Places, Please!: Becoming a Jersey Boy (15 page)

The Sit-Down scene in Act Two shows Tommy getting kicked out of the group. All the emotions and personalities of the four guys come crashing together. The scene is all about being in the moment and, for my character, really feeling like there is little left to do but kick and scream. It’s an intense scene, and it feels absolutely brilliant being able to do it with guys who are equally committed to playing it with full emotion.

During the evening’s performance, I run through the show on my own in my cubbyhole in the wardrobe room. It seems to be the standard that a replacement actor spends most of his time rehearsing alone. While a newly mounted show has the luxury of full-length rehearsal days, a show that is already running can only afford to give up its actors a handful of hours each week to rehearse with somebody new. Why? First, performing is exhausting and obviously takes priority. Second, overtime charges kick in pretty early and can run up a large bill for the producer. Thus, I am left to fend for myself.

I poke my head into the hair room on my way out tonight. Because of Cara’s work, I have always felt comfortable in hair rooms. It is nice to talk to the three women in there because it makes me feel just a little closer to home.

May 20th, 2009

The understudies join me in the stilt-walker’s rehearsal studio again. I feel like I am getting to know these guys, both on and off stage, and we’ve actually started to build character relationships. Nobody, including myself, is doing anything halfheartedly. But every time I think of how well the interactions are going, I have to remind myself that these are not the actors I will be doing the show with, and that things will be different in just a couple of weeks. Even though
Jersey Boys
is directed within an inch of its life, there are general character relationships that are figured out based on the people actually doing the roles. I have to bully Frankie, for example, but I’m going to bully a small, young Frankie in a very different way than I’m going to bully a slightly taller, solid Frankie. Same thing with Nick. The Tommy-Nick relationship in the show can be more subtle or more combative, depending on who plays each part. Some figuring out needs to be done when I get to Toronto.

I also have a phone meeting with the
Jersey Boys
marketing department today. They want me to approve my press release. Oh, man. I’m going to have a press release.

May 21st, 2009

Another two-show day for the cast and no rehearsal for me. I’m on my own again. Usually their two-show days mean two hours of rehearsal for me, but maybe Eric doesn’t want to overwork Kara today. I seem to be a second full-time job for her lately.

Kara’s regular dance captain duties include: learning all the choreography and musical staging for every part of the show, watching the show a few times each week to give actors notes on adjustments that need to be made to keep up the choreographer’s original intent, leading brush-up rehearsals when necessary, and teaching (sometimes even auditioning) new performers. And on top of this, she is a swing and must be ready to perform any of the three female roles at a moment’s notice. So having a day off from me gives her time to check up on everyone else.

My wife finally figures out travel plans for her and the kids today. All in all, the plans make me happy as she and Rachel will be in Toronto with me for much of the summer. Mark will be working at a summer camp this year, so he will only be in Toronto for a little bit, but at least he’ll be able to see the show.

Here’s how it is shaking down: Cara and Rachel will come up for my opening night, stay a few days, and return to New York. A few days later, when school is over, they will return to Toronto with Mark, who will stay for four days. Then Mark will go to work at the camp, and Cara and Rachel will stay for another two weeks. Cara and Rachel will return to New York for a few days for a previously-planned visit from Rachel’s Dad, and then come back to Toronto for the rest of the summer. Such is our hectic life.

May 22nd, 2009

Eric calls my biggest rehearsal yet—seven actors and a full backstage team to give me an onstage run-through of the entire show with all the props and set pieces. I manage to get through the choreography with some sense of style and my lines came to me without -um-er-um-stumbling. I hit all my marks, even though the stage is absolutely littered with colored spike-tape and I have often had a hard time figuring out which marks are the ones I am supposed to be hitting. Pushing the Penthouse Scene bench (we call it the “whore bench” because of the characters that sit on it, not because the bench itself is frisky) and moving the Car Scene seat onto their correct marks will take more practice.

I go to dinner with some of the guys afterwards as a kind of personal celebration. The theatre business, while global and full of newly-graduated faces every year, often feels like a small world. I get to know John Gardiner, the actor who plays Knuckles (and is in the midst of learning to understudy Tommy), and discover a few amazing coincidences that prove to me that we should be friends:

• He is also a good friend of one of my Roundabout Theatre colleagues back in New York.
  
• We worked for the same theatre playing the same role back in 1998, only missing meeting each other by a few weeks.
  
• We have the same agent, Meg.
  

This kind of thing always happens. It is impossible to do a show where you have no connection to at least a few of the people in it. The theatre world may be large, but the pool of people actually working in it is quite small. How small? According to the latest analysis by Actors’ Equity Association, only 41.4% of its members worked in the theatre business last year. (That’s about 17,000 actors and stage managers out of a membership of about 42,000.) But here’s the kicker: those working professionals only found an average of 17 weeks of employment for the whole year. And the median yearly income earned by these workers from theatre jobs was $7,475. The
Jersey Boys
family is not only lucky to be in a great show, but lucky just to have a job.

For the cast’s performance this evening, I opt to trail Matt Bailey backstage as he performs his Tommy. I know there is a lot of backstage traffic, and I finally feel ready to learn it. I learn that there are a couple quick-changes. The first quick-change is going into “I’m In The Mood For Love” and has two dressers going to town on Tommy, literally ripping his clothes off down to his underwear and holding up new clothes to dive into. There is no modesty here. The second quick-change is going into “Sherry,” and it is then that Velcro shirts come in handy. Tommy has to rip off his first shirt so a dresser can help him into his new one (with a tie). But the new shirt and tie are set up with Velcro, so the dresser just closes it all up, holds out the snazzy red suit jacket, and pushes Tommy towards his waiting guitar. Slick.

