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Submitted Photo The show features a 12-person cast, including Highlands resident Emanuel Carrero as Frankie Valli, Gianni Palmarini as Tommy Devito, Sam Johnson as Nick Massi and John Mezzina Hannigan as Bob Gaudio.
The Highlands Playhouse celebrated their seasonal opening on Friday, July 1, with a showing of the award-winning musical, Jersey Boys.
Jersey Boys, which was written in 2004, has a run time of just over two hours and details the formation, success and the break-up of 60s rock band The Four Seasons. The Highlands production also marks the Western North Carolina premiere of the show.
The show features a 12-person cast, including Highlands resident Emanuel Carrero as Frankie Valli, Gianni Palmarini as Tommy Devito, Sam Johnson as Nick Massi and John Mezzina Hannigan as Bob Gaudio.
The show is directed by award-winning director, Scott Daniel. Daniel has also created content for Broadway, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and many others. While this was his first time directing the show, he has been directing since the early 2000s.
“Direction wise, it’s not a difficult play except for the fact that it is a large piece,” Daniel said. “The challenge is just producing theater during COVID. I mean, we are still kind of in the COVID world, and so we experienced some shipping delays, and we experienced some technology delays, just because a lot of things are still on backorder from Asia. So, we had to do a lot of pivoting during the process to make sure that the technical element of our show went smoothly. But I mean, the cast was such a dream to work with from top to bottom. They’re incredible musicians and dancers and actors. So, they made the process very simple.”
Just like every other industry, the theater has also been forced to adapt and circumvent problems brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I will say outside of the challenge of shipping, there’s also still a sense of fear,” Daniel said. “I mean, we are a regional theater. So, we do not have the ability to bring people in just to understudy lead roles. So, we’re all very cautious of who we come in contact with and how we communicate and interact with other people. We’ve put in a lot more effort to ensure safety precautions and things like every single cast member and technician and crew member has their own room. So, if there is for some reason, some sort of rate increase everyone can quarantine in their own space versus sharing space. The plus side to COVID is, I think, that for the last two and a half years people have spent so much time inside, and one of the successes of this show is because people are ready to have a shared experience again, they’re ready to be in a room with 100 or 200 other people and experience art and share in a story collectively.”
Daniel has been directing in Highlands for the past year and wrote and directed both the Music in Motion show and the Annual Christmas show last year. Daniel worked on the Las Vegas and Norwegian Cruise Line production of Jersey Boys in the past, acting as the designer, and this is his first time directing the show.
“It’s not necessarily the scenes that pull my attention,” Daniel said. “It’s the transition between them. I like to have the show constantly moving. And so instead of it just being a blackout and going from one thing to the next. It’s how we transition from one scene to the next that is always the most interesting to me.”
Jersey Boys will be running until July 24 and will be followed by the show “Sentimental Journey: A WWII Music Revue,” which will run from Aug. 12 until Sept. 4.
“This has been the most successful show in our 84-year history. I think that’s important to mention, I think there’s a lot of reasons it is successful. I think the cast is incredible." - Scott Daniel, Mountain Theatre Company Executive Director
“This has been the most successful show in our 84-year history,” Daniel said. “I think that’s important to mention, I think there’s a lot of reasons it is successful. I think the cast is incredible. I think the production from top to bottom is professional and elegant and just overall high quality and on top of all of that it’s a universal story that I think anyone can connect with. Our goal is to always entertain people and so you can be entertained and also leave with a beautiful message. That’s a plus and I think our show does that.”
Daniel encourages everyone who can to come out to the Highlands Playhouse and experience the shows and the community for themselves.
“My recommendation to your readers is that if they have an opportunity to get tickets, they should,” Daniel said. “Our show was selling out very quickly. We’ve been sold out for the first two weeks of our run. We will have two more weekends after this one. And if they don’t make it to this production, I hope that they join us for our next one which is Sentimental Journey. Or Brooklyn which is after that or even our Christmas show. We now operate with live theater from July 1 until Jan. 1. I hope people make their way to Highlands and the Playhouse to enjoy this beautifully historic building and the incredible professional work that’s happening right here in our own backyard. They’re kind of the crown jewel of the community, I like to say, right on the top of the hill.”
Tickets can be purchased online at mountaintheatre.com/copy-of-theatre.
- By Kaylee Cook