Singing group The Jersey Tenors go to the movies in new FST cabaret
As the pandemic kept theaters shuttered far longer than originally imagined, Brian Noonan worried that his performing career might be over.
A founder of the touring musical group Jersey Tenors, he had to shut the doors to the business and he launched a new career as a real estate agent, hoping to one day get back on stage.
He’s now been able to put his real estate license on hold and is back on the road with his rock/opera crossover quartet, which returns to Sarasota for the first time since 2017 with “Jersey Tenors – Part II.”
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“Last May, our phones started ringing with people asking, ‘Are you still performing?’ Luckily, we had a core group of guys who were ready and word got out and spread like wildfire,” Noonan said in a telephone interview. ”All our clients that had postponed or canceled performances in clubs and theaters and halls asked us to come back. This year we will have eclipsed 240 performances.”
Noonan will be back in Sarasota along with Vaden Thurgood, Michael Pilato and Brandon Lambert. All have experience performing on Broadway or national tours, but each quartet is divided between traditional theater or opera singers and rock/pop voices.
“It makes for an interesting balance and sound and we stumbled into it doing different concerts and then expanded the idea,” Noonan said. “We don’t want rock tenors to be singing legit.”
The original performers in the Jersey Tenors were veterans of the Broadway run of “Les Miserables” singing music by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and other doo wop hits.
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Noonan said the singers love that music, but “one of the things we’ve done from a musical standpoint is we’re constantly moving and evolving, doing different tweaks. We consider a whole slew of music. If we’re not malleable the show gets a little stale.”
For their second run in Sarasota, the Jersey Tenors will perform a show that offers a tribute to movie music from films featuring “heroic Hollywood actors,” such as Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Frank Sinatra, Russell Crowe and Tom Hanks.
Audiences could hear a battle between the rock tenors singing “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” while the operatic singers perform “Nessun Dorma,” a favorite from Puccini’s opera “Turandot” that has been heard in countless films, including “Mission: Impossible.”
Noonan said the Jersey Tenors perform in a variety of venues, from small cabarets, like Florida Studio Theatre, to 1,200-seat theaters.
“We weren’t sure how it would play in the cabaret at first because our show was designed for medium-sized theaters from 300-700 people. But we were fascinated to bring it to FST and see how it worked in that intimate setting.”
While the group generally appeals to older audiences, they work frequently with school groups, offering master classes in high schools in certain communities and they find that “younger people really enjoy this music, too, once they hear it.”
The Jersey Tenors – Part II
Runs July 19-Sept. 11 in Florida Studio Theatre’s Goldstein Cabaret, 1241 N. Palm Ave., Sarasota. 941-366-9000; floridastudiotheatre.org
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: FST Sarasota: Movie hits get transformed by The Jersey Tenors
