire. one of our local crew guys lost his home in the fires and sarah knows another girl in the area who lost her home as well; she was on the front page of the Union Tribune a few days ago embracing her mom amongst all the devastation.

but it's a true testament to the people who live here to see how much everyone is helping each
other. there are donation bins all over the city and in practically every building i have walked into. and people had to be turned away at Qualcomm Stadium because too many people showed up to volunteer.

as far as our show - it certainly "went on". we did cancel one show on Tuesday because the air quality was so poor, but honestly, doing the show Wednesday, when you could still the ashes and smoke particles in the air while we were singing was not the best way to rally the troops, so to speak, and because of the air it truly affected all of our voices as five people called out that next day because they had no voices or they were feeling to ill to go on.

but the week progressed and the air quality went from Unhealthy to Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups to Moderate to Good and we are definitely back in the swing of things. and the audiences have been extra supportive because, honestly, after watching CNN for 4 days straight, we are a nice change of pace and a good way to take your mind off things for awhile.

and for a great segue...let's chat for a moment about Broadway Cares:

as many of you know, theatre companies across the country twice a year take collections for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (www.broadwaycares.org). last year's collection, i am so very proud to report that we beat all the other companies on the road and Broadway to raise just over $236,000 due to the love, support and kindness of our San Francisco audiences from last year. as of now, i think we are tracking to meet or beat that goal from last year and we couldn't be more happy or excited not only because it's a remarkable feeling being able to raise so much money for National and local organizations, but also, because of the fires, Broadway Cares has agreed to give 50% of the donations we make here in San Diego to the San Diego chapter of the American Red Cross. so if you want to make a difference, please go to the Broadway Cares website and donate something!

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continuing on my San Diego track - i need to share some pics of the view from our place. please keep in mind, this was on kind of a cloudy day:



like i mentioned before, we are at an amazing place called the Park Place (how the hell did we find this on Craig's List) and we are sharing the place with those wacky newlyweds, Chris Jones and Jenna. i have to say, i was a *little* nervous sharing with another couple but we are having a blast! they are great to live with, love to cook as much as us and best of all, their dog Fender and Toby have become fast friends and they absolutely love playing together or just sitting on the couch in our room and watching the sailboats go by or just taking a nap together:


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moving on...

i would like to now officially welcome Zachary Prince to the Sherry company. Zach did his first show this past Sunday night as Frankie and he will be our Frankie alternate doing 2 or 3 shows/week. the whole company gave him a much deserved applause at the end of the show and the audience was wonderfully supportive. i think that he will be a tremendous asset to the company and we are happy to have him here with us. funny fact: he and Taylor are cousins. ah, family.

and the show has been great with the new girls as well. i certainly miss our original Jersey Girls, but Jamie, Sarah and Holly are doing a fantastic job on stage and are really keeping the talent and truth of the characters present throughout the play. and what's more, everyone is getting along and speaks volumes...

but what does that mean for Rick Faugno? when is Melissa Strom returning, if at all? if she does, what happens to Sarah Darling? with Daniel's departure from Broadway in January, what does that mean for other actors who are playing Bob? what about Vegas? what cast is going to San Fran and will that same cast end up going to Vegas? so many things to speculate about...go for it Broadway World Jersey Boys Tour Threaders - i love the weird shit you guys come up with!

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want to end this blog with a few little tidbits.

first, a huge congratulations to my good friend Robert "Junior" Garcia (Junior is assistant propsmaster for our show) and his girlfriend, Kara Tremel (you super fans should know that name) for getting engaged this past weekend! we had a great engagement party for them last night at the W Hotel and all of us are just getting over our hangovers.

also, lots of love and congrats to West Hyler (our assistant director) and Ted Chubb (our trumpet player) both of whom got married in the past two weeks to their ladies...

