After touring North America as Tommy DeVito, Canadian native Nicolas Dromard brings his Jersey Boys
bad boy to Broadway. BroadwayBox chatted up the Mary Poppins and Wicked alum for seven questions all about the Tony-winning musical, tour life, and favorite roles past.1. My favorite thing about the seemingly hard to love Tommy DeVito:
Is that he has to be charming in some way or how would he have accomplished all that he did?! Yes he wasn’t the perfect gentleman, but he stuck it out and did everything to get the band in the spotlight. He may have made some bad financial decisions, but at the end of the day he pushed through. I love bringing that little bit of charm to the character every night.
2. Something I never realized about Jerseys Boys Broadway until I joined the cast:
The tour doesn’t have trap doors or computer controlled lifts and the first night of my Broadway Jersey Boys performance, I stepped on the lift right before "Rag Doll" and my heart started pumping really fast. Then when we start singing and the lift brings us up on stage, the audience appears as we are rising from the stage. Every night I get butterflies at this moment, it’s just the coolest!!
3. Four Seasons song I’d use as a personal theme song:
"Beggin’" is one of my favorite songs. It’s just so slick and you feel like a badass dancing to it! The lyrics aren’t really my theme song, but the beat, guitar licks and rhythm is something I can hear every day and never get sick of.
4. I have to give ___ some credit for my Jersey accent:
My French parents. They moved to Canada in the '70s for work, so French was my first language. I also learned Spanish in high school, so I have an ear for different languages and accents. Luckily I’m able to hear and imitate accents pretty easily (although my Christopher Walken impression usually ends up sounding like Borat!).
5. Coolest thing I picked up from my travels on the Jersey Boys tour:
I don’t have one thing in particular that I picked up on tour, but in every city I really tried to find one thing to do that I couldn’t do anywhere else. Even in the smallest cities (Springfield, Illinois has an amazing Abraham Lincoln museum!) I found things to see and do, so experiences are what I tried to have the most while on tour. Finding that restaurant, or museum, or even underground gardens. (Check out Fresno’s Forestiere Underground Gardens!)
6. Canadian credit I wish New York audiences could have seen:
None! Canadian’s are too polite and nice in the theatre. I love it when I start the show and the audiences goes crazy when I mention Jersey! When we toured Canada, audiences are very polite and respectful and laugh, but aren’t as rowdy as New York. Mind you if Canadians would bring me poutine, maple syrup and beaver tails after every performance, I would probably change my answer. I’m easily bought with Canadian goodies.
7. In a hashtag describe the following: Bert, Fiyero, Pepper & Tommy DeVito.
Bert: #HopelesslyInLoveWithMary, Fiyero: #IKissTheBlondeAndIKissTheGreen, Pepper: #WhereTheOlderWomanAt, Tommy: #DeVitoDelivers
See Nicolas Dromard as Tommy DeVito in Jersey Boys at New World Stages.