I also learn how busy the ensemble is backstage during the show. I’ve already written about how most of the vocal lines are doubled to create the signature Four Seasons sound, but what I didn’t know until tonight is that the cast members doing the doubling are often in the middle of their own quick-changes while singing. (And that much of the Frankie Valli doubling is done by women. What does that say about the range of his voice?!) There is never a break for this ensemble, and no one has time to go back to their dressing rooms to change clothes; all of the costume changes are done in the wings.

Intermission is a different story. During intermission, the actors have about fifteen minutes of free time, and it is spent in a few interesting ways. There are a couple guys who go right for the stereotype and are making their way through
The Sopranos
on DVD. There are a couple who disappear into an upstairs room to work on tap routines (wisely, they rehearse), there are a couple who always seem to have a newly-purchased guitar to play with (wisely, they fine-tune their skills), and there are a few who sit alone in their dressing rooms with music playing (wisely, they steer clear of human contact in an attempt to avoid getting sick of seeing the same people every day).

May 23rd, 2009

I was too tired and talked to Cara for too long to run the show last night, so my morning here in Orlando begins with a full run-through in my room; taking breaks only to sip on coffee.

I drive downtown for the last time to join the company for their final two shows of the week. During the first show, Kara watches me do a wardrobe room run in real time. She has a page or so of notes, but they are all very specific things; there is nothing like, “Hey, you just suck at this number and we need to change everything for you.” Actually, she says she can’t believe how much better I am doing, but this just makes me wonder how low I set the bar on my first day.

During dinner break, I compose a nice note for the cast thanking them for their help. If it weren’t for me being here, many of these folks would have had a lot more free time to explore Orlando. (They could have gone to the Holy Land Experience right down the road and had their picture taken with Jesus.) They worked overtime hours for two weeks just because some guy is joining the Toronto cast, and none of them ever complained. There is a supportive atmosphere here and I love being a part of it. I am very grateful for these people. However, this was a lonely time, and I am very happy to be leaving for New York tomorrow.

Before the next show begins, I join some of the boys in the parking lot behind the theatre to toss a football around. I am not good at tossing a football, but I really want to feel like a part of the group, so I jump in…and promptly throw the ball high into a tree. I leave the game (shamefacedly) to say goodbye to everyone individually before the show begins.

“Dan, I really wish you were staying.”

“Dan, I can’t wait to see you in the role and it would be cool to have you stick around here longer.”

“Dan, stop taking jobs from the Canadians.”

The comments are nice to hear, and I hope to have made as positive an impression on them as they have made on me. I really like being a part of this global family.

I decide to do something very different and watch this last show from the front row. The volume and intensity of being that close makes me feel giddy all over again. The excitement I feel rehearsing for the show comes and goes in waves, for sometimes it just feels like a whole lot of work. But when some of the work is behind me, like tonight, then the thrill kicks in and I can’t wait to perform this thing myself.

After returning to the hotel, packing my things up, and rearranging the room back to its original state, I am ready for dinner. It is 1:30 a.m. I walk a few blocks to Downtown Disney looking for a place to eat, but nothing appears to be open at this hour. I am getting hungrier and hungrier and would be happy eating just chips from a gas station if I could find one. But I can’t find one! So after an hour of wandering I come back to the hotel…and discover fresh, hot pizza being served in the lobby.

REHEARSING IN NEW YORK (AGAIN)

NAKED ROOMS, BLONDS, & UNFIT FITTINGS

May 24th, 2009

After a morning driving by those very nice tollbooth operators (with cash in hand this time), I make it back to the Orlando airport. I am sporting new
Jersey Boys
luggage tags; the first of many
Jersey Boys
items I hope to own. I always dreamed of owning one of those awful looking leather jackets with a Broadway show logo on the back. This type of jacket was the signature of a Broadway performer in the 90s, and I want one. But luggage tags are a start, and I silently thank the company manager for giving them to me when the airline attendant checking me in says, “Oh! Are you with
Jersey Boys
?”

“Yes,” I say proudly, “I am.”

I hope this happens many more times.

I arrive at LaGuardia, get my bags and guitar, and sprint to the nearest cab. I am ready to see my lady! Now, my lady will tell you that I never take cabs because they are expensive and we are perpetually on a tight budget. But this one is reimbursable by the producers, so away I go.

I know I haven’t actually been away too long yet, but it feels lengthy because we are looking ahead to an uncertain time. My contract is for at least a year in Toronto, and Cara will be there full time for only two months. I don’t know how we are going to manage the year yet, so this two-week absence feels like just one of many, many more to come.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.”

And I hold her. For a long time.

I unpack quickly, mostly just throwing my clothes into the laundry basket. After unpacking, we go for lunch at Blockhead’s, our favorite little Mexican place, and do a lot of staring. We’ve been talking twenty times a day so there are no new stories to tell, but right now all we need is to look across the table at each other.

Then we meet Mark in Central Park and toss the football around. I am a little better with the football this time. It doesn’t land in any trees.

As we are walking home, Cara and I get into a very serious conversation about communication. Constant communication is the only thing that is going to get us comfortably through this next year (possibly more). And we realize something fun: we have not gone a day without talking to each other since the first moment we met. Not one day.

May 25th, 2009

It was incredibly relaxing to wake up in my own bed this morning. Sleeping next to my beautiful wife was, in a word, satisfying. In another word, completing. In three words, really freakin’ sexy.

This is my week off from rehearsal, and it feels strange. I am not on salary this week, for one contract (American) has ended and another contract (Canadian) has yet to begin. But I am now an official member of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association, and that feels pretty good. I’ve always been somewhat active in the American union, serving on multiple committees and contract negotiation teams, so it is neat to be part of a sister organization.