Christopher Kale Jones said he “was bitten by the acting and singing bug” when he was growing up in Hawaii. “My dad used to take me to the movies and I would look at the screen and say I want to do that.'”
“That” has turned out to be portraying Frankie Valli in the U.S. tour of “Jersey Boys” and now, singing and dancing 1950s and 1960s music with Under The Streetlamp for PBS specials and on tour.
In addition to Jones, the group consists of Brandon Wardel, a seasoned Broadway performer; Eric Gutman, who performed with “Jersey Boys” on Broadway; and Shonn Wiley, who performed with “Jersey Boys” in Chicago.
Under the Streetlamp comes to Genesee Theater May 12 and will present selections from the group’s latest PBS special, “Rockin’ Around the Clock.”
Jones, who lives in Chicago and studied acting and music at Northwestern University, said all he’s hoped for since he was a youngster was “to get someone to pay me to act and sing.”
After college, he got some gigs in Chicago and in New York, and in 2006, while performing in “Zhivago,” he learned the director was planning a U.S. tour of “Jersey Boys.”
Jones said he began practicing his high falsetto in earnest and got the part of Frankie Valli, the leader of The Four Seasons, the 1960s rock group sensation whose story is told in “Jersey Boys.”
Jones spent a year and a half touring in what he considered one of the best jobs in theater at the time. Soon after he finished the tour, he and his wife appeared in “Little Shop of Horrors” at the Ford Theatre in Washington D.C.
Then he helped form Under the Streetlamp, which originally consisted of Jones, Wiley, Michael Cuneo and Michael Ingersoll, all of whom worked together in “Jersey Boys.”
The group created a PBS special “Under the Streetlamp,” in 2012 and have been touring ever since. They’ve also produced two more PBS specials, “Let the Good Times Roll,” and their latest, “Rockin’ Around the Clock.”
“I’m fortunate to work with three incredible gentlemen,” Jones said, adding they recognize each other’s strengths and work to highlight them in the show.”
Wiley, for example, is “an incredible tap dancer and choreographer. All the steps you see us do on stage are his.
“As for song choices, we find what suits each individual. Normally when we hear a song, we know which guy should be singing it” as the lead, he said.
Genesee Theatre audience will hear the group sing “Pretty Woman,” originally done by Roy Orbison. Wiley will tap to “Jump, Jive and Wail.”
“The music will primarily be from the ’50s and ’60s. We rarely stray beyond that,” Jones said.
“We always come out after the show to sign merchandise, take pictures and connect with our fan base. Some of our fans have told us, ‘I saw the special on PBS, I didn’t expect to laugh so much. I didn’t expect to have a tear on my eye.'”
Jones describes the group’s music as “cathartic.”
“It’s a time machine. It places you where you were during your first breakup, or the first time you really felt what it was like to be in love or when your husband had to go off to war,” he said.
“Since I’ve been doing Under the Streetlamp, I’ve been focusing on the singing,” he said. “But the love I have for acting definitely comes into play. We try to create a fun night. We’re ourselves on stage. We tell stories and we banter.”
They’ll complete a tour of 50-dates in May that they began in January. Then they’ll visit family, and perhaps work on a fourth PBS special, he said. “We’re committed to this group.”
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People should come to see “Under the Streetlamp,” Jones said, because “it’s easy to look at our current political economical landscape and say we live in very uncertain times. There are a lot of polarizing things out there. But one that’s not very polarizing – at least now – is this music. When you feel helpless to what is happening out there, you can escape and enjoy yourself for two hours.”
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
Under the Streetlamp
When: 730 p.m. May 12
Where: Genesee Theatre, 203 N. Genesee St., Waukegan
Tickets: $25-$40
Information: 847-263-6300; www.geneseetheatre.com