A true rock and roll biography, Jersey Boys features the original music of BMI Award-winning songwriters Bob Gaudio, a founder and full-time member of the Four Seasons who wrote the music, and Bob Crewe, who wrote the lyrics and produced many of the group's records. Gaudio, who is a member of both the Songwriters and Rock and Roll halls of fame, took the stage with the show's producers, which included fellow Newark native Joe Pesci.

Duplicating the harmonies of Valli, Gaudio, Nick Massi and Tommy DeVito, the show soars on the quartet's biggest hits, including "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man" and "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)."

Other BMI-represented Broadway shows in the Tony spotlight included The Color Purple, which earned its lead actress the top female performer prize, and Best Revival of a Musical winner, The Pajama Game, starring BMI songwriter/actor Harry Connick Jr.

The Tony Awards, which honor the best of Broadway, are presented by Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of the League of American Theatres and Producers and the American Theatre Wing.]]> 2006-06-11T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/334814 Artists, Cerveris, Michael, Connick Jr., Harry, Gaudio, Bob, Jersey Boys, Russell, Brenda, Willis, Allee The Color Purple and Jersey Boys lead the list of BMI-represented Broadway shows nominated for the 60th Annual Tony Awards, announced May 16 from New York's Lincoln Center. Both are up for Best Musical.

With a total of 11 nominations that also includes Best Original Score for BMI songwriters Allee Willis and Brenda Russell, the Pulitzer-winning-novel-turned-Oscar-nominated-film-turned-Tony-nominated musical is produced by Oprah Winfrey.

Runaway hit Jersey Boys, about the lives and music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, nabbed eight Tony nominations, including Best Book of a Musical for BMI composer Marshall Brickman. A true crowd-pleaser, the show features the original music of Bob Gaudio, a founder and full-time member of the Four Seasons who wrote the music, and Bob Crewe, who wrote the lyrics and produced many of the group's records.

Also earning Tony nominations were BMI songwriters/actors Michael Cerveris and Harry Connick, Jr., who will compete in the Best Performance by a Leading Actor category for Sweeney Todd and The Pajama Game, respectively.

The 60th Annual Tony Awards will take place on Sunday, June 11 at Radio City Music Hall and will be broadcast live on CBS starting at 8 p.m.

Now, with the release of his new CD, Connick triumphantly returns to the impressionistic big band approach that thrust him to stardom. Employing the same strategy that made When Harry Met Sally a crossover hit, Only You features Connick giving the torch treatment to ’50s and ’60s pop nuggets like Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life,” The Drifters’ “Save the Last Dance For Me” and Fats Domino’s “My Blue Heaven.” Rounding out this languid collection is “Other Hours,” a Connick original that more than holds its own among the featured classics.

Fans welcomed Only You like manna from heaven, as the disc rocketed into the Top 20 soon after its release. And thanks to a new DVD video entitled Only You In Concert, Connick fans can view their hero performing his new songs from the comfort of their homes.

It seems only fitting that Connick would resuscitate America’s elegant, post-Depression sounds. Like Frank Sinatra and the big band icons of yore, Connick is a rakish renaissance man with a vaudevillian soul. Though best known for his vintage pop recordings, he is also an acclaimed jazz pianist whose off-kilter style has earned favorable comparisons to Thelonious Monk.

Given the platinum success of When Harry Met Sally , some critics predicted Connick would make a career of milking the big band cash cow. But during the ’90s, the multi-talented singer threw curve after curve, revealing his fearlessness, musical curiosity and broad artistic scope. His albums ranged from original instrumental and vocal recordings (“Lofty’s Roach Soufflé,” “We Are in Love,” respectively), to rumpshaking funk excursions (“She,” “Star Turtle”) and starry-eyed balladry (“To See You”). As the ’90s morphed into a new millennium, Connick combined all his influences on his decade-ending magnum opus, Come by Me .

