The Christian Hoff BLOG...

La Jolla Playhouse's Des McAnuff is headed back to Canada, but first, a trip down Memory Lane.

Here is an excerpt from an article in The L.A Times
By Irene Lacher, Special to The TimesFebruary 25, 2007

...JERSEY BOYS

Four Seasons Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe left the creators alone to craft the musical about their lives. They didn't see the show until opening night and, says McAnuff, "they cried like babies." The show went on to win four Tony Awards. WHEN we were putting this together, the aesthetic we adopted was to have musicians playing rock 'n' roll onstage: Even the band would be there as supporting characters. I wanted to get people who really played. Two guys who came to mind were Donnie Kehr and Christian Hoff from "Tommy." We played at the China Club during those days, particularly if Pete [Townshend] was in town, so I knew those guys were good players. Donnie was doing some act in Vegas. He plays bass drums, and he's good on guitar as well as keyboards. I got him in. But I couldn't find Christian. He'd moved from New York to Los Angeles and I lost track of him. He was raised on La Jolla Playhouse. He grew up in San Diego, and he'd been in youth theater here. I'd been proud of him in "Tommy," and I was disappointed they couldn't seem to track him down. We went to Los Angeles for auditions because we audition on both coasts. We're leaving the parking lot on our way out, and just as I'm backing out, Christian pulls up with his two kids. He was at whatever his straight job was at that point — he may have been teaching; he wasn't really acting at the time. So we all piled back in. Even the accompanist had gone. But luckily he brought his guitar. He just blew us away and literally two minutes into his reading, I knew we'd found Tommy DeVito. He, of course, went on to win the Tony Award.
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Thanks Des!

-Christian Hoff

Parties turn the intensity up a notch

By DADE HAYES of Variety.com

As snowflakes started dropping on Manhattan, a couple hundred revelers gathered at the Gramercy Park Hotel for Variety's inaugural viewing party. "New York cares about the Oscars too," Lloyd Kaufman said. (whose latest film is "Poultergeist") and his wife, Pat, who is film commissioner for New York State.

An older crowd decked out in fur and finery sipped champagne in the St. Regis Hotel at the Academy's viewing party.

Further downtown, at the Spotted Pig, New York magazine welcomed an eclectic array to its second Oscar bash. Sen. Charles Schumer, Michael Stipe and Liev Schreiber held court in various nooks of the bistro. Also on hand were "30 Rock's" Lonny Ross, thesps Josh Charles, Elias Koteas, Christian Hoff and Daniel Reichard.

From the New York Magazine Daily Intelligencer
Edited by Jesse Oxfeld with Michael Idov

New York film critic David Edelstein and Hollywood producer Lynda Obst have been discussing the Oscar race since the nominations were announced.

Read their final thoughts here.

# posted by Christian Hoff @ 11:38 AM 0 comments

I want to share with you a new project I am supporting called The New Globe Theater.

In New York Harbor stands a decaying military fortification, built to defend America against the British in the War of 1812 ... and it happens to have the identical blueprint as Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. In the spirit of placing the Statue of Liberty onto Fort Wood, the opportunity has arisen to create a destination where we celebrate our common cultural heritage: THE NEW GLOBE FOR THE NEW WORLD.

(NOTE: This campaign is not authorized or endorsed by the National Park Service...yet!)

Click here for more information.

I encourage you to read about it and help make this monumental dream, a cultural reality. It really isn't that far off.

Hello friends and fans, just had a launch party for an audio book I recorded.

It turns out, I have set a new world record for character voices in the process. Who knew? Well, we did, once we counted I guess.

Here are some links for you:

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/105672.html
http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=15975
http://www.broadwayworld.com/blogs/viewblog.cfm?blogid=1779

It is time to celebrate once again! Jersey Boys is the winner of a 2007 Grammy Award. I now have the privilege of performing on two Grammy winning original cast albums including The Who's Tommy. I wish they could rest on my own mantel, even for a day.

I also have the privilege of working under the collective producing genius' of George Martin, famed Beatles producer and equally famed Four Seasons producer, Bob Gaudio.

Excellence comes from the top. Thank you to Bob and George for helping my castmates and I make recording history.

-Christian

Photo: Linda Lenzi/Broadwayworld.com

Broadway World asked me for my contribution of the most romantic song.

These lyrics say it all:

"Are you my love, has life begun for me? Are you my love, the moon and sun for me? Are you my joy, are you my pain, are you my universe, earth and heaven? Are you a dream, that's overtaken me? If you're a dream, then don't awaken me. My heart must know or miss a beat. Are you my love, my sweet?" With a gentle, seductive melody to match. Rodgers and Hart, 1936.

For my forever valentine, Melissa.

If you missed this interview on The Jersey Boys Blog with Howard Tucker, please take a look.

My new fans have transformed the meaning of fan to friendship. Thank you all for your continued encouragement and support. You sum up the most fullfiling part of my job as an actor: The audience that reaches back to you.

See you at the theater-

Christian

In case you haven't heard the news about Tommy DeVitos CD, you're in luck. It is aptly named 1st Season and it is as genuine as the man himself. This CD has been a labor of love for Tommy. He recorded and produced the album for his friends and family. So if you get a copy too, you might consider yourself part of the family.

- Christian Hoff

"Whether you know him as Tom DeVito, Tomooch or Tex Whitey from his country and western roots, Tom DeVito, or "Tomooch" as I always refer to him, is one of the most original guitar players I ever heard. I know and have heard many great guitar players in my life and the one thing that they all have in common is originality. That's what makes the great ones. When you hear them play, you know it's them and no one plays like Tom- no-one !! His sound is so unique and distinctive, I can tell right away that it's him. He has an uncanny ability of mixing the sound of an italian mandolin with the soulful bluegrass plucking of a banjo and the solid rhythms of acoustical and steel guitar playing of country music. If that's not enough, he also combined all this with rock & roll, pop and rhythm and blues to make the original sounds for the 4 Seasons. I'm sure you will enjoy, as I have for years, hearing him play some of his favorites and mine ! Hopefully your's too... Joe Pesci