Erich Bergen: New Boy in Town

At age 21, Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons penned some of the most recognizable tunes of an American generation.  At age 21, Erich Bergen represents this legend night after night in the first national tour of Jersey Boys.  

Less than one year ago, Erich was selling merchandise at the Gershwin Theatre and happy to nab cabaret gigs here and there.  Before that, he was in a college dorm podcasting casual interviews with Broadway stars.

Now, Erich sits on the other side of the tables; receiving countless standing-ovations and with someone else asking the questions.  Erich and I grabbed two seats in San Francisco's Curran Theatre for a fun and friendly chat between shows.

Eugene Lovendusky: First of all, congratulations on being part of such a hit!

Erich Bergen: Is it a hit? Is it a hit now? We can say that? Cool.

Eugene: Yes! [laughs] What's it been like playing to sold-out audiences night after night?

Erich: You don't realize you've played to that audience until the final moment of the show when the four of us are down-center and the lights are shining from behind us and you can see all the way up to the top of the theatre and see that every seat is filled.  Up until then I have to remember, I have to tell myself to play to more than just the front row.  As far as what it means to your own well being? It takes such a pressure off! It gives you such an ease that you don't have to look out into the house every night and see it half-empty.  It makes it so much more comfortable to know that there are people loving what you do.  I just got back from eating sushi and we were sitting next to a mom and a son, and the son was reading the souvenir program.  And I looked at the son and could see something in him… I saw my first Broadway show when I was 10 years-old.  I saw Big: The Musical and I remember going out to dinner with my mom afterward and reading the souvenir program like crazy! I struck up this conversation with this ten year-old.  It's extremely gratifying to play with those type of audiences who just love what you do, and keep coming back.  There are some audiences who have seen it ten times.  It's ridiculous! Well I shouldn't say "ridiculous"… I did that! I saw Movin' Out eight times! It affected me nightly, each time I saw it. I know why people do it.  It's different to be on the other side of it.

Eugene: Can I guess that you've enjoyed your stay in San Francisco for three months?

Erich: [laughs] San Francisco is a funny place.  My experience in California has been limited to Los Angeles which is such a different world… I was born and raised in New York, I still don't have a driver's license…so San Francisco has been very comforting in that it's very similar to New York as far as the pace, the way people talk to one another, the way they act.  I still don't get this thing about "no jay-walking" and I'm still scared of any place you're allowed to turn right on red! But I just love how San Francisco is so open to theatre.  I didn't know there was this much theatre, all over the Bay Area! What I really love is that a show like Jersey Boys can be compared to a show in some little playhouse somewhere, and it's equally reliable.  People go to both those shows the same.  I've absolutely loved my stay here.

Eugene: Good to hear! You're role Bob Gaudio was instrumental in shaping The Four Seasons; writing hits like "Sherry" and "Walk Like a Man" before age 21. What's it like to fill the shoes of a living, breathing legend? What freedoms and limitations does that create for you as a performer?

Erich: The fact that he's living didn't affect me.  Forget living! The guy is involved with the show! Bob is instrumental in writing those songs…he's instrumental in Jersey Boys. He's the reason this show happened! He was at rehearsals, he was here during the tech process; he's just as involved in the creation of this show as he was in the creation of The Four Seasons.  What was scary was playing him before him! I didn't have to worry about playing a living guy in front of an audience…nobody knew who he was other than a name… I mean, can you name all the Osmonds? (Well, some people can) I didn't have to worry about imitating, getting some of his mannerisms down. I didn't have to worry about sounding like him.  It was creating a character from scratch. But at the same time, I still had to play the guy true to who he is.  It was taking pieces of him that were interesting, but not just taking pieces because they were factual.  I would take pieces of him – like his smile – because that was interesting.  I would take his walk because that was interesting… I was really worried that Bob was going to be a stickler on me.  But it was great.  He let it absolutely go.  He didn't see himself on stage; he wasn't worried about getting every little thing right.

Eugene: You referred to his smile and that makes me think of a scene during "Dawn" where your face goes up on the screen and you just look like you're having the best time! What part of the show in particular do you always look forward to?

