Backstage at JERSEY BOYS

What's up, guys? Leslie Robbins here. Young Hollywood is coming to you from New York City, but right now, it is all about one guy from Jersey. All right, Young Hollywood is at the stage door of the August Wilson Theatre. Let's go meet the star of the show, John Lloyd Young.

John Lloyd Young, Frankie Valli, to most people. Nice dressing room. This is kind of your home away from home, right?

It's, I tried to, you know, I have some eucalyptus in the air and put some pictures around of things that make me comfortable because Broadway theaters are very old and sort of not really falling apart, but, you know, especially with a hit show that's been here for seven years, there's not like a lot of time in the schedule to paint. So it's, so I, I kind of spruced it up a little bit, made it into a sanctuary. So You know, I I do that when like before the show, I'm sort of like with the eucalyptus and like little crickets and and pretending I'm, you know, in a in a night in a nighttime field.

So, obviously, everyone knows you won the Tony right out of the gate, and every other award you could possibly win your first year in this role. You stayed and then you left. Yeah. Why?

Well, because I kind of done everything that you can do in a Broadway show and it it I did a second year after all that happened. At that point, the show had already had a national tour, a London production planned. It was clear that the show was succeeding, um, in other areas, in other places. So I felt comfortable that I could walk away and the show would still succeed without me, and I could go and try some other things in my life that I always wanted to. One of them was moving to the West Coast. Another was making art. And another was learning Kung Fu, which I spent the last four years doing.

I have to have you show me some Kung Fu moves.

All right, I'll give you a tour and I'm and I'm glad I'll get this out of my hand because I can't really like show you Kung Fu moves with unless I get to use it as like as a weapon or something, you know.

Hello, I'm Andy. You're on Young Hollywood right now and what's it like, uh, showin' up every night to do that role because you just bring it.

With him, is a treat every night because, you know, the original guy right here, Tony winner. So, um, that's sort of a treat for me every night is to work with all the other actors on stage, so. And he slaps me around and it's it's kind of fun, you know.

That's really the highlight right there. When I get to slap 'em around.

This is the stage management office here.

baby. Hey. He just called you Johnny Baby.

Some of costumes here, ready for like the quick changes when people have quick changes. Obviously, these are not my costumes. And here we go. Watch your step there. Onto the stage of the August Wilson Theatre, when it's full, it's 1200 people. And it's pretty fantastic. Oh, by the way, I would just want to show you these. These are, do you know what these are, Young Hollywood? These are called spike marks. These show you like where to stand. They're different colors 'cause each scene has a different color. They show you where to stand, where to place like props. And these X's here are that's center stage where I stand for a lot of my stuff. So these are my, that's like my home base.

From the stage, show me a move.

All right, so the before like, come on, Marion, I have to I say, I say to the audience, I say like, I'm back. And then I snap up like this. And then I spin like that. Then I do a knee spin, but I don't have my knee pads on, so I'm not doing it now. Okay.

I can't believe how good your

That took me so long to learn. It was like that scene in Billy Elliot where he keeps falling down.

I'm a dancer.

Oh, good. All right, I didn't know that. I'm just getting to know you. I didn't know you were a dancer.

I know. I am.

Well, there we go. Okay, I'm gonna teach you something. Can we put these down?

Yeah, let's do it.

All right. This is called a snatch away. And then, uh, and then I'm gonna put a punch in it. So this'll this is what you do if someone is like grabs your wrist. I'm gonna show you first and then I'm gonna let you do it. Okay? If you practice, you'd look scary. What's the scary face? Give a scary face. The scary face is you don't look your opponent in the eye. Really? You have more control if you look at him right here. So if someone starts to like go after you, you just put your gaze right there at their, you know, their chest. And that way they're just a body with like limbs, and then you can assess what it's gonna do to you. So you can block or you can go in and get then you're not, you're not getting emotional with the person 'cause it's just an obstacle.

Interesting.

Yeah. Hi, I'm John Lloyd Young, playing Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys on Broadway. And this is Young Hollywood. com.