It Ain't All Glitz and Glamour

Today is Monday. It’s our day off. It’s our much needed and deserved day off. Tomorrow we go back to the theatre for a 9-hour day where we will add the band to the show and do our Wandelprobe; It literally translates from German as "walk" or "stroll" and "rehearsal," indicating a rehearsal where the actors move around the stage. 

So today, in preparation for our long day tomorrow and then leading into our final tech and invited dress rehearsal on Wednesday afternoon/evening, I am staying in for the night at my hotel at the lovely Hyatt Place in Franklin/Cool Springs. I am doing laundry. And prepping dinner in the mini-fridge I store all my food and the 7” electric skillet I bought from Walmart for $13.71 so I can prepare hot food for the 5 weeks I am here.

It’s not glamorous. It’s not glitz. It’s quite lonely.

Tonight I am also going down a dark hole that, I imagine, many actors who might be reading this travel down: Uncertainty. Second-guessing. Self-critiquing. It’s not a great place to visit, but here we are.

I have been very lucky in my time with Jersey Boys that I have got to witness some pretty extraordinary people playing Tommy DeVito. The three that come to mind most are Deven May, Christian Hoff and Michael Cunio. 

For me, Deven’s ‘Tommy’ was held all in his eyes. His glare. His connection. It was haunting to act beside him and have him look at you, really look at you, with those eyes. 

Christian’s ‘Tommy’ was swagger. He was so fucking cool and he inhabited that role so deeply. I remember so vividly how he would hold his guitar - again, cool. Even when he played the character at his most flawed, he was still someone you wanted to please. As he becomes the true antagonist in the show, you still are rooting for him. 

Cunio’s ‘Tommy’ was sexy; His dancing, his guitar playing, the way the lines were spoken - it made sense that the character “kept buying apartments to keep his girlfriends in”. Every woman wanted him and every man wanted to be him. He oozed this power that he had over everyone.

And so here we are, 18 years after first getting cast in the show, I am finally contracted as Tommy DeVito - this perfectly flawed, misunderstood and sculpted character. And I worry that I won’t have the presence that these other incredible actors had. Knowing that from the first downbeat of the show, I have to be focused and engaged. And it doesn’t stop until he gets sent to Vegas in the middle of Act Two. The relationship he has with Frankie or Nick or Bob is so difficult and layered and the way he manipulates and spins webs and ultimately, falls apart is so precisely and beautifully written by Rick and Marshall, that it makes me sick thinking that I won’t do it justice. Kicking myself for a missed line during rehearsal or a misstep in the choreography. 

So tomorrow, I will wandelprobe. And I will find those moments I cherished from the other actors who played this before me, but I will embrace it as my own. I will never be Deven or Christian or Cunio or any of the others who have played Tommy. But then again, none of them are me. I need to remember that that’s worth something as well. And maybe, to someone, I am an actor that they remember and wish they could emulate in some way. 

I am so thankful for this cast, crew and creative staff lifting me up as much as they are. It means a great deal, especially on nights like tonight. 

Come see our show May 1-18. 

Hold, Please

We are on day two of tech rehearsals.

"Hold, please. Let's back up to the beginning of that scene."

We are on day two of tech rehearsals. 10-hour days with a 2-hour dinner break from 2-4pm. Full costumes, hair, microphones. Going scene-by-scene, moment-by-moment. Lots of waiting. Lots of adjusting. Our amazing wardrobe, sound and light departments working harder than all of us combined making us look and sound perfect.

It's a lesson in patience. For everyone. 

You perform a scene. Well, really just a portion of the scene. Then stage management announces "hold, please." And you stand there so they can focus and adjust the lights on you. Then you back up a few lines and continue on.

"Hold, please"

(this is not our show, just something I googled to show you what a typical tech rehearsal is like)

And they re-program and adjust the sound board to make sure that everyone on stage who is singing is heard. Then you back up a few lines and continue on.

"Hold, please"

And wardrobe runs onstage to fix, alter or deal with any costume issues that might have arisen. Then you back you back up a few lines and continue on.

On and on, for two 4-hour block. For two days in a row. Then a day off. Then again on Tuesday - but we add the full band. Then on Wednesday afternoon to prepare for our full invited-audience dress rehearsal later that evening.