Erich: I'll tell you what part I'm always scared to death of and that's "Cry For Me," because you never know how your voice is going to come out. For whatever reason, that song makes me so vulnerable.  But the part that I love to do is right after "Sherry." There's that monologue I do which tells how the song "Big Girls Don't Cry" was created.  I say: "she looked up at him, defiant, proud, eyes-glistening, and she said…" and you hear the drum-set go brrrr-bum-bum brrr-bum-bum tsh-bum-bum and you hear the four-part harmony come in with one of the most famous hooks of all time.  And the audience goes berserk! And what I love is that we know it's coming and we're getting ready for it.  And the audience thinks something is coming but they're not quite sure what.  And they hear it… and they can't do anything but go [spasm] AAAAH-oooh! [laughs] It's literally whatever noise happens to fly out of their body at that moment.  It's like they just combusted! I absolutely love listening to that every single night.

Eugene: [laughs] Oh, that's great! Before Jersey Boys you shared the stage with Deven May at Birdland and in Warrior at the New York Music Theatre Festival 2006.  What's your past-to-present relationship with Deven?

Erich: We used to date… No, I met Deven in 2005.  We did a show at the New York Musical Theatre Festival called The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.  It was directed by Michael Bush with a score written by Dana Rowe, who wrote The Witches of Eastwick and Zombie Prom.  It was this great interesting little show sort of done in the style of presenting the life-story of Bonnie and Clyde at the Grand Ole Opery.  That's where I first met Deven.  Deven played Clyde.  I played his older brother (which doesn't make any sense). Then we ran into each other at the Jersey Boys auditions.  I said: "I guess I'm spending the rest of the summer with you!" because Michael Bush (who runs the cabaret conference at the O'Neill) had asked us to come up as guests artists to the Theatre Conference.  It was sort of a summer of country music; the main thing being Warrior written by Marcus Hummon, which told the story of Jim Thorpe, the Olympic athlete.  We work-shopped it up there and then did Warrior at the Musical Theatre Festival.  It was about two or three days before we went up to the O'Neill that I found out that I got the role [in Jersey Boys] and Deven got the role.  It was on the train-ride back from Connecticut I thought: "We should do something. Come up with an act together, if we're going to be on the road."  Deven is the kind of guy who will just say yes and go with it.  My friend, Jim Caruso, who runs Cast Party… we were talking on the phone one day and this act had just cancelled on him.  I said: "Umm… I have a show!" Lying through my teeth! He said: "Okay, I guess…" He had to book it so, he gave it to me.  Thank God Deven just said okay because I could have gotten myself into a lot trouble.  But it ended up selling-out and being an incredible night… and has become quite a hit on YouTube!

Eugene: And beyond Deven, with Jersey Boys you've got Christopher Kale Jones and Michael Ingersoll, the whole cast… What's it like working with them?

Erich: I've never had a cast that's been so easy! You always do a show and there's always someone or a few people… "Really? You're going to complain about that?"  But for this show, I think the four of us are so easy with each other because we're just so exhausted…

Eugene: [laughs] No time for drama!

Erich: Honestly! Not exhausted like we're deathly tired, but our bodies can only give so much. When the show is over, we say good-night and go to bed.  And then you come back and do it again.  We're not all living together, married to each other.  We have the exact relationship we should: We're brothers because of this and that will never change.  And we know when we' ve had enough…we all have our place we can go to when we need time alone.  And even beyond the four guys, the cast is just fantastic.  And I'll tell you why: First of all, the show is bigger than all of us combined.  The show is too big for any egos because…

Eugene: It's American pop-culture in the human form.

Erich: Yes, and we're proof that the New York production wasn't a fluke! Sure it takes good actors to do this material, but it's good material! We know there are other people down the road who will play these roles. So we didn't let it get to our heads.  And it also helps when you have such a small cast.  When we were in rehearsals we were all coming from a place of: "We have to prove ourselves. We have to do right by this."  It was already a proven hit, a blockbuster.  And they were entrusting us with this material. It was the knowledge that we had to do this that bonded us.  It was great!

Eugene: Outside of this tour, you are relatively unknown in the theatre world.  What's the CliffsNotes version of how you got into this business?

