The Update - Part 2

Week of June 8 - 15: Bittersweet

The second week back from vacation was looking just as busy as the first, so I kicked it off right by working on my day off. Smart, huh? Well, when you love your job, and people want you to perform, it's hard to say no. So, Monday night Michael, Quinn, Grant Tilly (subbing for Jeremy) and I sang our 'Guy's Guy Movie Medley' at a Gala for the Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School at the Al Green Theatre in Toronto. I also sang a solo number from my CD 'TAKING THE WHEEL', entitled "What Is It About Her?". It was a fun night for a good cause, but ultimately a bit tiring.

Tuesday morning I did an interview by the Oakville Beaver newspaper. I think it'll hit Oakville's doorsteps in a couple days. Check their website in a couple days to see if they have it up online. Click here.

Wednesday morning brought us a rare opportunity - to do a feature on TV's popular infotainment show, "E-TALK". The idea for this came after all four of us - Jeremy, Michael, Quinn and I - were nominated for a Dora Award. They figured we'd all be going to the Gala together, and would want to look the part, kind of like a modern Rat-Pack. We met at Harry Rosen's flagship store in Yorkville, and their designers helped pick out stylish duds for us to wear. They filmed us the whole time, walking in, shopping around, trying stuff on, goofing off, and generally making asses of ourselves. It was a lot of fun. I can't wait to see the segment, if only to see what they bleeped out. It will be on TV in a couple days time - double check your local listings, but here's what I think will happen - Our segment will air on CTV Thursday, June 25th, 7pm EST; and again Friday, June 26th at 1pm EST; it will also air on STAR a couple more times. Don't miss it!

Thursday and Friday afternoons were again spent rehearsing with Dan. It's exciting to see him get more comfortable in the role. But again, it's really difficult doing the show with two different 'Tommys'. His character drives a great deal of Act 1, and most of what our characters do is in reaction to him. And, making it worse, we were all getting a bit emotional, knowing that we'd be saying good-bye to Jeremy.

Jeremy's last show was Sunday June 14th, and it was a roller-coaster ride. Emotions were running high - first, we were exhausted from a couple brutal weeks of non-stop work, second, we were losing our leader, the guy who set the bar for us all in rehearsal (since he has already done the part for over a year), and third, the show never felt so real, with exact lines of dialogue replicating what we were going through. It was trippy, really. Several times during the show I got choked up, as did the other guys. It turned out to be an incredible show for the audience, because everyone was so raw. Jeremy was given a well-deserved extra bow in the curtain call, and he welled up in front of 1500 cheering people. Oh what a night, indeed.

After the show, we had a party to say goodbye, but also to celebrate completing six full months of shows! There were speeches, free food and drinks and even an enormous cake designed to look like the front of the playbill. But it was bittersweet to be sure (the moment, not the cake). Jeremy will be missed, and we will carry on with Dan, hopefully for a long time to come.


Week of June 16 - 23: Another Astonishing Addition

Tuesday morning started off with an interview with a reporter from the Halifax Chronicle-Herald newspaper. I lived in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for five years growing up, and had many great memories of living there. In fact, my first job was delivering that very newspaper. And I started playing trumpet and joined my first bands in school there. If you're interested in checking out the article, click HERE.

Tuesday night was Dan's first show! It was great. We knew he'd be great after rehearsing with him so much, and he hardly let us down - he knocked it out of the park! We had a big house that night, and they cheered him loudly throughout. I'm sure most of them didn't know it was his first show, either. We celebrated our new cast member in style with some Italian champagne after the show, but kept it an early night because Wednesday's two shows were looming.

Another rather big piece of news is the addition of Alison Smyth to our company, doing 'Francine' track. Alison is replacing the lovely Lindsay Thomas in the role while Lindsay attends to some personal matters. She will certainly be missed at the theatre.

Alison had the unenviable position to learn the entire track in about a week. You've gotta understand, her track is probably the most technical of them all - for example she has 13 costume changes in Act 1 alone, often rushing on with some piece of furniture and as a new character. She sings the lead in "My Boyfriend's Back", and to top it all off, she has to play my mother, my girlfriend, and my daughter. Now if that doesn't break you up when you go to bed tonight, nothing will.

So, there we were, back at rehearsal Thursday and Friday. And, Alison did so great, they decided to put her into the show right away Friday night! Of course, she did amazing. You'd never have known that 10 prior she was signing her contract. And of course, to celebrate Alison joining our company, more Italian champagne was poured.

Something else cool happened this week - we had three sold-out shows! And, Friday night we sold the most tickets to any performance of JERSEY BOYS ever in Toronto, including the Touring production. Ticket sales have really picked up lately. No one really knows why - the great word of mouth, the 7 DORA nominations, the onset of Summer, all the Publicity, Father's Day - but it's a sign, Tommy. Here's hoping we rock through the summer selling out every night, and run this fantastic show for a long, long time.

Oh, and before I go, I thought I'd mention that we're performing at the CHIN picnic on Canada Day. Details will be figured out later, but if you're around and you're interested, check it out. And, the DORA awards will be handed out next Monday night, June 29th. Cross you fingers, everybody.