How did you get the role?

Like everyone else in the cast - I auditioned in front of the entire creative team - including the director, Des McAnuff, Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio and the producers. Let’s be honest, it’s a pretty nerve-wracking experience, auditioning for a major Broadway musical. You’re brought into a large room filled with, no joke, about 20 or 25 people. It feels like a tribunal; but for an actor, that’s an occupational hazard that you either accept and deal with or you get out of the business. You sing a song or two, you “read” a couple of scenes from the appropriate roles, they say thank you and that’s your cue to leave the room. Then you go home, wait and hope that the phone rings.

If you’re fortunate to have a call-back or two, you come back and do the same thing in front of the same people, only each time there seem to be more people. You never really know who most of them are - of course, it becomes clear by sheer body language and seating arrangements who the heaviest hitters in the room are, and hopefully, this time you’ve gotten even better. If you’re very fortunate, they ask you to the prom. If not, you go out and look for another date.

When did you get the role?

I was cast just about 3 years ago - in August of 2006. We started rehearsals in New York for the National Tour in October of 2006 and opened in San Francisco on December 10, 2006. Since that time, I’ve done the show about 1200 times in 26 cities all over North America.

What did you know about the Four Seasons before you started performing?

Not too much, really, apart from hearing their music when I was growing up. I mean, now that I know much more about them and am much more familiar with their songs, of course I recognize their music the moment I hear it - which is just about everywhere! It’s pretty amazing how ubiquitous they are - radio, movies, commercials, re-mixes on YouTube - anywhere you go, you’re bound to hear one of their songs. They were very prolific and have had a staying power over the last 40 years that is truly hard to beat. These guys were very impressive artists who have stood the test of time.

What are your favorite songs and performance numbers in the show?

That’s always a hard question to answer. I really have grown to love them all. When I put my head down on the pillow at night, at least one of them is rattling around in my brain. It’s like an i-pod on shuffle, except it’s in your head.

How long did it take for you to learn all of the songs in the show?

The only thing I can say is that the word for rehearsal in many other languages is “repetition.” You do something 1000 times and you’re bound to learn it. The flip side of that, of course, is a very bizarre thing that happens to an actor: once you’ve done something 1000 times, and you don’t ever know why - you wonder in that split second before saying any given line - you think, “Am I going to remember this?” That just happened to me onstage last night and in that instant of doubt, I stumbled on the line and almost blew it. I tell you, in that nano-second, I was absolutely terrified that I wouldn’t know what to say! The mind is a strange place, let me tell you.

What kind of research did you do for your role?

I’d say that every role I play in the show has a definite template that I follow. Some of them are based on people I knew growing up as a kid,
some of them are based on people I’ve met and/or observed during my adult life. Since the role of Gyp DeCarlo is the principal role I play, then I’d have to say that I base him mostly on a combination of John Gotti and Paul Castellano. Gotti for his animal qualities and Castellano for his gentlemanly demeanor. However, they were both very, very smart street-wise men - just very different temperaments.

I was lucky enough to sit in the courtroom for three days at John Gotti’s last trial in New York- the one that sent him away to Federal prison for life- and watched Sammy ‘the Bull’ Gravano testify for three days in a row against John Gotti, who up until that last trial, had been known in New York as the “Teflon Don” because none of the charges they had brought against him ever seemed to stick. Gravano was Gotti’s #2 man - his most trusted ‘consigliere’ who was now turning State’s Evidence against his boss. He testified to 18 murders that he committed at Gotti’s command, including the murder of Gravano’s brother-in-law, who was married to his own sister.

To watch those two men stare one another down in that courtroom was an incredible experience that I will never forget and that I carry with me every night I do the show.

Apart from that, being the son of Italian immigrants helps in ways that are too numerous and too personal to go into in this context.

Did you meet with the person you portray in the musical?

No, Gyp DeCarlo died many years ago, when Richard Nixon was still president. In fact, during his last years, Gyp DeCarlo was in prison, dying of cancer. Through special connections in the White House and the help of Spiro Agnew and Bebe Rebozo (there’s a blast from the D.C. past), DeCarlo was granted a presidential pardon so that he could pass away at home with his family around him. But I did have the chance to meet Gyp’s son when we were doing the show in Florida. He was very kind and very helpful to me. A real gentleman, just like everyone describes his father.

How long will you be with the tour?

Who knows? Can you tell me how long the recession will last?

What do you think it is about “Jersey Boys” that makes it such a huge world-wide success?

Apart from the fact that it’s brilliantly directed, choreographed and designed, and apart from the wonderful music, I think the single element that sets “Jersey Boys” far above every other so-called “juke box musical,” is the excellence of the script. This is definitely a play with music more than anything else. The real genius is in the writing. Both Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice deserve every bit of praise that they get for writing such a brilliant book for “Jersey Boys.” It’s so funny and so moving that I swear to you, we still stand in the wings or in our dressing rooms and laugh out loud at some of our favorite scenes in the show. The script has a rock-solid structure that an actor can confidently draw from and depend on. I can tell you from years of experience that it’s far easier to act good material than bad material. And this is great material! All you really have to do is follow the sign-posts that Marshall and Rick have given you and inhabit the material as honestly as you possibly can. Just do what the writers tell you to do and then get out of your own way. It’s that good. I love playing it every night.

