Award-winning hit musical Jersey Boys launches it’s new second national tour at the Forrest Theatre performances starting from December 6, 2011.
Jersey Boys, the Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning hit musical, set a new box office record for a standard 8 show week at Philadelphia’s Forrest Theater this past week (week ending 1/8/12) with a gross of $1,617,700. The previous week (week ending 1/1/12), the show also set a new box office record for a 9-show week with a gross of $1,825,246. Jersey Boys now holds the top 12 weekly box office grosses at the Forrest Theater (combination of 2010 premiere and 2011 return).
Jersey Boys opened to rave reviews in Philadelphia, PA at the Forrest Theater, on Friday, December 9 (performances began Tuesday, December 6) and will play through Saturday, January 14, 2012. From Philadelphia, Jersey Boys will play Dayton, OH’s Schuster Performing Arts Center Tuesday, January 17 through Sunday, February 5.
The cast of Jersey Boys is lead by Brandon Andrus (Nick Massi), Colby Foytik (Tommy DeVito),Jason Kappus (Bob Gaudio) and Brad Weinstock (Frankie Valli), with Barry Anderson and Thomas Fiscella. The ensemble of Jersey Boys includes Stephen Cerf, E. Clayton Cornelious, Kaleigh Cronin, Brent DiRoma, Larry Esparza, Natalie Gallo, Devon Goffman, Wes Hart, Dave Hiltebrand, Ruby Lewis, Christopher Messina, Hayden Milanes, Michelle Pruiett, Skye Scott and Carlos Valdes.
Jersey Boys Second National Tour Kick start performances at Forrest Theatre from Dec 06, 2011 and play through Jan 14, 2012. When the national touring company of “Jersey Boys” came to Philadelphia’s Forrest Theatre last year, it broke all box office records — more than 140,000 people saw it during its run.
So when the producers launched the second national touring production of “Jersey Boys” they chose Philadelphia as its first stop. The show is now playing at the Forrest Theatre through Jan. 14. “Jersey Boys” tells the story of Frankie Valli and the 1960s pop singing group the Four Seasons
“Philadelphia was an important city in launching the career of the Four Seasons,” says Rick Elice, who wrote the book for “Jersey Boys” with Marshall Brickman. “When the group came to Philadelphia in 1962, the city embraced them so wholeheartedly that their lives were irreversibly changed. They sold more than 120,000 records and they were stars.
“What makes this story so compelling is that this group of blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks became one of the biggest American pop music sensations. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide — all before they were 30.”
“Jersey Boys” also launched Elice’s career. The show was his first Broadway credit and it won the Tony, Olivier, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and Grammy awards for Best Musical. He and Brickman also wrote the book for “The Addams Family,” now playing at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. And Elice wrote the book for last year’s Off Broadway hit, “Peter and the Starcatcher,” a prequel to the story of Peter Pan. Elice is hoping that it will move to a Broadway theater.
When “Jersey Boys” first opened at the LaJolla Playhouse, no one was more surprised at its success than Elice, Brickman and its director Des McAnuff.
“We were shocked when we first did it in LaJolla,” recalls Elice. “On opening night, the audience loved it and this was Beach Boy-territory, not Four Seasons. Marshall and Des said this must be some mistake, but the second night response was the same.”
“Jersey Boys” opened on Broadway in 2005 and became a hit. Today there are six productions of “Jersey Boys” playing worldwide.
“This is a great show,” says Elice. “It has great music and all those Four Seasons hits. It delivers a great story and the audience has a great time. Bob Gaudio and Frankie took what was essentially a low art form and elevated it on to the stage. They did to music what Roy Lichtenstein did for pop art; they took blue collar music to regular people.”
Elice says while the story and the music remain the same, new technology has improved the staging. “We didn’t have LED technology when ‘Jersey Boys’ first opened in 2005. In those days all we had was a single projector to project the slides. The show has now been refitted and its staging and projections are much more dramatic and very high-tech.”
Jersey Boys Launches it’s 2nd National Tour from today at Philadelphia, PA. Brandon Andrus, 32, was born in Willingboro, N.J., grew up in Langhorne and graduated from Neshaminy High School in 1998. He plays “Nick Massi,” in the second national tour of the Grammy and Tony-award winning musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons opening this week at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia return engagement of the Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning hit musical Jersey Boys, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, playing the Forrest Theatre December 6 through January 14, 2012 for 48 performances. Jersey Boys is part of the Broadway Season presented in Philadelphia by The Kimmel Center and The Shubert Organization. Jersey Boys at the Forrest Theatre broke box office records and entertained over 140,000 theatergoers last year. Jersey Boys now holds the record for the highest weekly gross ever at the Forrest Theatre.
