Jersey Boys Musical in London is a standing production at Prince Edward Theatre. Jon Boydon is now in his third year playing tough guy Tommy DeVito in the Olivier Award-winning West End production of Jersey Boys. A veteran of We Will Rock You, Boydon, soon to be 36, is now juggling playing a Four Season with the demands of fatherhood to son Deacon, who is 18 months old. Here’s a sneak peek of his Broadway.com interview about keeping the long-running role fresh, family life, and his upcoming gig at London’s100 Club to promote his debut album, Three Four.
Jon Boydon Jersey Boys London
Here is the Sneak Peek of the Jon Boydon’s Interview on Broadway.com:
You’ve done two and a half years in Jersey Boys and counting: You must be very happy there.
At the moment, I’m [signed on] till March 2013, and I did two years on We Will Rock You previously. But, you know, to be in a position where you contemplate staying on for a third year just goes to show the draw that our show has and, for performers, that it has such a rich book. You don’t feel saturated or bored the way you might in another show.
Maybe you’ll become the London equivalent to someone like Howard McGillin, who played the title role in The Phantom of the Opera more than 2,000 times.
Let’s hope we have that long a run [laughs]!
How did the role of Tommy fall into place for you?
Once I started toying with the accent and the voice and the physicality, it all began to make sense—and it helped that I turned up at the audition wearing a good suit!
You’ve clearly developed a rock ‘n’ roll niche for yourself on the West End.
I do seem to have got away with not doing any serious musical theater, though I’m not sure that’s really my thing anyway. I haven’t trained and I don’t have that history of the Les Miz/Phantom/Cameron Mackintosh-musical vocal sound. I just kind of do what I do—a lot of the time with a guitar on my lap! [Laughs.]
Jersey Boys musical tour is currently performing at Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. Jersey Boys, the story of the rise and fall of the four ‘normal kids’ who made up the influential 1960’s rock group The Four Seasons, opened this Wednesday August 15, 2012 at the Jubilee Auditorium (11455 – 87 Avenue N.W, University Of Alberta) in Edmonton and runs through September 02, 2012.
Here is the Review by Aspen Gainer at Edmonton Examiner:
“It’s very organic, so everything about it is very real,”says Kara Tremel, who plays Mary Delgado and many of the 54 female roles. “It’s like The Sopranos meets VH1’s Behind the Music.”
“The rise and fall of these guys is interpreted by each of the four of them in their own way and then they are given a season to put that in,” explains Michael Lomenda, whose character Nick Massi narrates the Fall.
“You see these guys hit it so big with ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ and ‘Walk Like a Man’ and ‘Sherry’ and all of these other great tunes in Act One,”says Lomenda.
“When fall comes around—my season—you start to see things sort of crack and fall apart a little bit,” says Lomenda. “That’s what I narrate: the fall, literally and figuratively, of the Four Seasons.”
Lomenda, who hails from Stettler, Alberta, plays the character of Nick Massi, a quiet brooding presence who supports the action of the others for much of the show—until he finally has his say.
“They had me do all of the Bob audition material and then they just sort of stood there,” says Lomenda. Luckily, Lomenda had a feeling about the Massi character and had prepared audition material for that character too. “They said ‘We think we might want you to read for a different character’ and I kind of immediately knew what was going to come out of their mouth, and luckily it was Nick Massi,” says Lomenda.
“I’m not a cheeseball sort of destiny type of guy but this sort of experience has slapped me in the face with it so I’m a bit of a believer now,” he laughs. Lomenda started his role as Nick Massi in Toronto but didn’t dream he would become part of the ongoing tour.
“I can’t really even wrap my brain around it a lot of the time, that I get to travel the country in a really great hit show and see all of these great cities and then come home and perform in my stomping grounds. It’s been kind of just a dream,” says Lomenda.
The show’s creative team works hard to make it as real as possible; sometimes surviving members of the Four Season even consult on the show.
“It’s not like a typical jukebox musical where they took the songs and wrote a story around them.”
“If you come to the show, feel free to be loud and laugh and scream and party,” laughs Tremel.
The show not recommended for children under the age of 12 and will use “profane, strong authentic Jersey language.” The show runs 155 minutes including intermission and will be at the Jubilee until September 02, 2012.
Jersey Boys Broadway Musical grossed $896,346 and had an attendance rate of 92.6%, about 1.5% less than that of the previous week. The 24 shows on the boards grossed $20,855,107, dropping around 3.17% from the previous week’s totals.
Below are the Top 12 Grosses from BroadwayWorld.com for the week ending August 19, 2012.
Jersey Boys musical, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons returns to the Providence Performing Arts Center on August 15, 2012. “Jersey Boys” is the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons: Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito, and Nick Massi. This is the story of how a group of blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks became one of the biggest American pop music sensations of all time. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds, and sold 175 million records worldwide – all before they were thirty.
Casting has been announced for the Providence engagement of Jersey Boys. 28-year-old New Jersey native Brad Weinstock will lead Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons. Weinstock, who has been involved in theatre for most of his life, said he has always loved Vallie’s character.
“This part is wonderful. When I first saw this show as a college student, he was short and looked vaguely Italian. It became a dream role. … It blows my mind.”
Weinstock appears to have the right experience for this heavy-duty role. He performed in youth plays and high school camps before earning a theatre degree from Northwestern University in Chicago.
Jersey Boys returns to 5th Avenue Theater for five weeks in April 2013. The Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning hit musical Jersey Boys, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, will be in Seattle, WA from April 04 to May 11, 2013.
Jersey Boys is the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons: Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi. This is the story of how a group of blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks became one of the biggest American pop music sensations of all time. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide – all before they were thirty.
Jersey Boys is the winner of the 2006 Best Musical Tony Award®, the 2006 Grammy Award® for Best Musical Show Album, the 2009 Olivier Award for Best New Musical, and the 2010 Helpmann Award for Best Musical (Australia). Directed by two-time Tony Award-winner Des McAnuff, Jersey Boys is written by Academy Award-winner Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and choreography by Sergio Trujillo.
Jersey Boys musical will run through May 11, 2013 at 5th Avenue Theatre. Buy Jersey Boys Seattle WA Tickets Online, Use Code SUMMERFUNTN at Checkout to Get $10 OFF on any Orders of $250 or more!
American Idol winner Taylor Hicks attended Jersey Boys at Paris Las Vegas on Sunday, August 12. After the show, Hicks headed backstage to congratulate the cast on a great show and stayed for a cast photo.
Taylor Hicks Visited Jersey Boys Las Vegas
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Jersey Boys Las Vegas
Jersey Boys is the #1 Rated Show in Las Vegas and the “Must see show of the year!” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Jersey Boys Las Vegas named as “Best Classic Production Show” by Las Vegas Weekly. The musical phenomenon Jersey Boys, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.
Jersey Boys Broadway grossed $910,085 and had an attendance rate of 94.1%, about 4.6% more than that of the previous week. The 25 shows on the boards grossed $22,096,556, improving around 2.19% from the previous week’s totals.
Below are the Top 10 Grosses from BroadwayWorld.com for the week ending 08/12/2012.
For the movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, Jersey Boys seeking actors/singers for Lead Roles. If you are interested, you will be attending the open call in either NYC or Philadelphia.