Since you will be performing in DC for two months do you plan on doing any sightseeing?

Well, even though I was born and raised here, I would still say absolutely, yes! My favorite thing to do in DC is to visit the Lincoln Memorial at night.

I find it the most moving and inspiring place in all of Washington. Especially at night. Apart from that, I will definitely visit the Holocaust Museum, which I am sorry to say I have never visited. The rest of list is very long - all of the Smithsonian museums, the National Gallery of Art, the Botanical Garden, Ford’s Theatre, Arlington Cemetery. Let’s just say that I love DC and will be spending a lot of time visiting and re-visiting a lot of places.

When did you first perform in Jersey Boys?

We started previews in San Francisco in November of 2006. Opening night was on December 10, 2006 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco.

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Takoma Park and raised in Silver Spring. I went to high school at St. John’s - 2607 Military Road, in NW Washington. I’m a hometown boy.

Where else did you go to school?

After St. John’s I went to Stanford for undergraduate school, where I double-majored in European History and Italian Language & Literature.

Do you have formal theater training?

Yes, I attended the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Theatre Program and received my M.F.A. It was a 3-year conservatory training program with excellent teachers, including Olympia Dukakis, Ron Van Lieu, Nora Dunfee, Joseph Chaikin, Andre Gregory and Zelda Fichandler, among many, many others who are too numerous to name. I cannot say enough good about them; they were and are still a top-notch faculty and first-rate training program. Both my personal and professional life would never have been nearly as interesting or fulfilling without them.

How did you get started performing for the stage?

When I was 10 years old, I was introduced to a brilliant man and teacher named Eugene Morrill, who was on the faculty at St. John’s, where my older brothers were in High School. Gene was the head of an organization there called “The Mask & Wig.” They were doing a production of “Oliver” and needed young boys to be part of the workhouse gang. That’s where I started. When I eventually went to SJC, I continued to do musicals there under Gene’s direction. He went on to be the head judge of the Helen Hayes awards for over 20 years and has been my theatrical ‘Godfather’ over the course of my entire career. Many of the most fundamental lessons of how to conduct oneself in rehearsal and in performance I learned from Gene. I cannot tell you how much I am grateful to him for his guidance over the years.

How old are you?

I’m in a business that’s youth oriented so I decline to answer that on the grounds that it may tend to incriminate me. I will tell you this much - I was a child when JFK was assassinated and vividly remember going to the funeral on that cold November day, sitting on my father’s shoulders while the caisson rolled by. I remember “Duck and Cover.” Does that give you any idea?

What other touring and Broadway and off Broadway productions have you been in?

This is actually the first tour I’ve ever been in. It’s been a very rich experience. But the truth is that the play describes life on the road much more eloquently than I ever could.

Other Broadway productions have included: Adam Guettel’s “The Light in the Piazza” at Lincoln Center, Herb Gardner’s “Conversations With My Father,” opposite Judd Hirsch, and The Roundabout Theatre’s Broadway revival of “The Boys From Syracuse.”

Off-Broadway? A lot. “Mad Forest” and “Up Against the Wind” at New York Theatre Workshop, “My Night With Reg” with The New Group, Heather McDonald’s “Dream of A Common Language,” with the Women’s Project, Albert Innaurato’s “Gemini,” and Eric Overmyer’s “Dark Rapture” at Second Stage, among many others.

And a long list of regional theatre, including leading roles in “Sweeney Todd,” “Antony & Cleopatra,” “Hamlet,” “The Three Sisters,” “Othello,” “A View From the Bridge” and “Last of the Boys.”

How about Television and Film? Have you done any?

Yes, I’ve been very fortunate to work on some very high-profile TV and Film projects. I guess the best known would be as Tony’s father, Johnny-Boy Soprano on “The Sopranos” and as Vinnie Taglialucci in “Carlito’s Way,” opposite Al Pacino and Sean Penn. They were both great experiences working with some extremely gifted people. Other films include: “Maid in Manhattan,” “Wise Girls,” “Walking & Talking,” to name a few.

In addition to film, I’ve guest starred on a lot of TV shows, including “Dirty Sexy Money,” “The Cosby Show” and all of the various incarnations of “Law & Order,” among others.

Is this your first time performing in DC?

No, but oddly enough, the only other time was many years ago. I was in a production of John Patrick Shanley’s “Italian-American Reconciliation” at the Roundhouse Theatre when it was run by the very gifted Jerry Whiddon.

This is my first time performing in DC since then, but hopefully not my last. I love DC. I would love to come back and work here again - the theatrical scene here has completely exploded over the last 10-20 years. It’s a very exciting time and place to be in the theatre; I would be honored to be asked back.

Do you have any other projects in the future?

Yes, I have several that are percolating but I think it’s better I should wait until they hatch.

Have you seen memorable shows at the National?

Actually, I’ve never seen any shows at the National. This is the first time I’ve ever been in the National.

Did you see your brother, Ernest, perform in THE FANTASTICKS at Georgetown?

Yes, I did. I still remember it very well. He was a great “El Gallo.” I can’t think of the role without imagining my brother’s version of it.