Tales From The Vig: Opened. Tired. Happy.

After just 13 full rehearsals, a wanderprobe, tech runs and two dress rehearsals, we officially opened Jersey Boys at Studio Tenn on May 1.

Full house. Sold out. That trend seems to be continuing every show through this weekend and beyond. It's a good problem to have.

Truthfully, I'm so happy we're open so we can just have the performances now to focus on daily. I am beyond tired. Including the actual performances we have this week, as well as the full runs in tech and with the band earlier this week, it equates to doing the show full out 10 times since this past Tuesday. That's insane. And most of the nights this week, I have been waking up in the middle of the night, sometimes for close to two hours, for no reason at all. It's awful and it needs to stop.

With this opening, and with sharing the stage with Russell and Miles again (yes, Miles Aubrey is playing guitar for us in the band!), it has been a constant wash of memories from the original tour and my time on Broadway and in Chicago with this amazing show.

It's made me think of my dear departed friend, John Altieri, who I got to marvel at for close to 400 shows as our Bob Crewe and the delicious choices he made on stage. Makes me think of the awful pranks I would pull on stage - mostly consisting of random messages on random pieces of gaffe tape placed on various costume pieces throughout the show. The celebrities we got to meet in San Francisco and Los Angeles...the national anthems we got to sing at Soldier Field, Wrigley Field, United Center and Yankee Stadium. The stage door stories of fans sometimes getting a little too close for comfort (yes, I'm happy to sign your playbill, not your thigh or chest).

But mostly, I continue to go back to the line time and time again that Frankie says in Act One: "Family is Everything".

Many of us in the show joke about that line - because of what he says that precedes it. But at its core, it is what we who have done the show for so long stand by; THIS family. This Jersey Boys world which has brought so many of us together is 'everything'. I have been doing this show of and off now for 19 years...two decades of telling this story. And reaching out to my given family on days where it's hard - when you have to get through the choreography of the Big 3 on a matinee day when your knees hurt. When you have to give Nick the glare and spite that he needs in the sit-down to help elevate his performance. When you have to climb into the cannon at the top of the show as Tommy, and it explodes and you realize you don't stop flying for over an hour, and you can rely on this incredible family to lift you up and support you. Whether it's backing your vocals, or handing you jackets to make the reveal into Walk 2 look spectacular, or hold your guitars for a brief moment while you catch your breath before the next scene. Or give you a look onstage that they're there with you, and it gives you the boost you need.

That's the family we speak about offstage. And how lucky am I to have added this lovely cast and incredible crew into that fold.

One more show this week and 14 more altogether until this chapter closes. Come see us. See the family at work.