Erich: I was born and raised in New York so my entire childhood… A lot of my friends were a lot into theatre a lot earlier than I was.  A lot of my friends were kids who were in The Broadway Kids and the kids auditioning for Gavroche in Les Miz.  I was never that kid.  I was weaned on Michael Jackson.  Not literally, because that would have been odd…

Eugene: [laughs]

Erich: I was weaned on Michael and Motown.  My parents were music freaks!  My dad was more doo-wop, 40s and 50s music.  My mom was more California, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor was a big one.  James Brown, Jackie Wilson.  It was when I was 10 years-old (and I was a problem-child) my mom took me to see Big: The Musical and it changed my life completely as far as what I wanted to do with theatre.  It also helped that the entire ensemble was made of kids my age.  That summer of '96, my parents sent me to Stagedoor Manor.

Eugene: Lucky you!

Erich: Well yeah! To this day, more than college, it's where I got my training.  I went there for seven years, every summer, it's where all my friends are from pretty much.

Eugene: That's a good chunk of life!

Erich: Oh yes! My first show I ever did there was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat…Mandy Moore played Reuben.

Eugene: No way.

Erich: And we got into such a fight, we hated each other!  And the opposite show, at the same time, was Cabaret with Natalie Portman playing Sally Bowles…I did Side by Side by Sondheim (which is horrifying singing "Barcelona" as a 13 year-old).  I did The Boyfriend with Connor Gallagher who's now on Broadway in Beauty in the Beast…  Little Me with Skylar Astin (who is now in Spring Awakening) And speaking of Spring Awakening, I did Side by Side by Sondheim with Lea Michele.  I did Into the Woods with Jed Resnick who just starred in the tour of Rent. It's so funny to see where we all ended up.  One of my good friends, Dana Steingold, is on the Spelling Bee tour.  That's where I got all my training.  My mentor, Michael Larsen, who taught me everything at camp, just saw the show for the first time the other week.  It was a little emotional for him.  I dropped out of high school three days into my senior year because I hated it because New York City public school is a mess.  I certainly wasn't one for sitting in a classroom.  Then I went off to college to North Carolina School of the Arts then quit that after two years.  I'd be graduating this May.

Eugene: That blows my mind… that you're so young.

Erich: I'm just not one for sitting in a classroom.  It works for some people.  I know people in my class are learning a lot.  It was me; I wasn't open to their training.  I'm not regretting that I went.  I did learn a lot and it changed my way of thinking about many things; especially living in the South.  All that fried food! Fried okra? That's not a vegetable.  After I quit school, I sold T-shirts at Gypsy with Bernadette Peters.  After Gypsy I sold souvenirs at Wicked up until last year… It's actually really funny; it was just a year ago I was selling T-shirts!

Eugene: Gives people some hope!

Erich: Yeah, but you know, it's because of that that I don't let this go to my head.  Sure [Jersey Boys] has changed my career but honestly, I could sell T-shirts tonight at this show.  The fact remains that if I go into the lobby right now, maybe the people who have seen the show eight times would recognize me, but no one knows going in whom I am… If I put on my hat forwards and just walk out? I could just as easily go out and sell T-shirts tomorrow.  You have to remember that can happen in this industry! Not just theatre, but TV and film.  It can all be over in a second…

Eugene: Stepping away from Jersey Boys, you gave me the opportunity to see your website, ErichBergen.com.  When is it going public and what can people find on there?

Erich: By the time this interview goes up, it should be up! When you're doing a show like this, building a fan-base, the website should represent you.  As a person, I'm just really kitchy and corny and I love 70s variety shows.  I wanted my site to be tacky, teen-idol-ish (as a joke), so I wanted it to represent me, to be fun.  Not only is the design concept goofy, but if you go into the videos section – sure you see the press footage of Jersey Boys and you see my stuff with Deven – but there's also a video of me at four years-old doing "Billie Jean!"  That's part of who I am!

Eugene: Where does the King of Pop fit into your life?

