Media Media Media

TELEVISION:

This past week the Toronto cast of Jersey Boys got up bright and early to perform on CTV’s nationally televised morning show, CANADA AM. Even though the cast was tired after doing two shows on Wednesday, we somehow managed to find our way to the TV studio for 7am, and give a great performance. Everyone did a heck of a job.

Many of you have emailed, asking how I managed to hit those high notes so early in the morning. Well, on last week’s post I wondered whether I should stay up all night before the gig or get a bit of sleep – and not one of you made a suggestion. Well, thanks for nothing, friends. Actually, I decided to call my JB singing teacher and all-round ‘Frankie Guru’ Katie Agresta for some advice. She told me to get some sleep, and gave me a great routine to help with the early morning screeching.

After Wednesday evening’s show, I warmed-down vocally, took a long hot shower and hit the sack. About four hours later, the alarm goes off. It's 4:45am. Following Katie's advice, I force myself to eat a bit, have some coffee (duh), take a cool shower, and began warming up my speaking voice. At 5:20am I hit the treadmill - not literally, although that did cross my mind more than once - breaking a sweat, getting my body ready for the day. That accomplished, on to the real job of the day: finding my falsetto, and once located, introducing it to the rest of my voice, which at 6:00am is in my boots, where everyone's voice should be at that time of the day!

Into the car, and off I go, fighting the early morning commuters on the 401. I arrive at the studio just before 7am, and to my surprise I'm one of the last to arrive! We quickly get in to hair, makeup, and costumes and luckily we're able to run the medley three or four times before it counts. I was pretty happy with how my voice was feeling, all things considered (Thank you, Katie!). At about 8:50am, the cameras started rolling, and we did our thing. And it was over before we knew it.

By 9:15am, I was back in rush-hour traffic heading home to watch the tape. Aside from the bags under my eyes, I thought it looked pretty good. It's funny - the first TV close-up of me on the outdoor New Year's Eve gig showed my incredibly red nose, and here it's the bags under my eyes.

Well, what do you all think? If you haven’t seen it, check it out. Here’s a link to the segment.

NEWSPAPERS:

What else is going on? Well, tomorrow night (Tuesday) is our official “Press Opening”. Many media outlets are coming back to review the show with the new Canadian cast. So, that’s kind of cool. It gives us another excuse to have a party, which is always nice. And, it’ll give the show a lot more publicity, which is great for Dancap and the Dodgers, the producers of Jersey Boys.

However, having the media come back to re-review the show makes the creative types a bit nervous. So, during this past week, we had visits from our director, Des McAnuff and his assistant West Hyler. Suffice it to say, I haven’t gotten this many notes since our first dress rehearsal. And, I’m not alone - everybody was under the microscope. But, obviously, they do it for a good reason. Their keen eyes and thoughtful suggestions have really helped focus everyone again, and because of it all, I think we’re finally firing on all cylinders.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what the media say about our show. What matters is our nightly relationship with the audience. They are the ones buying the tickets, they are the ones on their feet cheering at the end of the show, they are the ones making their friends run to buy tickets to the show. You can’t buy that kind of publicity. The show is a hit because the people love it. Plain and simple.

INTERNET:

As a testament to this fact, there is an incredible Fan-site called JerseyBoysBlog that keeps giving the fans more behind the scenes info. This is THE Fan-site for Jersey Boys news, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, do so. And just today, this blogsite happened to print an article about little ol’ me. It’s actually a bit of a promo for this very blog site, “Taking The Wheel”, my CD of the same name, and my website www.jeffmadden.ca.

In all honesty, I’m deeply flattered by the attention. And what's more, I'm honoured to be in this position. Honoured to be a working actor, to be working with such a multi-talented cast and crew, to be a part of this fantastic Tony-Award winning show. Playing “Frankie Valli”, well, that's the icing on the cake.