How do you feel about the increasing interest in the sort of music that you do, and the concomitant (I love that word, concomitant, and I hardly ever get to use it. Well it still is, primarily. Michael Ingersoll. Youre about to embark on a six week, twenty-six concert tour. Movies. Can you say it with a mouthful of fried peanut butter and banana sandwich? Chris Jones and I, we started out the first national JB tour together, and when the show closed, I called Chris and I said, are you available to come in and do some of these dates that we have, even after JB has closed, and he said yeah. Their latest PBS special, wrapped in 2016, is now airing Nation Wide. Cunio: That includes our seven musicians you mention two of them, but our whole team, the band that we play with, aside from being totally exceptional as musicians individually, they bring to the table a wealth of talent and that allows us the ability to do exactly what Michael just said. We do not take ourselves seriously at all. Stubbs: It accomplishes perfectly what you wanted it to. Its really really nice. Cunio: It opens the second act. Is there a fifth UTSL member who writes your vocal arrangements, the musical accompaniments, the horn charts, and all that? And as I continued to do this show over the next year, there were different people with me at different times, and so other cast members would go out, and new ones would come in, and Id say, Hey, I do this thing on Sundays and Mondays; do you want to do it? But when the show closed, Shonn and Cunio and I had been doing that consistently for almost a year, and thats when the camaraderie really started to build, and the consistency allowed that. Ingersoll is heard gravitating toward early rock and roll as well as staking out the anything rockabilly corner, having spent a number of years in Memphis. Shonn: the youngest of spirit, let's just put it that way. And we clearly found as we started forming this group that one of the very strong reasons as to why we decided to continue singing together, was because it really was the best. Chris: And to just add my two cents, I always knew I would be incredibly successful despite these three. Who are the members of under the streetlamp? Arlington Heights, IL, Theatre Mania raves, Jones has the audience swooning until the final curtain. Christopher Kale Jones is an award-winning actor and touring recording artist. He stuck with em until they hitwhich didnt take long! Most recently we have been collaborating with a gentleman named Dan Ponce. Im now a mean, mean person. If the Backstreet Boys, for lack of a better comparison, hadnt been successful there would have been no room for a band like Nsync. The jumping off point for this was, that I was invited by a theater in Chicago that I had worked for before to do a solo cabaret, and I had never done it before. Chris: Yeah, by joining UTSL. UNDER THE STREETLAMP is a group Chris founded with his friends in 2012. A street light, light pole, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. At the same time it gave us an opportunity to continue building this show. By stubbleyou, Jersey Boys Blog Special Correspondent, Our West Coast correspondent stubbleyou talks with the members of Under The Streetlamp about their origins, their first national tour, and their filmed-for-television concert that recently aired on Public Broadcasting stations across the country. . Under the Streetlamp began in 2008 as an offshoot of the Chicago "Jersey Boys." He made his film debut in the Johnny Cash biopic " Walk the Line ," and enjoyed a three year run as Nick Massi of the Four Seasons in "Jersey Boys." Christopher Kale Jones' big break came in 2006, when he was cast in "Jersey Boys" as Frankie Valli for the first national tour. Cunio: It changed the entire dynamic of the evening. Glad you made it in on the ground floor to spend precious time with these future stars! With this, officers patrolling certain intersections can wait in a spot that is safer to pull out if they have to catch a driver who ran a red light. While each performer gets his moment in the spotlight, their synergy and . While his current pursuits keep him in Chicago, the group continues to tour around the US. There are a couple of guys I just look at and say, I could have gone to junior high with that kid. I can picture him at age fifteen. Thats awesome. I couldnt do this interview for the Jersey Boys Blog without mentioning the Midtown Men, and other groups too, like Straight No Chaser and Human Nature. It just kind of had an exponential result. You are obviously getting a lot of exposure through the PBS special that has aired on dozens of television stations around the country. And as Cunio said above, it is a great song. Product Description. Under the Streetlamp will bring the sounds of early rock and roll, doo wop and Motown classics to an entirely . Everything Coming to and Leaving HBO and HBO Max . CHOREOGRAPHY Chris led it. Like Joanne Doherty, our musical director, who I just mentioned. (More laughter). Michael: Im going to just answer that question and say no, not a damned thing. With irresistible charm and rapport, Under the Streetlamp offers audiences the opportunity to get to know four critically acclaimed stars of stage and screen, Michael Ingersoll, Christopher Kale . When Chris left the JB tour, he held the distinction of being the longest running Frankie to date; when Michael left it was to start the JB production in Chicago, where he remained through its entire two-year-plus run. Ingersoll, Jones and Wiley appeared at one time or another in the Chicago or national. But no, they did not sing together despite having a perfectly good name for a quartet). Thats kind of my biggest goal right now. ", "We all have different energies that we bring to the group," Wiley said. Everyone's favorite retro rock band, Under the Streetlamp, delivers an electrifying evening of classic hits from the American Radio Songbook, bringing their unique blend of tight harmonies and. Its really well put together. The singing group Under the Streetlamp, a group made up of former cast members from Broadway's "Jersey Boys," features from left Christopher Kale Jones, Michael Ingersoll, Shonn Wiley