...i believe that makes 7 weddings or engagements since we started this show one year ago.

lastly, speaking of weddings, today is mine and sarah's 6-month anniversary. unbelievable that it has already been six months because i can still picture her the first moment i saw her in her dress...so amazing. i just want to thank all of you that read this blog who always take in interest in mine AND sarah's lives on the road together and i want to thank my lovely bride once again for being with me on the road selling thankless merchandise to nameless faces night after night. i love you intensely.

until next time, happy Halloween to everyone (especially my father who LOVES this holiday) and will write more soon...

I Lost My Girls (Oct.15)

Well folks…I am writing to you from gorgeous San Diego…more on that in another blog.

I need to start this blog by chatting a little bit about how much I have enjoyed Deven May’s vacation. While Deven and his lovely girlfriend are enjoying some sort of tropical locale this past week, I was fortunate to go on as Tommy for 4 shows last week in Tempe.

As always, the first show on was like a freight train. Those first 32 minutes on stage fly by, and again, it was like an out of body experience. But all in all, I was really pleased on how it all turned out and other than a few little line fumbles, all four shows went off without a hitch and I really felt like I had a great grasp on the role and being “in charge” of the group. Another highlight was the fact that Richard Hester (prod. supervisor), Ron Melrose (music director) and West Hyler (asst. director) were all there to see me go on that last Friday (their first times seeing me in that role) and I got some really great feedback from all of them.

And is it weird that I love what Ruth (our head of hair and wigs) does with my hair as Tommy? For those of you who don’t me, I have what some might call, a “JAfro” (Jewish-Afro). When my hair is in dire need of a cut and not even gel can tame the beast, it gets pretty big and out of control. Ruth harnesses this madness and forms this fantastic fro-helmet which gives the character real lift. Suffice to say, I promise next time I go on as Tommy, I will get a pic directly after leaving her hair station.

Love the fro - it adds attitude to my Tommy…and makes me seem a few inches taller.

One of the other great advantages of playing Tommy this week was that Sarah’s dad (and his fiancé, Cheri) flew all the way out to Tempe to see me in the role. I can’t tell you how great it was to see them both and how great it felt seeing them at the stage door and hearing the pride in their faces as they spoke to me about the show.

Since I know they are reading this: Sandy and Cheri – I can’t tell you how much I appreciated you coming out here and showing your support. Sarah and I had a blast spending some time with you and I hope your full visit to Tempe was a memorable one.

However, the best part about Tempe was the mini-vacation Sarah and I went on to Sedona. She of course had no idea I had planned this and she was extremely anxious on Sunday when I threw a suitcase on the bed and told her to start packing specific items of clothing. The next morning, I hustled her in the car and we took the gorgeous 2 hour drive to Sedona’s Rogue Hotel & Spa. The hotel was a lovely little resort settled on the main street just far enough off the downtown strip and the entire day and evening couldn’t have been more perfect.

We got to the hotel and little early for check-in, so we jumped right back into the car and started looking for a spot to hike. After about 20 minutes driving through the amazing red rock mountains, we spotted a good intermediate trail…and even better…two walking sticks just waiting at the base with our names on it.

It was an unbelievable hike followed by an unbelievable view. Here’s the proof:

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But with everything great about Tempe, there were also some things that sucked. Now is the time where I have to say goodbye to some amazing cast members: Lauren Tartaglia, Sandy DeNise and Jackie Seiden.

As you all know, Lauren joined us in Los Angeles when Melissa Strom took her first medical leave. We all knew that it was short lived because she was just a temporary replacement, but that did not stop any of us from becoming close friends with her. She leaves our tour for some other great things, including finally being in the same city as her fiancé, but I hope she knows how much all of us in the Sherry cast enjoyed working with her and hope nothing but great things for her and her future with the JB family.

