Bwarie gets Valli role — eventually

Joseph Leo Bwarie began channeling Frankie Valli long before he was tapped for the role in the touring company of “Jersey Boys” that arrives this week at National Theatre. He was appearing as Chachi in the 2006 world premiere of “Happy Days,” the musical based on the TV show, when singer/songwriter Carol King hurried backstage. She had just arrived from San Diego and wanted to tell him he’d be perfect as Valli in the workshop production of “Jersey Boys” at the La Jolla Playhouse.

He was flattered someone of her stature took the time to seek him out, but the role already was cast and the show was under way. Despite additional encouragement from his producer, Gary Marshall, and many others, Bwarie did not pursue the matter. Barely noticing “Jersey Boys” advanced to Broadway, he continued plugging along in L.A. in diverse roles on film, television and stage as actor, singer and co-producer of family theater.

Destiny finally intervened two years ago when again he was encouraged to audition and was promptly assigned to the San Francisco company. The next stop was Las Vegas, where he went on stage twice a week. Rave reviews sent him to Toronto for three months with a side trip to New York for the slick “Jersey Boys” routine at the Tony Awards. Now he comes to Washington direct from the Boston run and enthusiastic houses packed with fellow Emerson College alumni, friends and admirers who proclaim him the best Frankie Valli ever.

“I give him a run for his money, but what I’m offering the audience is not a performance of Frankie Valli,” he says. “My version gives them a slice of life into the men who made up the Four Seasons. By being on tour, we’re resonating the lives of those guys and experiencing the closest thing to living their lives. Touring the nation is much better than being on Broadway because we get to see the many kinds of people they saw and share the lives they lived when we hit places like Rochester, New York, during the winter.”

Bwarie may be a generation removed from the Four Seasons, but their music moved him as a child. Today he meets baby boomers with their children and grandchildren after the show that each regards as his very own. At every performance he sees big grins and eyes aglow confirming how well the music transcends generations.

One of his favorite numbers, “Beggin’,” was not played as often on radio as some of their other hits, but the single still reached a healthy No. 16. He also gets a kick out of “Working My Way Back to You” and the perennial leader, “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” Singing falsetto comes naturally to him, but he has worked at refining the technique. Valli developed his by listening to old-time singers like the Platters and some of the early doo-wop and Motown groups.

“The beat and sound awake different emotions in people,” Bwarie says. “It goes to a place that’s sweet, tender and with some pain. When I talked with Bob Gaudio [lyricist and former member of the group], he says that’s why people connect with the music. I’m always in love with what I sing and I try to do everything I can to get people to step into the play.”

The enormity of his role came into focus when he arrived in Boston and learned that the real Frankie Valli will open in November right across the street from the theater where “Jersey Boys” was playing. Chuckling, he acknowledges, “The responsibility of being a character on stage become even greater when you’re playing a real person, a legendary performer known worldwide.”