Erich: When I was two or three, I caught Michael on TV doing something, in '87 or '88.  He was already "white."  The time of the Bad album.  I think what I saw was "We Are The World" and that's what introduced me to Michael.  I would go around imitating "We Are The World" and do all the voices… Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder.  I can still sing the song in each person's voice (which will not be happening right now).  When I saw Michael, it was the energy! It was the mystery of what was going on there. That person's a mystery. Very Barnum-esque.  That's what grabbed me.  My dad brought home a video tape of "Motown 25" where he premieres the moonwalk for the first time.  That got me going! I was obsessed.  It's all I listened to.  The way I figured out other music was watching interviews or listening to Michael say who his influences were: Everything from Jackie Wilson, James Brown, all the early Motown people.  It was the energy on-stage of non-stop craziness, the movement, the singing, how any performer grabs your attention.  Especially when you're young, when you're that impressionable.  In fact, I still get note s from a director or stage manager; I'll do a move that's still the choreography of the show, but they'll say: "Your Michael Jackson thing came out today."  Crap! Because it does! Because still, I'm still obsessed with it.  I still watch it for inspiration, to make sure I'm not relaxing on-stage.  I still watch all the rare stuff that I have…because it's what inspires me to keep doing it.

Eugene: Awesome! Unlike so many not-so-distant theatre generations, you seem to have nabbed the internet.  You really enjoy it.  I mean you post on BroadwayWorld.com every once in a while.  Tell me how you got Green Room Radio started and how you learned about podcasting.

Erich: Green Room Radio started as I was at college.  I was bored out of my mind.  Elton John was coming to town to do a concert about 15 minutes from school.  I kept thinking: "How could I get good seats to this thing?" And I couldn't figure it out.  "Well, what if I started a school paper? Or something?" Something press related.  It was about that time that I was discovering blogging and audio-blogs.  All of that was just starting up.  My friend, Dylan, who was in my class at school, is another computer-junkie.  And podcasting sort of popped into our brains at the same time and we couldn't figure out what it was, like how it actually worked! We got what it did and how people listened to it.  But how did you actually make it? Once you recorded the show, what did you do with it? So we started doing audio-blogs in my dorm room.  Just recording what we thought of movies, music, just talking, and posting it.  Then we found this website that was a "How To" on podcasting, and we got it! We started posting these shows! That's how it was born.  I had Jim Caruso on as my first guest because I knew he would be good for keeping the shows going… I was friends with him so I knew how to chat with him.  After that first episode, I honestly just took a chance, started emailing people, publicists, asking if they wanted to be on the show. Then all of a sudden, people are on my shows.  And five months later, Donny Osmond was on my show!

Eugene: Talk about being a positive product of your generation! When I was scrolling through looking at names like Jason Robert Brown, Julia Murney, Christine Ebersole.  You just took it into your own hands?

Erich: It was totally with the help of people like Jim Caruso.  Julia was a friend. I knew Jason. It all just came to: What can I do? How fast can I do it? I was tired of hearing interviews of people with standard sterile questions.  What I wanted to do –  why it's called Green Room Radio – it's honestly like what we're doing right now! We're just sitting here chatting.  Christine was great at just chatting; we ended up talking about things that are stuck in her closet! Julia…we literally sat in her dressing-room in Lennon as she was getting ready for the show…She was very open, it wasn't like she was talking to the New York Times.  That's why I had a blast doing it.  I haven't had an episode since May, but it's coming back.  I've been a little busy.

Eugene: Some of the other episodes were hodgepodges of your other musical theatre shows and you have been filling this interview with musical theatre references.  What are some of your favorite shows?

Erich: I still love Big.  It will always be one of my favorites because of what it did to me.  I know that cast album backwards and forwards.  There's a song in there called "One Special Man."  God, the chord arrangements that Richard Maltby and David Shire wrote are genius.  And the song "I Want to Know" and "Cross the Line."  There's one moment, I think it's in The Skateboard Ballet after the big instrumental break when Daniel Jenkins (who's playing Older Josh) says: "But when you're big you have to be a man."  And he hits this note and under the music you hear ba-da da-da da-da-da. I put that on when I'm in the gym sometimes – along with Beyonce and Michael Jackson – because it gets me going! It makes me want to scream! And I love Honk! I identify with it a lot.  I love Assassins – that was one of the shows I did at Stagedoor that transformed the way I think about theatre.  Joe Mantello's revival was stunning.  Recently…Spring Awakening is genius.

