Broadway Boys: Mr. October 2011: Jeremy Jordan

Mr. Broadway October 2011

Jeremy Jordan

WHY HE'S MR. BROADWAY: Maybe it is the fact that he's been a Broadway star on the rise since he took over the role of Tony in West Side Story.  Maybe it is the fact that he is the lead in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of the world premiere of Disney's Newsies.  Or maybe it is the fact that the entire annual article about fall musicals on Broadway in the Arts Fall Preview of The New York Times was about him, the star of two, big musicals: the aforementioned and possibly Broadway-bound Paper Mill show and the definite Broadway show, Bonnie and Clyde.  And it very well could be the fact that he is one half of one of Broadway's "it" couples - his fiancee is Priscilla's Ashley Spencer.  No matter what it is, Jeremy Jordan is the real thing - talented, easy on the eyes, and an honest-to-goodness Broadway baby!

OTHER INFORMATION:
Age: 26
Education: Ithaca College, Class of 2007
Personal: Engaged to Ashley Spencer who is in Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Where you might have seen him: Broadway: Rock of Ages (swing), West Side Story (Tony); Regional: Big River (Goodspeed Opera House), Bonnie and Clyde (Asolo Playhouse); TV: Law and Order: SVU; Film: The Banker and the Baseball, Joyful Noise 
Where you can find him on the Internet: http://www.jeremy-jordan.com/ or http://www.bonnieandclydebroadway.com/.  Be extra careful if you Google him, though.  A certain "adult entertainment" actor has the same name...

IN PHOTOS:

Headshots

Indie Film: The Banker and the Baseball (2007)

Broadway in  Bryant Park

On the set of Rock of Ages
(far right)

From The Men of Rock of Ages calendar

Rock of Ages

Backstage at West Side Story
with Tony-winner Karen Olivo

Two Tonys: Jeremy Jordan and Matthew Hydzick

 West Side Story

Hartford Stage's

The Little Dog Laughed

with Chad Allen

Bonnie and Clyde: Jeremy Jordan
and co-star (and former Ms. Broadway) Laura Osnes

Promo art for Bonnie and Clyde

Regional Theatre: Asolo's

Bonnie and Clyde

With War Horse co-star Matt Doyle (left)

At Broadway charity events

The New York Times feature boy!

With Andrew Keenan-Bolger in rehearsal

As Crutchie and Jack
in Disney's Newsies

Another rehearsal...

Disney's Newsies

at Paper Mill Playhouse



Promo Art for Broadway's "Most Wanted Musical"

Bonnie and Clyde

Film: Joyful Noise with Dolly Parton

Jeremy with Josefina, Kara and Laura

Notice a trend with Jeremy and his leading ladies?

But Ashley is probably the most important

leading lady in his life!

IN VIDEO:

Promo for Disney's Newsies at Paper Mill Playhouse



Singing the National Anthem at the World Tennis Team tournament



The trailer for Jeremy's upcoming film, Joyful Noise




(Photos and videos from: Playbill Online, Broadway.com, jeremy-jordan.com, YouTube, Getty Images and bonnieandclydebroadway.com)

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Jeff

EXTRA! EXTRA!: Newsies to Broadway?

To me, the only surprising thing about the idea that the new stage musical version of Disney's Newsies might be headed to Broadway, is that it is finally in print.  I had an inkling the minute it was announced.

It is true that Disney has a history of mounting productions of stage versions of it movies to see how the adaptation plays before releasing it for licensing to theatre groups.  One of those productions, 101 Dalmatians resulted in a National Tour.  Most recently, a staged Aladdin  played in California.  Neither materialized into a Broadway (or even off-Broadway) production.  So how could I have guessed that this would be different?

"Sieze the Day!"

1.  It's a question of company-wide marketing.  The Disney powers that be announced about a year ago that it would try to veer from girl-centric "princess" properties in order to bring boys into the fold.  You'd think Aladdin would fit that bill.  Newsies certainly fits the bill - there's only 1 supporting female character of note in the film version, which is ABOUT boys.

2.  It is a question of funding.  The press given that production of Aladdin would not repeatedly mention that the production was on a very limited budget, with very few extra special effects.  Of course, it makes sense.  No one but Disney has a Disney budget, and if it is to be licensed to everyday theatre companies, it must be seen as a viable possibility.  The press for Newsies, while mentioning it as a try-out for licensing, is receiving a "full production" at the Paper Mill Playhouse.

Doesn't this seem pretty elaborate for a
"any theatre can do this show" show?

3.  It is a question of creative staffing.  Come on.  If Newsies were never under consideration for at least a National Tour, would multiple Tony-winner Harvey Fierstein come on board as a book writer, completely overhauling the story and making it more "current audience friendly"?  Would Alan Menken have rearranged the score and written new songs? (Aladdin featured new material - all from the original film cuts)  And there is director-choreographer Jeff Calhoun, much in demand and high profile this season with his Broadway-bound production of Bonnie and Clyde.

4.  It is a question of location, location, location.  If you don't want to be noticed by the biggest fish in the pond, you don't produce a full-out production in the same pond!

