Get ready to go behind the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Season this spring at Mill Mountain Theatre. The cast has been working hard on the production of Jersey Boys.
However, the turnaround process for the plays at Mill Mountain Theatre is quick. They started rehearsal about a week and a half ago. Opening night is only two weeks away on March 15.
Each member of the cast puts their all into every rehearsal to make sure they put on the best show possible.
They spent three days learning all the music and hits from the Four Seasons. The rest of their practices have been focused on blocking the show and learning the choreography.
Kristen Brooks Sandler, the director and choreographer for Jersey Boys, says, “Now, we are going back in, and we are detailing it. We are talking about intention and character, so we get to spend the time between now and when we go into technical rehearsal with the stage really digging into the characters and text and making the play excellent.”
Kristen Brooks Sandler lives in New York but travels to Southwest Virginia to help out with the shows. This is her fifth production at Mill Mountain Theatre. She says she loves being able to help bring the arts alive in Roanoke.
Sandler says, “One of my favorite things about being the director is taking this story that has been done only really on tour. Mill Mountain is one of the first regional theatres to be able to do it. We have this opportunity to do a new version of the production and really look at these characters and say ‘how can they be reinterpreted?’”
One of the main actors in the show is Kenneth Quinney Francoueur. He is a New York City-based performer who has traveled across the country with the Broadway National Tour of Jersey Boys. He is playing the character of Bob Gauido in Jersey Boys.
This is his second production here in the Star City. Previously, he performed in West Side Story as Tony.
Francoueur says he loves being a part of Mill Mountain Theatre because he gets to help bring the feel of Broadway to the Star City.
“There is nothing like live theatre. You are not going to experience that anywhere else, that feeling of sitting in the audience with hundreds of other people watching a story being told that you know will never be told in that exact same way again,” says Francoueur.
All of the actors in the show are coming from places like New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Jersey Boys opens on March 15 and runs until April 8.
The next show up on the list is the Best of Broadway and Charlotte’s Web.
Source: WSLS News 10
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