MTV MANN: Here are some details on Frankie Camp from Rick Elice:
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/05/24/jersey0524.html There?s more than the singing, though, Elice notes.
?We have to have a guy who looks believably Italian, who?s about 5-foot-6, who has no break between his chest voice and his falsetto,? said Elice, who wrote the show with Marshall Brickman. ?[This musical needs] somebody who?s willing to swim for two hours every day so he can breathe and have breath control to deliver this vocal performance.?
Aspiring actors also spend time at what Elice affectionately calls ?Camp Castelluccio? (Castelluccio is Valli?s real last name).
?At this ?Frankie Camp,? we bring in kids who have possibilities. ? I don?t think we could just bring someone in who could just play this part because it?s so demanding,? Elice said. ?You have to train for it, like an athlete for an event.?
Bwarie said Frankie Camp is the same for any guy going in for the role, and it?s scheduled before the final audition. ?Some people assume that it happens after you get the job, [that] you get whisked away to the woods and roast marshmallows with other Italian-looking guys,? he said.
?They give you the singing, acting and dancing technique and sort of the style of the era and of the real man himself.?
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