A new central love story, and Broadway's hottest star
of the moment, Jeremy Jordan

5.  It is a question of press.  Look at the coverage of Newsies in just The New York Times  and on Playbill Online.  It is certainly befitting of any Broadway-bound production.  Maybe the press people at Paper Mill Playhouse are THAT good.  But Disney, I'm sure, has a full grasp on very word printed about it anywhere in the world.  The Times gave the production a full review, one of those multimedia features, and, in its Fall Preview of the Arts, the only article about Broadway musicals this season was about star Jeremy Jordan doing two shows this season - Bonnie and Clyde and Newsies.  Playbill Online has been running feature articles on the show for weeks - interviews with Jordan, a "Cue and A" with the new female lead/love interest, and several videos featuring the show.  There are Broadway shows already on Broadway that don't get that much ink or cyberspace.

Whether or not the show gets to Broadway remains to be seen at this point.  It'll be disappointing at this point if it doesn't.  But it won't be all that unexpected if it does.


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Jeff
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BLOG JACK: Marketing Broadway

Can you identify any of these four people?  You should be able to!

(See the answers below.)

Recently, one of my favorite bloggers, Ken Davenport posted a piece lamenting the fact that Broadway is not marketed like other forms of entertainment.   He remembers collecting baseball cards of his favorite athletes and movie and sports posters adorning his childhood bedroom walls.  And wonders why people today aren't more familiar with the Broadway actors, dancers, etc. like they are with athletes and movie stars.  Why, he asks, doesn't the public know Broadway people enough to follow them from show to show, like we follow baseball players from team to team or actors from film to film.
I agree with him that Broadway as a genre is as well-marketed as it can be, and certain shows have been marketed to the point where they are a brand unto themselves.  And certainly, as a trip to the merch kiosks of shows like Wicked will show you some shows have really taken the lead in marketing beyond Broadway.  I know at least three young ladies (daughters of co-workers) who regard their Wicked t-shirts as status symbols.  Clearly, something is working.

But I also understand what Davenport is saying.  Why aren't Broadway people household names?  He says he's not talking about "the Patti LuPones and Nathan Lanes."  But let's start there.  People in the general population know Ms. LuPone from her TV series, Life Goes On, and people know Nathan Lane as the voice of Timon the meerkat in The Lion King film.  Do they know they are both critically acclaimed, Tony Award-winning actors?  How about Angela Lansbury, arguably one of the greatest Broadway stars to have ever graced the stage, who will forever be "the Murder, She Wrote lady."

As I sit here typing and watching Dancing with the Stars, everyone on it has a label - fashionista Carson Kressley, activist Chaz Bono, actor David Arquette.  As I recall past seasons, I can think of exactly ONE "star who danced" with the label "Broadway star," and that was Marissa Jaret Winokur.  Now, I realize that the "stars" are labeled according to what they are best known for, but Florence Henderson, Cloris Leechman and other contestants on that show have had Broadway experience, but you'd never know it.

By virtue of the fact that you are reading this, you are probably not the one who needs to read this and blogs like it.  You and I know things like RENT star Annaleigh Ashford has been in Legally Blonde and Wicked.  We know that John Selya and Cody Green are Twyla Tharp dancers, and that Joe Mantello not only directed Wicked, but also Take Me Out and Assassins and won Tonys for both.  We also know that he is an accomplished actor from Angels in America and The Normal Heart.  Granted, only those of us truly obsessed may know Danny Berstein's resume and are proud to have seen not only Gavin Creel, but Jay Armstrong Johnson as Claude in Hair.

From Glinda to Maureen: Annaleigh Ashford

But there is no reason in the world that TV viewers shouldn't know that Katie Finneran star of a new TV show is a Broadway star first.  Or that Glee employs A LOT of Broadway actors.  Couldn't it be "This week on Glee, Jane Lynch goes head to head with Broadway stars Idina Menzel and Cheyenne Jackson"? Just making that label more common, more regular, would go along way.  Why can't characters on TV shows go to the theatre sometimes?  You'd think Modern Family might have Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell take the kids to a show.  God knows they leapt on the let's make fun of Spider-Man bandwagon fast enough.  If Lucy and Ricky could take in a performance of The Most Happy Fella,  why didn't Ross and Rachel go see Miss Saigon? 

Of course, there is a logical reason that Broadway may not reach the masses across the country.  Music, movies and TV, and sports are "transportable entertainment."  There can be 2,000 performances of Star Wars at a time, and millions of homes can see one TV show at a time.  Yes, there are National Tours, but what does that mean?  Four performances of Jersey Boys at a time? 

But Broadway CAN be a national presence.  It used to be.  Late night talk shows, appearances on The View are great and a step in the right direction, and part of a long tradition of such appearances dating back to The Ed Sullivan Show.

A couple weeks ago, my friend Mike commented on my blog about how The Book of Mormon might just be the first American theatre phenomenon in years.  He said, and he's right, that shows might be struggling to be heard over the massive din created by social media, the Internet and the like.

I say, then, that Broadway needs to start being a lot louder.  And let the noise begin TONIGHT on the Dancing with the Stars Results at 9PM, when Harry Connick, Jr. offers up the title song from his new Broadway show, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.


Above: Jeremy Jordan of West Side Story, Rock of Ages, Newsies and Bonnie and Clyde; Nikki M. James of  The Book of Mormon (she won a Tony for it, too!); Karen Olivo of In the Heights and West Side Story (she won a Tony for it, too!); Curtis Holbrook of Xanadu, West Side Story and All Shook Up

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Jeff
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