Jersey Boys the musical is right at home in Chicago these days. Based upon the life of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, the story follows the group on their rise to fame.
The show has toured 38 cities and won Tony as well as Grammy Awards.
Without further ado let's introduce the four Jersey Boys in this cast:
Preston Truman Boyd plays Bob Gaudio, who toured with Young Frankenstein and has appeared in Broadway hits such as Singin' in the Rain and Oklahoma! Joseph Leo Bwarie has toured 40 cities playing Valli and even performed on the Tony Awards.
John Gardiner who plays Tommy DeVito, and has starred in the Lion King and TV's All My Children. Michael Lomenda returns to Jersey Boys as Nick Massi after playing the role in Toronto. His favorite past shows have been Hairspray and Miss Saigon.
Windy City Times went to the Bank of America Theatre to fist-pump with the four of them.
Windy City Times: Hey, guys. Is any one here actually from Jersey?
All: No.
Michael Lomenda: I lived there on and off for three years.
WCT: Where are you all from?
Michael Lomenda: I am from Stettler, Alberta, Canada.
WCT: That sounds so macho.
Michael Lomenda: I should have brought my 10-gallon hat.
John Gardiner: I am from Edgewood, Ky.
Preston Truman Boyd: Moorhead, Minn.
Joseph Leo Bwarie: I am from Sherman Oaks, Calif., the heartland…
WCT: What was your journey to be a part of the show?
Michael Lomenda: I started in 2008 and got into the travel company sort of the same time that the Chicago company was running, we were running up in Toronto for a couple of years. I joined the tour six months ago with Preston in Omaha.
John Gardiner: I started the show about three years ago and was in the ensemble. When there was an opening for one of the Seasons, I was lucky enough to get promoted.
WCT: You worked your way up!
John Gardiner: Yes, I got to be in the show from the inside.
Preston Truman Boyd: I live in New York and an agent got me an audition and had just come off the road with another show, Young Frankenstein. This was one of my bucket-list roles, so I came right back out on the road. I didn't even unpack!
Joseph Leo Bwarie: I have been doing this show since 2007. I opened a Las Vegas company first and the tour opened in Toronto. It ran there for two years. I have been with the show since before it was even written! [Everyone laughs.]
WCT: What is the overview of the show for people that haven't seen it?
All [simultaneously]: It is a rags-to-riches story about four blue-collar guys…
John Gardiner: They worked their way out of the neighborhood but didn't do it by joining the army or the mob. They wrote a hit song.
Joseph Leo Bwarie: They worked their way into the hearts of America and the world.
John Gardiner: It is a show about the trails and tribulations that they had to over come to be a huge success that they were and are today.
Preston Truman Boyd: They were on the road with wives, kids, relationships and friendships.
John Gardiner: There was changing of the group and new members.
Joseph Leo Bwarie: It makes it an everyman story because they have their successes and highpoints as well as the trying times.
Michael Lomenda: Everyone knows the music but not everyone knows the story. It is an amazing underdog story that is fantastic.
Preston Truman Boyd: It is kind of like a VH1 backstage pass behind the music that everyone knows so much about but they don't know how it came to fruition. I think many people walk away from the theatre thinking the music is great but didn't know about the story of these four iconic people.
Michael Lomenda: In Chicago they might know more because it was here for so long.
WCT: Right. So what makes this cast different than previous ones?
Preston Truman Boyd: By different, you mean better? [Everyone laughs.]
Joseph Leo Bwarie: We are the only cast that tours. We are the guys that live what we talk about in the show so we have a first hand knowledge about what it is like. We live what we talk about in the show.
John Gardiner: We are constantly in a new city with new people joining and leaving the cast so it is a fresh version of the show. I would call this a perfect show since the book is written so well and it is a timeless story.
Preston Truman Boyd: And there is no green makeup!
WCT: Why do you think audiences are into shows set in the past, like Mad Men and Million Dollar Quartet?
Preston Truman Boyd: Skinny ties and fedoras is all it is!
Michael Lomenda: I think people look back at fonder times and the nostalgic feeling of that. It was amazing fashion and music back then though they are seeing it through a different lens. Just like Mad Men and Sopranos, they pull back the curtain to what they thought it was to the gritty real life behind it.
John Gardiner: We get these 70-year-old women coming up to the stage door talking about making out to these songs when they were younger.
Preston Truman Boyd: It is really hot!
Joseph Leo Bwarie: They don't say "making out." They say they had a nice kiss…
Michael Lomenda: This is kind of a racy show for the theater world.
WCT: There are a lot of curse words in it.
Joseph Leo Bwarie: There are 42 F-bombs!
Michael Lomenda: It was very Jersey.
WCT: Jersey Shore!
Preston Truman Boyd: When they wrote it, they wanted authentic language of the time.
Joseph Leo Bwarie: It is a city thing. People show they are tough with these words. Chicago doesn't care. I had my window open at 6 a.m. and heard authentic Jersey language right outside!
WCT: The real Frankie Valli is coming to town right at the end of the run. Have you all met him?
Preston Truman Boyd: Yes.
Joseph Leo Bwarie: He follows us. He lets us play and then says, "This is the real deal!"
WCT: Are there any gay members in the group?
Preston Truman Boyd: There are gay members in the cast of the show.
Joseph Leo Bwarie: We even travel with pets, such as bunnies and birds.
John Gardiner: I can't believe you just segued from gay members of the group to bunnies.
Joseph Leo Bwarie: I am just saying all kinds, colors and species!
Michael Lomenda: We are an equal opportunity employer.
WCT: What have you learned from doing the show?
Joseph Leo Bwarie: It has been fun just being in the show as a family.
Preston Truman Boyd: I agree. I have never seen a cast where our camaraderie has formed the work onstage.
WCT: How was the South By Southwest festival, Joseph?
Joseph Leo Bwarie: It was a departure for me with billions of people there. (That is an exaggeration.) But it was great to get back to Texas. We played San Antonio in the summer of 2010.
Michael Lomenda: His CD is awesome and available on iTunes.
Joseph Leo Bwarie: This is my PR team! [Laughs] My album was produced by Charlie Calello, who did all the arrangements of The Four Seasons.
Michael Lomenda: He was my character's replacement.
Preston Truman Boyd: With the show they didn't have time to go into the other incarnations of the band. To make it simple they made it just these four guys.
Michael Lomenda: These are the four guys that made it into the Hall of Fame, though, so we are the real Jersey Boys!
Visit www.BroadwayInChicago.com to purchase tickets before the curtain call Sunday, June 3, at the Bank of America Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St.