and. Were all doing it differently enough from one another to make each group unique and relevant, and frankly were friends with a lot of these people. Expand. First national tour cast, 2006: Erich Bergen, Christopher Kale Jones, Deven May and Michael Ingersoll. But the thing we like about Under The Streetlamp is, we consider it the humblest of spotlights. PBS is a huge national platform and very few people make it on PBS much less make it through a full pledge drive and are invited back for a next one, as we have been invited to do. Did you consider any other names before deciding on Under The Streetlamp?. I was having more fun as the audience was having more fun, seeing the quartet come together. I also really liked Cunios take on similar groups with theres enough room for everybody. I think as we get older, we realize that we dont have to compete with everyone constantly.theres enough space for all of us to be valedictorians. Its for them, and without them we wouldnt be up there. You will see why I now call UTSL the hardest working group in show business. And as a bonus, the guys hung out afterwards for photos and to sign CDs and DVDs which were on sale, on site. He said theres every reason that you could one day transition into doing that. Michael: Yeah like on the bus, we cant laugh too much. "Eric plays guitar, so he and Brandon do an Everly Brothers mashup in the show," Wiley said. Under the Streetlamp features Ingersoll, Christopher Kale Jones, Shonn Wiley and Brandon Wardell. And thats how everybody referred to it. August 2, 2010. "We have different interpretations of the music.". Im kidding, Im kidding. This guy wrote us You guys are the kind of group I think if me and my friends could sing, we would form, because we would just get together over beer, and we would just hang out and sing these songs. And thats kind of what we like to put forth on stage. It is very heartwarming to see the wonderful ties that have been made through this one show, not to mention the talent. The blue lights are active whenever a traffic light is red. Along the way Cunio and Shonn joined the Chicago cast as Bob and Tommy, respectively, and the rest is history. Do you want to tour more? (Shonn sings the only Monkees tune in the show.) Well travel with our rhythm section, our quartet, and well pick up horns in each city, which will be a new experience for us. I received my training as an actor and singer at Northwestern University in Chicago, before spending my early career in New York and Los Angeles. You see true, unadulterated joy and enthusiasm on their faces. 7:30 pm Metropolis. I love watching clips of the Temptations, clips of the Jackson Five, clips of the Four Tops, footage from even earlier, just anything that can kind of inspire. Theyre just cheap to run because they use less electricity. He won acclaim starring as Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons in Jersey Boys, originating the San Francisco, Los Angeles, and First National Tour casts. In addition, Christopher Kale Jones, a member of Under the Streetlamp since 2010, left the group at the end of last year. The idea of traveling from venue to venue, and playing top theaters in large markets this is the first time that weve ever had that opportunity. Jim Gardiner is top vote-getter, likely headed to runoff with Megan Mathias, Kohls swings to surprise loss; warns on profit for year, Religion roundup: Putting sessions in Mokena, Irish music in Oak Lawn, and more, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Ingersoll left Under the Streelamp in March 2017 to pursue producing opportunities, according to Wiley. So Pat Williams our bass player is the only original one from the PBS special. Im sure JB fans will find that story very interesting indeed. This has become our first priority, our primary responsibility. Theyre now adults; they are now going to the theater, and its definitely something that means a lot to them. Cunio: Like I said, you know the deal: we were moonlighting; this was something we did a couple times a month. Thanks to all four of you for setting aside the time for this interview, and for your thoughtful, candid, and sometimes light-hearted insights into the past, present, and future of Under The Streetlamp. They stood under the streetlamps and created intricate, entertaining harmonies for friends, fans and passersby. Dan Ponce created Straight No Chaser, and wrote the arrangement for the Twelve Days of Christmas, which became a viral video for them, and also wrote the arrangements for most of their biggest hits. It stems from the fact that there used to be one word for both blue and green. Michael: And you can see from the video of the concert that Joanne Doherty is playing piano on it, and shes now the musical director of the second national tour of JB. That was pretty much the extent of it. Ingersoll left Under the Streelamp in March 2017 to pursue producing opportunities, according to Wiley. The performances will be in the Blizzard Theater located in Building H on the Spartan Drive Campus, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin. Never thought of that ourselves, actually. THE CREATIVE TEAM Nsync? You have permission to edit this article. Its a great tune. Why didnt you tell him Shonn was the inpsiration for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? Actually although Ive never met Shonn, I had the privilege of seeing this talented Bojangles as the real-life Jack Donahue, the lead in his Drama Desk nominated Mr. Cunio, for example, has the purest rock, roll, and soul voice in the group, showcased on some Aretha, some Kinks, some Isley Brothers, and some Beatles. Shonn: And just to add to that, for us when we first started out, it was about the music and it was about making people happy, and it didnt matter if we were playing a multi-purpose room at a high school , or we were playing the Chicago Theatre, or the Paramount Theatre, some big theater like that. FINAL THOUGHTS This is a rare opportunity to hear the star of Jersey Boys and Under The Streetlampon PBS sing Bobby Darin's biggest hits: "Dream Lover," "Mack the Knife," "Splish Splash," and many more! 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