Stage Right’s 'Jersey Boys' finds harmony with Broadway actor

A little slice of Broadway is coming to Greensburg.

Russell Fischer, who first played the role of young Joe Pesci on Broadway in “Jersey Boys,” will star in Stage Right’s upcoming rendition of the award-winning jukebox musical — this time as lead vocalist Frankie Valli.

The show, scheduled at Greensburg’s Palace Theatre on April 26-27, follows the history and musical journey of the 1960s pop group The Four Seasons. Local actors Vinnie Tresco, Anthony Massetto and Rob Jessup will play the other three members of the band.

For Fischer, a New Jersey native who last performed in the show a decade ago, returning to “Jersey Boys” is a trip down memory lane. His Broadway debut was with “Jersey Boys,” landing the Pesci role on his 22nd birthday.

“When you’ve been doing a show for this long, it’s embedded in your heart and your soul. My love for this show has not waned,” Fischer said. “I grew up listening to this music because my parents insisted we listen to the local radio station that played this music. Just the opportunity to get to sing this music is so wonderful.”

Christopher McAllister, artistic and educational director at Stage Right, is serving as musical director for “Jersey Boys.” According to McAllister, the theater met Fischer through a mutual connection with executive director Anastasia Robinson.

Working with Fischer has been comfortable, McAllister said.

“With the level of talent and professionalism and things that are in the room at Stage Right with the actors that are Greensburg and Pittsburgh based, there’s a heightened sense of importance, because it’s a big show, but for the most part, it’s kind of business as usual,” he said.

“Russell is really great to have in the room, and it’s really cool to see him interact with everybody in the show.”

Laura Wurzell, who is directing the performance, describes “Jersey Boys” as “a memory play first and a musical second.”

“You’re going to get four different people’s perspectives of how it all happened,” she said, noting that the story follows a structure inspired by the actual four seasons. “Somebody tells the beginning of the group, somebody tells the heyday or the ‘summer’ of the group, and Frankie Valli ends up with the winter.”

While some younger audience members might not be as familiar with the music of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, she expects many attendees will leave the theater with a new earworm — and an appreciation for the people behind popular music.

“The voices and the music, you can’t not find yourself humming the music and singing the songs when you leave rehearsal,” she said.

Return to the story

During his six years with the Broadway company for “Jersey Boys,” Fischer served as an understudy for the role of Frankie Valli.

On one instance, he performed Act 1 of the show as Pesci and Act 2 as Valli. Another time, after he had left the company, he returned on short notice to sub in as Valli when a number of other performers were sick.

“I saw the show Tuesday night, I went through all my blocking, and then I went on the very next day as Frankie at the Wednesday matinee,” he said. “My history with the show runs long and deep.”

Fischer previously performed in Pittsburgh with his singing group, The Doo-Wop Project, when they collaborated with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

“It’s nice to be back in the area,” he said. “It’s been really cool to collaborate with a team that builds the show from the bottom up, and we’re all invested in building the show together, and it’s cool to see a show from a different perspective than the one I’m used to as well.”

In working with the rest of the cast, Fischer has gotten emotional more than once, he said. When the ensemble recently did their first performance with their live musical accompaniment, he recalled all the cues and underscoring from previous renditions.

“There was a moment in rehearsals where it was the first time the four of us were in the room together, and it just so happens we came upon the scene where the Four Seasons sing together for the first time,” he said. “There was this meta moment, a moment of synchronicity, where the scene met what was happening in real life.

“It’s really quite miraculous how it all comes back, how it all comes flooding back in.”

“Jersey Boys” will run at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Palace Theatere, 21 W. Otterman St., downtown Greensburg. Tickets range from $16-$42, with a $10 student-rush ticket available day of performance at the box office. Tickets can be purchased at www.stagerightgreensburg.com/shows or by calling 724-836-8000.