Duncan Heather on how to walk like a man – but sound a lot like a girl

Is New Jersey
Nights a brand new show?

Over here in the UK it is, yes, but, at
the end of last year, I did the show over in America. There it was a
75 minute one-act show but, for the UK, the producers have split the
show into two acts and added a lot more material, so that has changed
the whole feel of the piece.

Essentially, over here, we have to be
very aware that we are not Jersey Boys and,
the good thing is, we’re not trying to be the same as them. We are
honouring the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, but none
of us actually “plays” him. We tell the story of Frankie and
Tommy and the lads together, through their songs and take the
audience on a journey through their musical career.

In Act Two, we do a whole Motown
section because very few people know that Frankie recorded a Motown
album so it’s not just about “Walk like a man” and “Big girls
don’t cry” – we go through the Motown stuff and then we get to
the “Working my way back to you” kind of songs, that he did much
later in his career.

That sounds great. Do you
have a live band?

Yes. We will have a five- or six-piece
band as they are still thinking about adding the extra brass and,
between them, they really pump out the full orchestral sound. There
are a couple of numbers that are just simply a grand piano or just a
guitar and that makes a great contrast to the full-on sound.

The band is up on stage with us, not in
the pit, so everyone gets a good view. It sort of embodies that era
when the musicians were actually a big part of the show and we play
to them, we stand in and around them for some numbers and all of us
really try and feature them as much as we can.

Who are the other lead
vocalists in the show?

The other guys are Ricky Rojas, who
I’m sure you will have heard of as he has a list of theatre credits
as long as your arm. He’s the Latino sexy one. I’m the non-Latino
sexy one! He’s been in theatre for over ten years and he’s done
Buddy, Fame, Grease
and Joseph in the West End. He’s a
fabulous musician, singer and actor so he’s just perfect for this.

Jon Hawkins is another of the leads.
He’s the guy who founded Stage Status (the social media network for
the theatre). He’s been in Rock Around the Clock,
A Slice of Saturday Night, Mamma Mia
and he’s done The Rocky Horror Show as
well.

The fourth guy is Damion Scarcella.
He’s an Australian who has done Mamma Mia
over there but, for the last four years or so, he has played Frankie
on the corporate scene, cruise ships and events around Europe with a
show called Big Girl’s Don’t Cry so, I
suppose, out of all of us he’s seen as the more “Frankie” one.

Having said that, I think the most
important thing to get across is that there is no Frankie lead. That,
for me, is the biggest difference between this show and Jersey
Boys. The four of us do look like them, we have all the
suits and we perform very similar choreography to the stuff they did,
but we all step forward and have our time taking the limelight.

This sounds very similar to
the last big tour you starred in, Bohemian
Rhapsody.

It is indeed, it’s the same sort of
premise. Essentially it’s a celebration of Frankie’s music going
through the years. Even our dancers get a chance to do some songs to
help to break it up a bit and to give us time to get changed. They do
songs like “Be my baby” and “Da doo ron ron” and other songs
from that era. It also gives us a bit of time to take a rest because,
throughout the whole show, we never really go off stage.

We have choreographed drink breaks on
stage using the bar, which is part of the set, or, when that part
revolves round, the recording studio. It’s quite intense for us and
really quite hard. We’re building up the stamina in our bodies as
we go through the rehearsals and we’re trying to sing it all as
full out as we can.

I was going to say that
such a big tour must take you away from home for a long time, but I
understand that you are really taking home with you aren’t you?

Well, yes. I am very fortunate in that
my wife Sam is one of our six dancers. We were offered the show
together and, to be honest, that was a real bonus because we really
didn’t want to be apart for that long as we only got married last
year.

The tour schedule is really massive. It
covers all of the best theatres around the country and, we just heard
today, that the Mayflower in Southampton which has well over 2000
seats is getting very close to being sold out. It’s looking like
the crowds are going to be really good.

I’m sure that the success
of the show, and of Jersey Boys,
has to be based around the public’s love of that fantastic music.

Absolutely. Our set list is totally
breathtaking. The songs are hard, there are lots of really
complicated harmonies and we’re doing it all live. So it will be
hard to do, but it makes you totally respect the music for what it
is. When “Sherry” comes on the radio and you just sing along
thinking that it’s kind of quirky that he has such a high voice,
but when you bring it down and break it all apart – it is really
hard to do.

Well, if that’s not hard
enough for you, I understand that you’re also doing a charity
project while you’re on tour.

Oh yes. I have decided to run 450
kilometres before we finish touring at the end of May, that’s the
same as running from London to Paris. I will be doing it in memory of
my Mum, who lost her fight with cancer in April 2012. My chosen
charity is The Salisbury Hospice who looked after her so well during
her final days with us.

As they are funded solely from
donations, I’ll be asking everyone to give generously. The
challenge may not sound huge to some people but, as I am going to be
touring the show at the same time, it really is going to be a task –
but something I really want to do. 

New Jersey Nights can be
seen, as part of a four-month national tour, at the Mayflower
Theatre, Southampton 23-24 February, the Theatre Royal Brighton 26-30
March, the Churchill Theatre, Bromley 2-6 April, the New Victoria
Theatre, Woking 23-27 April and the Theatre Royal, Norwich 7-11 May.

More details about Duncan’s
charity run can be found at www.justgiving.com/duncheather