Recent years have seen additional triumphs, including his Grammy-winning Songs I Heard, and a recent jazz quartet collection, Other Hours . The latter disc is the first of a Connick on Piano series to be released by Marsalis Music. It contains instrumental versions of the Tony Award-nominated songs Connick composed for the Broadway musical Thou Shalt Not .

All told, Connick has sold over 20 million records worldwide and won three Grammy Awards, an undeniable testament to his musicianship and creative integrity.

But music only partly explains Connick’s appeal. Like his “Rat Pack” forebears, Connick has also exerted a considerable influence on the worlds of television and feature film. His Hollywood credits include Memphis Belle, Hope Floats and Independence Day , while his TV appearances include the ABC production of South Pacific and a recurring role on the NBC hit series, Will & Grace .

Add to these achievements nominations for Tony Awards, Emmy, Oscar, Golden Globe and Cable Ace Awards, and you get a clearer sense of Connick’s drive.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Connick studied piano with jazz legends Ellis Marsalis and James Booker. Commencing his career at age 5, he cut his first jazz album at 10. At the still-tender age of 18, he moved to New York and recorded his self-titled Columbia Records debut. On his sophomore effort, 20 , Connick introduced the smoky jazz arrangements and lilting vocals that would become his trademark, an approach he refined on his multi-platinum disc, When Harry Met Sally .

Connick once again applied his formidable skills during a series of 2003 sessions at Hollywood’s legendary Capitol Studios. The result was not one, but two CDs — Only You and the Christmas-time collection, Harry for the Holidays . Recording on the piano once played by Nat “King” Cole, Connick guided the members of his working big band — augmented in some instances by a full string orchestra — through two different programs.

“It’s all music, and a matter of subtly switching gears,” Connick said, explaining the challenge of recording two distinctly different CDs.

Connick the musician is in fine form on the simultaneously issued albums 30 and Songs I Heard. The former disc showcases the artist's vocal and piano work, and finds him exploring his New Orleans roots on such standards as "Chattanooga Choo Choo," "I'm Walkin'," "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans," "Don't Fence Me In" and "Somewhere My Love," with the help of such guest artists as Wynton Marsalis and legendary gospel vocalist the Rev. James Moore.

30 is the fourth in a series of albums that spotlights the more intimate, personal side of Connick's musical persona, following in the footsteps of 11, 20 and 25, each named for the artist's age at the time they were made. Connick is 34 now; 30 has been in the can for a few years. "There's a conceptual theme that runs through these recordings," Connick says of his numbered discs. "It captures a moment in time; it's like a snapshot of where I'm coming from musically."

The more elaborately arranged Songs I Heard finds Connick applying big-band/orchestral treatments to favorite numbers from such classic films as The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. "I took songs from shows we all saw as kids," says Connick, himself the father of two young daughters. "Everybody knows those songs, so I could have a little fun, try different things."

The artist's dual interests in music and drama converge in his work in the Broadway musical Thou Shalt Not, which debuted on October 25 at New York's Plymouth Theater. Connick wrote and arranged the music, lyrics and score for the show, directed by Tony winner Susan Stroman and based on the Emile Zola novel Therese Raquin. He's also overseeing the recording of the show's cast album. "It's based on jazz, it's based on theatre, and it sounds like New Orleans," Connick says of the stage production, which moves the novel's European setting to the Crescent City in the 1940s.

Meanwhile, Connick's acting career continues to thrive. He's currently reaping acclaim for his role in director Linda Yellen's improvisational film The Simian Line, in which he appears alongside Cindy Crawford, Lynn Redgrave and Eric Stoltz. He also stars as the father of a little-league baseball phenom in the upcoming, John Grisham-penned Mickey, and co-stars opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in the forthcoming cable-TV feature Life Without Dick.

Despite his multimedia success, Connick - who works on songs on his portable studio during downtime on film shoots - insists that music remains his first love. "It's some combination of genes that makes you pursue it with a passion like you have to do it, like you have to play," he says. "It's a fierce competitiveness that comes almost out of nowhere; you see it in people from time to time, and I happen to have it with music."