BWW INTERVIEWS: Jon Boydon Of JERSEY BOYS

How are you settling in?

Great, actually. It's been a very, very intense rehearsal period. Eugene [Eugene McCoy] and I came in together, and we went over to New York and had a week over there - just doing what we would have done over here in the first week, really, but now they have this global franchise, the first time they did it they all came over here because it was the first time they'd done it elsewhere, but it's just easier for them to do it from New York. So we had a little bootcamp! We learnt all the ways of Jersey and the boys and a potted history of modern East Coast America, and then a skim over the lives of the guys. Then we started putting it all together. That was fabulous. We saw the show over there, and stopped off to see the show in Toronto on the way back. Then we hit the ground running when we came back.

It was a lot of information going in during a fairly concentrated space of time. It's a standard rehearsal period. But it's real. It's fact. It's largely truth. These are real guys, and in the case of Tommy he's still walking about. There's more information available, and I think as an actor you have to dig a little bit deeper to be honest on the stage. It's felt like a bit of a rollercoaster. We've been open a week now and the dust is settling. It has been hugely enjoyable - just being in the theatre, moving in and making it our own show this last week has been an incredible experience. It's a very positive building to work in. It feels nice.

How much did you know beforehand?

Um...I saw the show during auditions. I hadn't seen it prior to that. My first, or perhaps my second audition...I did eight in total. So early on in the process I came to see the show. I knew the music but I think for us in the UK the Four Seasons aren't as known to us as, say, the Beatles, because they're not a homegrown band. If you're from New Jersey, you own them, they're your family. If you're from America, people have a better knowledge of who they are, where they come from, and so I knew very little. I didn't know anything about the guys. Everyone knows Frankie, obviously, but I couldn't have told you the names of the other three.

The thing is, if you Google Tommy DeVito, all you get is pictures of Joe Pesci in Goodfellas. There's not much information out there. I know that Tommy has written a book, but it's not in print - I don't know if the rights are in dispute, or whether because the show was coming out it got shelved, or if it got bought and used, or bought and shelved, so as not to have a conflict of interests, but there is very little information readily available. So I came in a little bit, I wouldn't say naive, but bereft of knowledge. But I was like a very dry sponge, ready to be told everything! And we got everything we needed to know.

I met the producers this week and they were telling me about the boot camps they run...

Yeah! I think it's SO important for the Frankies. They have a bigger journey to go on in terms of playing-age range; vocally they have to be ready. I was reading in our programme notes the other day that whne they did the workshop production, they didn't intend it to be so successful, they thought it was going to be a few weeks, but it was three months, and the guy's voice, he just couldn't. Nobody was prepared for it, so no-one put the preparation in. I think with the Frankies it's important to have that strength built in. For the rest of the guys it's not as important. We all do our bit but we're not leading the vocal at any point. They have a harder task than we have.

Having said that, they also said Tommies are the hardest to come by...

Yeah - Tommy's an interesting kind of guy!

Quite easily, you can come off just horrible.

Tommy is a gift. I just think he's got such versatility. And we're playing Tommy on the page. Tommy de Vito himself would come and see the show and say, "Who the hell are you playing?" We've got the script to go on. There's no Tommy in my imagination. There is a real Tommy but he doesn't necessarily fit into the framework of the piece. On the page, he's a charming, womanising, gambling crook, with some talent and a lot of ambition to better himself and a lot of drive. He's also got the brains to handpick the people he needs to make his escape even easier. I think there's freedom for interpretation. When they cast a Tommy, they see some facet of Tommy's personality they like, but I think they allow you to run a little bit wild with it.

I think with me, it was my size, I'm a big guy, the bullying thing has come out quite strongly. Glenn's natural charisma, the charm side was his Tommy. And you have to have both - he had that side, I do have the charm thing going on, but you play to your strengths. But physically for me it's easier for me to stand there and look like I'm going to knock you out then work on when I can get the smiles in to redress the balance. They're all different - all the Tommies are different. They didn't say, "Watch him and do that bit like him." They said, "Watch him, enjoy the show, and see what you think. You got the job because of what you did in auditions so just run with it." Then they've been discovering it with me at the same time along the way. So I'd do a performance and then I'd get a note saying, "Oh, OK, if you're going down THAT route then I think you should stand up on THIS word." It's been an organic process on both sides. They never said, "Oh, Tommy wouldn't do that." They said, "Oh, maybe YOUR Tommy could be like that." It's a tough role to get the balance right. I think the way in which the top of the show sets up so much, it sets up the vocabulary, the geography, the extent to which the audience will be let in - I think that's where they struggle, getting a Tommy who can set that up. Anyone can stamp about the stage and shout and bully Frankie. Getting that first 25 or 30 minutes just so, it just makes everything more accessible.

Yes, the audience engagement is so important.