Sandy DeNise played her last show with us October 7. it was truly bittersweet in the fact that Sandy was really ready to move on from tour (the girl has toured with like four companies over the past six or so years) and yet I will never hear anyone sing “Boyfriend’s Back” like Sandy…ever. As a matter of fact, when Sandy and Chris did Lorraine’s apartment scene when she breaks up with Frankie, it was nothing short of an honor being on stage (even in the background as Joe) watching her perform that night. Please keep in mind that I have always thought Sandy was fierce on stage, but this specific night, in this specific scene, it was another example of art imitating life. As Lorraine left Frankie…as Sandy left us…I will venture a guess that no one in any company - past, present or future – will ever play that scene better than when Sandy performed it that night. The breakup was real. The tears were real. And I will miss her on stage more than she can imagine. I have to end this goodbye to her with a “thank you” on behalf of Miles and I…she’ll know what for. Unforgettable.

I don’t even want to write a goodbye to Jackie Seiden. I don’t want to say goodbye to her because I don’t want to get any sadder than I already am. Jackie Seiden became one of my closest friends on this tour and she was like the sister I never had. Her humor offstage and on will never be forgotten and yet will always be missed. She and I had a lot of ridiculous inside jokes and she always made coming to “work” that much easier. Jackie now moves to LA to start the next phase in her professional life and I couldn’t be more proud of her for taking the initiative and having the balls to do something that thousands of others would be too scared to do. However, I have all the faith in the world that only great things will happen for her and I can’t wait to get the phone call from her in the near future that she has booked something magnificent. Jackie: Sarah and I will miss you like crazy and can’t wait to visit with you in Costa Mesa…you should have us over for Thai food and Pinkberry!

So as these magnificent women move out of our tour, it is time to welcome the new Jersey Girls in our life: Sarah Darling (Francine), Holly Ann Butler (Lorraine) and Jamie Karen (Mary). So far, Sarah and Holly have debuted on stage and Jamie will play her first show this Thursday. Welcome to the family my dears…we are all looking forward to breaking you all in to this insane show and having you enjoy the way this show moves people in every city we play.

So much more to talk about, but honestly, I don’t know what I’m officially allowed to discuss. All you need to know is the Vegas cast will probably be officially announced soon and lots of things will start to make sense. Until then, I leave you all to speculate on the Broadway World boards and see what exciting conclusions everyone comes up to.

To end this post, I want to wish my good friend Chris Jones a big “mazel tov” to his marriage to Jenna Coker. From what we heard, the wedding was beautiful and I only wish we all could have been there to celebrate with them back in NYC. They are a wonderful couple and I see an amazing amount of love and happiness in the future together.

Lastly, an enormous congrats to our brother company in Chicago, the “Zephyr” cast, and especially my dear friends Michael Ingersoll and Jarrod Spector, on an incredible opening night in the windy city! Make sure to go to JerseyBoysInfo.com and JerseyBoysBlog.com for all their killer reviews. Those of us in the Sherry cast wish them an incredibly successful run – they deserve it in every way.

Okay readers – I will post again in the next week or so about San Diego. I would talk more about my place, but it wouldn’t do any justice without pictures. After all, how can I explain my 180 degree bay view from the 28^th of 30^th floors in a penthouse condo without pics?

haha – I love San Diego already!

Raising Arizona (Oct.1)

a lot sure can change in 790 miles.

first off, let's officially bid an official adieu to Sacramento...

..."peace out".

now that we have that out of the way, let's catch everyone up:

i need to give huge accolades to our road crew. truly the hardest working crew in the freaking world. and here's why:

after we closed the show in Sac on a Saturday night, the crew started their load out. it went from 11pm all the way through 4pm in the afternoon the next day. only problem was, their 12-14 hour estimated load out took 22 hours. directly from there, they got about 3 hours of sleep and were up at 3am on Monday morning to catch a flight to get to Tempe so they could be at the theatre at 8am to start the load in.

and let me tell you...the were working on the load in literally until we opened on Thursday night at 7:30pm.

so "thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU" to all our electricians, carpenters, props, wardrobe, automation, sound, and everyone else who was involved in making our show look and run as incredible as it is.