So yeah, after being on my feet pretty much nonstop for eight hours per day, in dress shoes, carrying a solid body Gibson reverse Firebird guitar, my back is a wreck. My left shoulder is a wreck. I have never wanted or needed a full day off in quite some time. The excitement of opening night next Thursday seems more like a distant dream than a sure thing.

Even now, on our meal break, as I sit here in the house typing this, our lighting designer is working on his cues, our female, swing, Abigail, is walking the stage script in hand going over the three tracks she covers and one of our amazing ASM's (assistant stage managers), Peyton, is reading a book while still wearing her backstage headset.

Everyone is working towards a common goal. And the city of Franklin, TN isn't going to know what hit them come next Thursday.

(oh yes, THIS is our show)

Jersey Boys 5.0

Does this blog still exist...?
How long has it been?
Does anyone read blogs anymore?

Guess we will find out.

Jersey Boys (version 5.0 for me) here in Franklin, TN (just 20 minutes outside Nashville) at the beautiful Studio Tenn Theatre. Rehearsals started 11 days ago. We open in 6 days.

They keep adding shows because we are selling so fast and so well. That's a good problem to have. Every theatre wants a problem like that.

Let's pause for a moment. Let's catch you up on things.

My last Jersey Boys related blog post was Aug.30, 2015. Now, almost 10 years later so much has happened; Sydney and Riley are now 14 and 16 years old, respectively. Sarah and I will be celebrating 18 years of marriage this month. We lost Toby the Puggle two years ago after over 15 years of an incredible life. We rescued Walter the beagle about a year before Toby passed, and added Duncan the beagle/schnauzer just over a year ago. We are still just outside the Detroit area, and life is good. 

Sarah is an incredible cookier (@sarahscookiejar) and has built her brand to a really impressive following. She is respected across the country by thousands of others in her field. She surprises me weekly with the beautiful designs she creates on her edible masterpieces. I beg her for extras. There are rarely those. I am convinced I am cast in shows simply because they know she makes cookies for the cast and creative staff for every opening.

Two summers ago I was cast in Jersey Boys at the Saugatuck Center for the Perf Arts. It was a wonderful experience spending 6 weeks in West Michigan in absolute paradise performing for sold out crowds. I have been desperately trying to make my way back there again, but no luck so far. So much talent from so many places want to work there. Perhaps someday again. But at the time, it was interesting as it had been roughly 13 years since I had performed the show. And yet, all of those memories - and original choreography and staging - flooded back like it had been only a few weeks.

But 13 years later. Once again back in the show that changed my life. But now, at the age I'm at, looking at the script and the characters in different ways. Finding nuances I hadn't really noticed before. Relationships between Frankie and Tommy, or Frankie and Mary, or Nick and Bob that were layered in ways I didn't really realize. Rick and Marshall wrote such a beautiful script - more of a screenplay really. And once again, I was under the streetlamp as Norm Waxman and Nick DeVito and Charlie Calello and a host of others small parts in the show; adding to the story. Adding to the pulse of the show.

And now two years later, here we are in Franklin, TN.

I've known about Studio Tenn for awhile; an old Jersey Boys Broadway friend, Jake Speck, co-founded the theatre 15 years ago. He since has left that position, went to Texas for awhile and is now back in Tennessee with his amazing family. Once the theatre got the rights to do the show, Jake was the obvious choice to helm the production as director. Not just because of his history with Studio Tenn, but also with his history with the show itself. 

As soon as I found out he was directing it, I reached out to him via text:

>> Hey man. I heard you are directing JB at Studio Tenn. I shouldn't have to submit an audition tape but I'm going to anyway. I want to do the show with you.

> send me a tape as "Tommy". but if I cast the other seasons young, you have no shot.

>> I'll have it in your email within the week.

And two weeks later, I got a call from an old friend to come to Franklin and be Tommy DeVito in their production of Jersey Boys.

This show means a lot to me. This role, now at this age, means a lot to me. So many full circle moments already in just the 11 days we have been in rehearsal. More about that another time.

"Is this like being in a fucking time machine, or what".