Eugene: I was listening to it on the way here.

Erich: It's just a great score! I love when people think something can be changed.  Because even if it doesn't work out, Spring Awakening did.  But that's a chance.  Jersey Boys is a big chance in musical theatre.  I love Jason Robert Brown's music.  Beautiful stuff.  I like it when lyrics are good.  Anything Kander and Ebb wrote.  Even the stuff that didn't work out like The Act and The Rink.  You listen to those songs and some of those rhyme schemes.  Listen to "Coffee in a Cardboard Cup" – nobody writes like that anymore.  That's my two favorite things: When people think outside of the box and the old stuff.  Old stuff like 60s-70s Promises, Promises and Company.

Eugene: What else is in your iPod?

Erich: Everything! I'm a music freak.  I collect things and then don't listen to them for three years.  The stuff that's always on my iPod is any of the Jacksons (except La Toya).  Chaka, Tina, Sam Cooke.  Anyone's whose voice can transcend.  That's the problem with today's music… Forget that the songs aren't good! If you have a voice that does something, then you can make it interesting.  I think Taylor Hicks is great but the songs they gave him to sing were crap.  His voice? Fantastic! James Taylor I can listen to truly anywhere.  I also love country music because it's very similar to theatre…in the voice, in the way the lyrics are written.  Most of them are story-songs.  The way country music is being written right now is very similar to the way it was written in New York in the 40s and 50s…much like Tin-Pan Alley.  Country music is now all in Nashville.  All these writers sit in rooms and create.  I think the Great American Songbook is coming out of Nashville now.  Twenty years from now, what's going to effect people? "Sexyback" or "Bless the Broken Road?"

Eugene: How do you like to fill your time outside of eight shows a week?

Erich: I like to be awake early.  I spend a lot of time on the computer, which is bad.  I think my favorite pastime is going to used book or record stores and just going through and finding great old stuff.  There's still a joy of smelling old books…smelling that dust and mildew in the air! It's not that I'm a big book reader… but just looking at the art work, old book jackets, just looking at it.

Eugene: Just looking at them up on the shelves.

Erich: Yeah, that's my art gallery.  I know it's nerdy.  People say: "You don't like to go out?" No.  I love animals.  I miss my dog! I like big dogs. I hate those little, tiny…

Eugene: Accessory dogs.  Fit in a purse.

Erich: Like the Legally Blonde dogs.

Eugene: Did you catch it here in San Francisco?

Erich: Yeah, I thought it was great! I hope the New York critics can take a chill pill and realize that audiences like having fun.  That not everything has to be The Coast of Utopia and there is value in turning off your brain for a second.  And those girls are working their asses off! Leslie Kritzer makes me urinate with laughter! The whole show, I thought was great.  Obviously there are things they can work out.  But what I loved about the San Francisco critics is that they said: "We haven't seen something like this in a while. We had a blast."  Larry O'Keefe, he's one of those great writers! He's like Kander and Ebb where he and his wife are just so smart, witty, lyrical.  Combinations they think of are hilarious.  Even though I'm on-stage a lot of the time, my other favorite pastime is seeing other theatre!

Eugene: Well I'm out of questions!

Erich: I guess we could write a song…

Eugene: [laughs] It's good to see someone so young starting the way you did…Really having a good time in a good role.  San Francisco is loving it.  That was a lot of fun.  Thank you! 

PHOTOS:
Erich Bergen, headshot by Glenn Jessen
Erich with the cast of Jersey Boys National Tour, photo by Joan Marcus
Erich as Bob Gaudio, photo by Rick Elice
Erich with the cast of Jersey Boys National Tour, photo by Joan Marcus
Erich with Deven May, photo by Mark Rupp
Erich with Julia Murney and Jim Caruso at Cast Party, photo by Ben Strothman
Erich at Broadway Stands for Freedom! Concert, photo by Ben Strothman
Erich in Jersey Boys, photo by Joan Marcus
Erich with Bob Gaudio, photo courtesy Erich Bergen
Erich with the cast of Jersey Boys National Tour in rehearsal, photo by Mark Rupp
Erich Bergen, photo by Chris Ferris

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