Arizona is not bad at all. we have a fantastic little condo in Scottsdale that we are sharing with one of our stage managers and good friend, Michelle Reupert. the condo is great mostly because there is a great kitchen and the three of us love to cook. our first three night here, Sarah was my little happy homemaker making some great chicken dishes and probably one of the best tillapia dishes i have ever had in my life - DELICIOUS!

the first few days of Arizona were also busy. busy simply because since Deven amd Erich were not in town (we had three days between Sac and Tempe, so lots of people were home or on mini-vacations) so i was asked to do the press circuit.

wednesday started with getting up at around 7:30am to meet the other guys at one of the company hotels at 8:30 for our first taping at 9. after a live taping on Sonoran Living (GO HERE and click on "we roll out the red carpet for the Jersey Boys". After that, a quick interview at this incredible hotel called the Tally Ho. it's this weird hotel that they have essentially kept up like the hotel they probably were back in the early 70's. the pool area was full of cabanas and weird lunch buffets and the main resturant inside was a throw back to the old homestyle diners from back then. then back to the theatre for taped interviews with the NBC affiliate and the ASU campus news team (by news team, i of course mean two freshmen who took 10 minutes to figure out where the input jack for the headphones were on the camcorder).

after a few hours off to run home, grab a sandwich, and take a quick nap, it was back to the theatre at 5pm for another few spots with the AZ Family News station and the Fox affiliate. those were some fun interviews and if i can find the links somewhere, i will post them as soon as possible...

and then on thursday, we had our first public performance at the lovely Frank Lloyd Wright designed Gammage Auditorium - and i can't find a right angle anywhere.

(that was some Frank Lloyd Wright humor for you).

thursday was great. the theatre is huge with 2800 seats available. the audience was really excited to have us there and certainly loved us mentioning Arizona in the show ("the places you fly over on the way to Los Angeles"). and honestly, with as hard as the crew had been working, we were just happy to open on time and safely. the whole weekend was fantastic though and i'll be honest with you - having a student union just steps away from the theatre that has a Chick-Fil-A in it, i think i will be very happy here through October 14.

speaking of more food - and my family and friends back home will appreciate this more than anything - we found a BW3 close to us! i can't tell you how nice it was going there today for lunch for some trivia, wings with Spicy Garlic and a nice cold Labatt Blue! we haven't done much else as far as going to great restaurants around here simply because we love our kitchen, but i'm hoping we will see a few more good eateries before we leave here.

back to the show...

Arizona saw a great show on Saturday matinee when our "Joey", Courter Simmons, made his debut as Frankie Valli. he was UNREAL! for someone who has never done the role outside of understudy rehearsal as well as who had not had an official rehearsal in close to two months, let alone never had a chance to run with our new staging with the pallets, it was like he has been doing it forever. his voice was great, he flowed onstage effortlessly and he was so in the moment that all of us onstage were so proud of our good friend. of course, as he took his bow, the applause from the audience matched ours onstage as we all gave him an ovation.

if you are in Arizona and want to see him and get a great deal on our show, good tickets are still available for his next turn as Frankie this coming Thursday, October 4 matinee!

the rest of Arizona will keep us busy: we have our 9-show week this week (with no rehearsals slated so far!) and then next week i get to play Tommy for 4 shows as Deven will be on vacation (come see me Oct.9-12 or Erik Bates Oct.13 & 14) and then, just as quick as we got here, we will be heading to San Diego.

i think that keeps everyone up to date with what has been going on here. as always, i love getting emails and comments from everyone, so keep it up!

to finish, i want to say hello to our brother company, "Zephyr", who just closed San Francisco this past Sunday. the entire company is in Chicago by now ready to open this coming Friday night, and i want to wish them all a speedy and easy tech period but more than anything, wish my good friend Michael Ingersoll a hearty congratulations on finally getting back home to his beautiful wife, Angela, and the city he calls home.

as always...more to come!