Florida Rep Opens 29th season with “Forever Everly: The Everly Brothers Rockumentary”

This is Gulf Coast Live Arts edition from GQ. I'm John Davis. Thanks for joining us. Florida Repertory Theater in downtown Fort Myers opens its 29th season with forever. Everly, the Everly Brothers rockumentary to characterize this production as a tribute concert to the enduring musical legacy of Don and Phil Everly really doesn't do it justice. The show is a hybrid multi-media theater experience, combining documentary film, biographical storytelling, and the Everly and the Everly Brothers beloved hits. Performed live on stage and synchronized to the film footage. The show explores the Everly Brothers lives, careers, relationships, struggles, and their outsized influence on popular music, including such artists as Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, the Bee Gees, the Beach Boys, the Eagles, and even contemporary harmony based rock and country music today. And today, we're taking a deeper dive into the show and a conversation with the performers, bringing the Everly Brothers to life in this production. Jared Mancuso and Nick Gallardo. Jared is a guitarist, singer, producer, actor and filmmaker. He's a lifelong musician who was playing in bands in Manhattan when he was just a young teen. His performance background spans both music and theater. Although he concentrates primarily on music these days, and his career has increasingly involved creating rather than simply performing. He's the creator and producer of Not Fade Away. Rock n Roll Reignited, a theatrical concert built around the music of early rock pioneers. He's also created the 70s rock Road trip and this show Forever Everly, and he's frontman of the alternative rock band Esso. Their most recent album, Just Like in the movies, came out last fall. Jared Mancuso. Welcome to Gulf Coast Live Arts edition. Hey, thanks for having me. Appreciate it. And Nick Ardo is an actor, singer, guitarist and concert entertainer who's traveled the world performing with celebrity Norwegian and Oceana cruise lines. He also has an extensive theater background that's earned him multiple Manhattan Association of Cabaret Awards for acting and musical theater. He's developed his own tribute cabaret work, including Valens Excuse Me, including Valens to Valli, built around the music of Ritchie Valens and Frankie Valli, and Lucy and Ricky live. He performs as Ricky Ricardo alongside Samantha Cormier as Lucy. And he and Mancuso are regular collaborators, but the principal performers for the aforementioned Not Fade Away as well as this show, and he's gotten to perform alongside such artists as Shirley Jones, Richard Klein and Linda Ronstadt. Nikki Pardo welcome, thanks so much for taking the time. Oh, hi. Thanks for having me. And the two of you have been creative collaborators for some time now. You worked together on Not Fade Away, including creating musical arrangements for that production. Can you tell me a bit about how your partnership developed and how you moved from individual theater and music careers into creating these hybrid concert experiences? No. We we met doing another show, together back in 2013. We were doing, it was like a very proper style, version of, you know, the the winter dance party where buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper, you know, they that was their big last show before they passed away and the plane crash. And we were performing that show, and it was a really good time. We really bonded right away. But we felt as though there was something about that tribute that felt a little too on the nose. About the stylings that it was designed for a very specific older demographic, and that's all fine and dandy, but for us, we felt as though we could make the show both for them and for a new audience. So we decided to kind of spin off over the next few years, and we started developing our first show, not Fade Away. Rock and roll reignited, and we kind of created we we up the energy of the of the arrangements. We kind of added some more modern elements to everything. We did a lot of tricks, like standing up on the upright bass and playing the guitar behind our heads. Nick does rodeo roping and all this stuff, so we really tried to, like, re-energize the music instead of making it just like you're stand there and play these songs for folks. And it really took off. And so we actually sat on that show for a long time, and we still perform that show. But then, you know, forever really came along eventually. What made you want to kind of give this treatment to the Everly Brothers? Because, you know, not fade away. You're celebrating the music of, you know, a bunch of different musicians. But with this, like, like what made you want to create a show, focus specifically on this duo. That one I can answer for sure. Okay. What's really, really cool is when you develop a friendship with somebody and you start singing with them a lot after shows, people will come up and say, wow, you guys really sound good together. Wow. Your sound is really unique. Wow. You really. And, it's one of those things where I think it was beckoning for a while, and finally you put it together, and I was like, well, there's two of us, and there's two brothers. People tell us that are harmonies are always really tight. We've known each other for at least ten years. We get along. This is wonderful. We're more like brothers, I feel. And, And it just came together and the harmonies came together, and, even just during rehearsals, I think we knew that we had something good. And