All Entries Tagged With: "Cast"
Pal Joey Blog’s Exclusive Interview With Christian Hoff
These last few days before previews begin, the cast of Pal Joey is working long hard hours to prepare for the 14th (just two days away!!!). Even so, Christian Hoff was gracious enough to take a few minutes to chat about the show:
PJblog: How has the transition been from Jersey Boys to Pal Joey? Has your experience portraying Tommy DeVito been helpful in making that transition?
CH: The transition has been seamless. My overlapping of these two productions has allowed me to transfer my artistic adrenaline into another character. Yes, my portrayal of a real life “bad boy” has helped me with a more human perspective with regard to the bad boy icon Joey Evans.
PJblog: You worked closely with three men in Jersey Boys, and now your character is involved with three women. Are you the luckiest guy alive, or ????
CH: Let’s just say that it’s a bit more complicated juggling three love interests versus brothers.
PJblog: And what a wonderful cast in Pal Joey. Can you tell us a little bit about the people you’re working with?
CH: Stockard Channing is both a seasoned veteran of film and stage and a humble working actor who embraces the process. Martha Plimpton has brought a real sense of fun and professionalism. She has raised the stakes for me as both an actor and my character. Jenny Fellner has brought a great combination of innocence and strength to Linda and has given me a whole different emotional palette to work from.
PJblog: So many of the people who are familiar with Pal Joey have the movie in mind, and some even compare you to Frank Sinatra. But the original Broadway show was much different. Can you share any details about what we might expect from this revival? Does it basically stay true to the original show?
Christian Hoff in Vogue
Christian Hoff is featured in the “People are talking about…Theater” section of Vogue magazine’s November issue! And if the picture isn’t enough to whet your appetite, here’s a sample of Adam Green’s article:
“This month…a rarely seen classic returns as Pal Joey gets its first Broadway production in more than 30 years. ….[I]t features a magnificent Rodgers and Hart score….and a thoroughbred cast, led by Jersey Boys’ Tony-winning charmer Christian Hoff as the musical theater’s great all-American heel.”
“Christian is sexy and rakish and funny and all that, but he also has a wonderful, anachronistic courtliness” says (Richard) Greenberg (who revised the story for the revival). “How lovely for the audience to discover that within this driven, grabby, self-scuttling character there lurks a gentleman whose decency and tenderness come as a surprise - even to him.”
Adam Green concludes that “…Hoff…seems poised to become a star.”
If you want more, you’ll just have to buy the magazine!
Pal Joey Stars “Tell It Like It Is” In This Video by Broadway.com
Tuesday, October 7th was Press day for Pal Joey at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s rehearsal hall. Broadway.com was there to document the event with this great video. Watch the fun with the Pal Joey stars - Christian Hoff, Stockard Channing and Martha Plimpton. The video was produced by Paul Wontorek, with interviews by Kimberly Kaye; shot & edited by Jason Dickerson.
Click here to view the video in a new window.
Introducing - The Pal Joey Cast
All photos by Aubrey Reuben
Placing your cursor over a picture pauses the picture and reveals the names of the subjects.
A Word About My Pal, Christian
Exclusive to the Pal Joey Blog
Rick Elice
When theater folk get together over a glass of sherry and reminisce about the actors who most influenced them, those whose sensitivity, artistry and command of craft transformed and energized not only their own lives but the very life of the American theater, it’s likely that one name comes to mind: Harvey Fierstein.
But would it be fitting for a “Pal Joey” blog to boast of any actor before enshrining the guy who plays the title character?? Certainly not.
Which is why we gather electronically to this place to honor our very own Christian Hoff. I say “our very own” even though Christian is a SoCal kid with blonde curls and surfer looks — traits that he disguised for the past four years during his spectacular Tony-winning turn as Tommy DeVito in that little number called “Jersey Boys.” In theory, there couldn’t be a guy less right for Joey, a Broadway heel of the highest order. But Christian defies theories.
He’s been honing his chops since he was a kid in Hollywood, and it shows. There isn’t much this classic triple-threat star can’t do, and the excitement at watching him do it as “Joey” is palpable up and down Broadway. Because Christian has that rare combination of magnetism, danger, audacity, instinct, and, I’ll say it, sex appeal, that goes to the heart of what an audience wants to see. And, as for the off-stage man, anybody who’s ever met Christian knows that he is the definition of class, a good, solid, upright, forthright husband, father, friend and colleague.
A hero who plays a heel. What a great Broadway story!
RICK ELICE
Rick Elice is the Tony-nominated co-author of Jersey Boys.
