Another crazy thing that happened while I was on break here… I got to see the touring production of A Bronx Tale on Mother’s Day with my family, and we just so happened to be walking out to the parking garage when the actors were coming out to stagedoor. We didn’t even know there WAS a stagedoor for the show, but I convinced my family to walk across the street at the perfect time! Here’s who I got to meet! (I would post more about seeing the show itself, but meeting the cast was such an adrenaline rush that it’s difficult to remember everything before it…)
First of all, one of my favorites, Joshua Burrage! He played one of the Doo-Wop boys throughout the show! Before Bronx Tale, Joshua was an iconic original Newsie! He’s super sweet in person and he took a picture with me! I’m a little bit ashamed to say I didn’t even recognize him at first because he had a hat on and I was so amazed in general that I didn’t even process that it was him! Joshua was also nice enough to get someone else over to me, and guess who that was?
It was Joey Barreiro! Joey played Calogero, the main character, in the show. He was also a Newsie, and a “Toursie!” In fact, on the first National Tour of Newsies, he was Jack Kelly! And you can hear the Jack Kelly-ness in his voice when he sings, which made it even more enjoyable! And he was also very sweet to me. I actually have a picture of me between him and Joshua, which is literally SO. COOL.
Thirdly, I met Joe Barbara! He’s much lesser-known than the aforementioned two, but he has a really impressive number of professional (Broadway, tours, regional, workshops) credits, which was evident in his performance. He played Sonny, one of the most important supporting leads in the musical. He too was really sweet and even told me I had a pretty name and took a picture with me. It was also raining that night, so he signed my playbill on the inside so it wouldn’t get washed off.
I met a couple other cast members, but in all honesty, I don’t know who they are. It was dark, and they didn’t sign legibly, and I was too happy to pay that much attention. But I’m still so happy that I was able to experience that, and I hope when I see Dear Evan Hansen at the same theater in a few weeks, I can stagedoor again! (He-llo? It’s Ben Levi Ross!)
Oh and also, if you don’t know this show, I highly recommend it! It’s seriously underappreciated in general. It has amazing music and music style in general, and the story-line is extra suspenseful and immersive. 10/10.
What show do you want me to talk about next? I think I might change my posting schedule. And by that I mean there will pretty much always be a post on Sunday, but some weeks there might be 2 other ones on Tuesday and Thursday and others just one other post on Wednesday. I’m not quite sure yet.
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