why wouldn't you do a tribute to the Everly Brothers. In terms of, you know, how you are also, you know, emulating those iconic tight vocal harmonies that the Everly Brothers are known for and that, you know, continues to aspire other musicians. Was that a particular challenge to get right, or, you know, since you've been collaborating together for more than a decade, you are professional musicians. Did it just kind of come naturally? I felt like it came now. And you, Oh, yeah, I felt yeah, I felt as though it was just really, you know, we started singing these songs and it was like, oh, yeah, like this just we sound good. And, you know, we sat and we recorded all the the backing tracks and all that stuff, and that kind of allowed us to do a little bit. What we did with rock and roll reignited where we could, you know, change the arrangements ever so slightly. You know, they didn't really have a whole lot of drums. So we added like some more drums and that kinda stuff. So it was, it was, fun stretch of our, creative, that like that creative it you want to you want to scratch and then we also. Yeah. Like just what Nick was saying, you know, we started singing together and it's it was like, oh, we got this, we have this. This is going to be easy. And Jared, one thing I wanted to emphasize is, you know, this isn't some existing documentary that you're repurposing. You created this. Tell me about yeah. Yeah yeah. So it was like an insane amount of research. There's more there's more in the story. And then we could fit into 90 minutes. Because we also we have to make room for the songs, like any normal documentary isn't going to play, you know, 20 songs throughout it either. Yeah. And so we had to figure out ways to, tell the story and have the songs feel like they fit properly where they did. Not only, in terms of narrative, but even just in terms of, like, how that song feels like if we just finished talking about one thing, we don't want to, like, go into something super sad all of a sudden, you know? So it was like, how do we tell the story leading up to this next song? And it was honestly, that part was actually. Oddly easier than I thought it was going to be. Because of how their music is so good, and it's almost like the, the, the music that they played throughout their time, in the limelight. They made, like it almost tells the story for you. So when we, when we were doing that, yeah, we basically just did like tons and tons and tons of research. I ended up finding all kinds of video libraries that were there's a whole I found like a, there's a couple of years ago now. So I'm trying to pull back the memory, but, we found like a site that, like, was basically just like a big fan, like community or the the Everly Brothers. And they had, like, tons of fun facts in there, and people had photos and it was like, you know, and at the end of the, you know, of our show, we have like a whole giant credits thing of like, it's like all of our citations. It's like, this is where everything came from. It's like an insane amount of places that we scoured. But it wasn't just like a big, like Wikipedia copy paste or anything like that. Yeah. You know, the Everly Brothers having this famously tumultuous relationship, you know, there was what was supposed to be their final show as a duo in 73 when Phil smashed a guitar and walked off stage. They didn't perform again together for about a decade. There was also the struggles with drug addiction. I mean, how do you handle those parts of the story? I guess without letting the drama overwhelm the music? oh, I'd say that's part of the story. That's part we're all adults and you're seeing a movie, and sometimes there are hard parts of a movie. But if you want the authentic truth, you have to sit through that. And I think that while the music is the most important part of the entire show, that really I think that that's what shines the most. But I think it's important to have some of those facts of, like you said, about the tumultuous relationship. We wouldn't know that if we didn't say something about that. So I think it adds to the arc of the entire story when, you know, some of the hard times that these brothers went through together and it makes it more of a beautiful ending. Yeah. No, I think what you're. Saying even like. Yeah, the what Nick was even saying about the when we were creating because there was like some discussion about, you know, talking about their drug addiction and stuff like that. And it's like, this is a tribute show. You know, it's not often that I go and see a show where they're talking about, you know, Jimi Hendrix's drug usage, you know, or anything like that or. Right. And so, yeah, like what Nick said, it's like we had to kind of realize it's like, you know what? No, we are all adults here. We can talk about these things and not offend anybody. It was their real life. It's not like we're making this stuff up. And and I think people appreciate that honesty. You know, in the process of creating the show, I'm curious about what guided your decision making when it comes to which songs you would include. And just by that, I mean, like, yes, of course people are going to expect the hits wake up Little Susie. All I have to do is dream, but did you also want to maybe get a broader cross-section of their music catalog? Like, like for example, the album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us wasn't as commercially popular as other albums, but that is part of their story. Do you want this one Nick? No. Go ahead, go ahead. I can take this one. So