It's great. It's very cleverly built into the show. It builds to Sherry. It builds again to Walk Like A Man. Then it hits. A lot of that is to do with the pace. There's almost not enough time to clap and join in - you're desperate to find out what the next thing is, and there's all these transitions going on. You really have to keep up. That's a very deliberate thing. I've had that coming at me - make sure you keep the pace up! You want to set the right relationship, but we don't want people to have enough time to enjoy themselves until we tell them that they can! You have to fight your instincts on some of it. The audience are a huge part of the show. It's very deliberately staged. When we're a band at the top of the show, we're playing to an on-stage audience on an angle. You're watching it like you'd watch a movie. It's only when we do the first bit of Sherry to the camera and we turn out, that's the first time the audience IS the audience. They're seeing it as a concert. They're part of the show, and I think it cleverly builds up their excitement. They're onlookers for the first part of the show, then we allow them to become the audience and witness this hit happen. It's genius.

Yes, the producers talk about the masterly stagecraft.

Yes. Sometimes a show can be wonderful and you love it, but there's a song or a sceNe You want to fast-forward if you could. Every time the lights come up for the interval I'm surprised. I think maybe half an hour has gone, and it's been an hour and ten. It just races past. I don't think you could get bored of it. Because of the intimacy of the actors on the stage, it can play differently every night. We all know what we're doing, and we strive for consistency, but just some nights everything gels and you get five per cent more tension or humour or the relationship between the cast. That's exciting to watch. I guess those moments for producers and directors are enjoyable - you might have seen that cast ten times but on the eleventh time something magical happens and you think, "Ah, yeah, I made that!"

You mention the intimacy between the cast - two of you came in together to join two of the old cast.

Yeah! Half and half!

Has that been weird?

For us, we don't know any different! It's fine for us. They are two very talented guys. I imagine it's strange for them. I think you do any job for long enough and it's hard to maintain the spontaneity and excitement you had in the first six months, two months, three months. So change is always good. They're very open to that. They've said, "Oh, Tommy might do that." I'm doing stuff that's not in any production except for this one with me. When the covers go on they might not do it, or they might. It might be a tiny thing - a look or a prop move, but it's specific to this London production in this cast. They really welcomed those additions and changes and tweaks. They're really up for it.

I think if you were going to split the four into two twos - a Tommy and a Nicky split and a Frankie and a Bobby split is the right way to go. There's a generational thing - Tommy and Nicky are ten years older. The guitar-neck thing was great - it was just Eugene and I in front of a mirror for a week. It meant we could sort out the angles. I play guitar and Eugene has learnt to play the bass. I was like, "Well, I've played for 15 years and this is how I hold a guitar." So that was back and forth with the choreographers, because things didn't necessarily work with steps. So I've had to tweak a little bit; Eugene's had to find out how he plays. That's made it easier. Tommy and Nicky are in it from the get-go - they bring Frankie in and they find Bob at a later date. Bob and Frankie have their handshake. There's a natural fall down the middle.

Having said that, we are already a pretty tight-knit group of four. On stage, it feels like a band. One of the producers said that with two new guys coming in, there'd be a danger they were in one play and the other two were in another; there would be a danger that you're not doing the same show, and they're very happy that they can see all four of us are in the same play in the same place at the same time and working as a band. It's been fine. I wasn't worried. I was right not to be. It's been a very easy transition. Harder for them because they had to rehearse AND do a show! And it was different to rehearsals! [laughs] This past week we've really been cooking and getting stuff done. And we're doing lots of promo stuff. Lots of press calls, photo shoots. We did a charity gig on Saturday for the Lord's Taverners. So we've had some fun extra-curricular stuff as a foursome, which has helped to lock it down, get on and have fun.

How long are you contracted for?

It's a funny one - it's just over a year. It'll be the end of next March, I think.

People do tend to hang around this show, though!

Yeah! Michelle was the original Francine, and she went away for a year and then came back. I think it does have that pull over people. It's the best job I've had, and I've had some GREAT jobs.

You've had some FANTASTIC jobs!

I've been a very, very lucky boy! But in week two of this contract [grins], it is just immense. I always wanted to be an actor who sang in a band, so I ended up doing musical theatre. A lot of the work I've done has been largely because of my singing voice. I've done some tough singing roles and I've loved it. This one - it's a good sing, but it's not anything I have to push particularly hard for, so this gig is all about the acting for me. There's such depth to it, I can completely immerse myself in an acting world, and enjoy singing and playing guitar on stage. It has more depth than things I've done before, which have been more singy kind of jobs. I think that's why I love it so much. It's a cool show. It's hip. It's well-written. They've done everything well. There's a built-in journey that results in the audience going mad. Everyone who works here has such fun and loves coming to work on this show. That's what makes it a pleasant place to do your joB. Hopefully I'll be here for years!

Jon Boydon stars in Jersey Boys at the Prince Edward Theatre.

 

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