By Andrea Baillie, The Canadian Press
TORONTO - As a kid growing up in Jersey, about the only piece of musical theatre Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan remembers seeing is "Fiddler on the Roof."
"I'm a good Jewish boy from Edison, New Jersey so I went and saw 'Fiddler on the Roof' because you have to, that's part of your bar mitzvah experience," Bryan said in a recent telephone interview from New York City.
"I just didn't see that many shows, it was more about the rock concerts."
Even though Bryan now has three Tony Awards to his name for composing the hit show "Memphis" — which opens in Toronto next week — he still isn't a big musical theatre buff.
"Some I want to see just for curiosity," he said. "But no, I don't really rush out to see a bunch of musicals."
The success of "Memphis" — an interracial love story set to the beats of the 1950s — is somewhat unusual amid the current crop of jukebox musicals and theatrical shows based on TV programs or comic books.
Because audiences often don't know much about "Memphis" ahead of time, they are almost always pleasantly surprised by it, Bryan said.
"I think the greatest thing about our show, really, is it always exceeds people's expectations," said the 49-year-old classically-trained musician.
"They walk in and either they know a little bit about it or they don't know anything and they walk out and say: 'Wow!'"
Bryan, a founding member of Bon Jovi, came aboard "Memphis" over a decade ago. Eager to embark on a career as a songwriter, he had written a batch of songs but was frustrated that no one would cover them.
When he was told that a musical would mean 20 of his songs could be covered eight times a week, he was interested. Even more so when he saw Joe DiPietro's script for "Memphis."
"To me it wasn't entertainment for entertainment's sake, it was entertainment with a story that mattered," said Bryan.
"It's a story that celebrates people coming together and what brings us together rather than what separates us. And I loved that subject matter, and bang — there you go.
"It shows what hate looks like and how wrong it is.... ('Memphis') is an interracial love story, and you rock and you have a good time but underneath it all, you're trying to be better people."
He has since gone on to co-write "The Toxic Avenger" with DiPietro and the two are also working on an upcoming show.
He suspects the playwright was interested in him in for "Memphis" in the first place because of his status as a musical theatre outsider.
"Most theatre people and composers are like research hounds," noted Bryan.
"I think that's what Joe DiPietro was looking for, somebody outside of that realm. He's like, 'It's a rock score, I need a real rock guy!'"
The genre was not such a stretch either, he added, since Bon Jovi spent many early years playing '50s songs.
"My ... research was making seven bucks a night for a couple of years in bars," said Bryan, adding that his time with Bon Jovi has also taught him how to connect with an audience as a composer.
"I know how to get that emotion out of the crowd, if you will, and how to whip them up in a frenzy, bring them high and bring them low and make an emotional journey with the music."
Bryan is clearly proud of the success of "Memphis," and said his composing career away from Bon Jovi gave him a unique brand of satisfaction.
"A musical is really one of the most complicated beasts. It's a play, and there's music ... and there's dancing ... it's unbelievably satisfying to get something up out of your brain, onto a piece of paper ... and start the process and then see it on the stage," he said.
"And then to have three Tonys on my mantelpiece I can say it's very rewarding. I'm a happy guy."
Dancap's presentation of "Memphis" runs at the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts from Dec. 6 to 24.
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