for this one. Yeah, the it was actually kind of hard because. Yeah, there's the mega-hits. And then as their careers went, you know, they stopped charting as much the, the initial, portion of the show, like the first like 14 songs we drew from anything that was like in the top 100 or like the top 40. And then from there, yeah, they stopped kind of charting for a while. So was partially do I like singing this song? Which is like the weird, selfish thing. But then the other part of it was, does this fit that theme? We were kind of talking about of like, does this feel right to play next? Does this help tell the story a little bit? So there was a little bit of that, you know, we we have a song in there, silver haired daddy of mine that is not necessarily a popular song of theirs at all, but it came around at a time when their father had passed away. So it works really well to perform that song amongst that news in the show. And so it was like little things like that, just trying to figure out, like, does this it almost it was almost like a feeling thing that we kind of followed. But I'm curious about, I guess, your first awareness of the Everly Brothers or these artists you grew up listening to, or did you really kind of discover them? Later in life? I feel like when you're growing up, being a musician, listening to records, the Everly Brothers are going to come into the picture at some point when you start talking about country or folk or just strumming a guitar. The basics, the everlys are incredibly helpful in that, and there's just something that's so beautifully simple and true and honest that helps you to continue your journey. At the end, you can always go back to the Everly Brothers. It's like a nice it's like a nice, simple math problem that you know the answer to. It's always going to be there and it's warm and comforting. And that's what the Everly Brothers are. I think in all the rock and roll music that I listened to growing up, and you come back around to the Everly Brothers, it's still can be exciting, but there is something that's very comfortable about it and you just want to groove. Yeah, yeah. And, yeah. Jared, did you want to go so. You can, like, draw the line? Yeah. Like you can draw the line. Like between, like the Everly Brothers and some new artists. You know, you're like, oh, like, there's harmonies here. Like. Yeah. Like, you know, it starts, you know, it goes into, like, the Beach Boys. And then there's the Beatles and then there's, you know, you get through the 80s and there's like all these awesome, like there's just, there's a, there's so many as as time goes, it's just like it. Yeah. It's like what Nick said. It's like it just keeps going back to there. It's like, oh, we can go right back to that. Like take it back to the beginning. And like even with, you know, when I'm writing songs, I think about that stuff. I used to work with another friend of mine named Jared, who you know, he's we still write music together occasionally, but it's like, yeah, we were like, locked into those harmonies the same way that Nick and I are now. Yeah, and. The Everlys are. I'm just I know my tagline. They're foundational in creative expression. They're they're they help you go back to home plate. Absolutely. Yeah. And you still see it and contemporary artists coming out today. I think about it all the time. Yeah. My next question is kind of a technical one. How do you synchronize the video footage of the performances with your live music? Because you're not facing the screen. You're facing the audience. Correct? Yeah. Technology is the right way to start that. Okay. No. It's, we we use in-ear monitors, when we perform all of our shows, and in this we have basically, it's like a little we should do, like, a behind the scenes feature on, like, what happens during a show, but like, it's you hear in our ears as the movie's going, it'll start to it'll tell us like, what song is coming up next. And then it goes like you'll hear like a click start. It's like. And then it will say, like you'll hear it go like one, two, one, two, three, four. And that's when we know to start the song. Okay. And then and then the click will go throughout the whole song. And we are able to like stay synchronized with it. There are some parts of the show where they're actually on the screen performing, and we're performing the songs like straight along with them. And that's a little trickier because a lot of those are live performances that they did. And the click is not, it's not steady, like because they were just fluctuating. They were feeling the music as they were performing. And so for us, we had to digitally figure out how to. Like find where the one, two, three, four it was at all times throughout like a 2.5 minute song. And so that's what kind of keeps us in line with them. And then we have them, like slightly mixed into our ears so we can try to like, stay on it, but we've done it enough times now that, like, we don't have to make all those faces. I was just making, to stick with it. But in the beginning, it was very scary at times because, you know, we were just getting on our feet and it was like, okay, don't we? If we get off by like a single beat, like we're done for. Yeah. How do audiences tend to react when they, you know, maybe first realize what's going on, like when you're playing along with the video footage? It's a high point of the show. It's one of the first things they they will always after the show, they'll run up and ask us a couple things, and one of them is how they're so amazed that we were able to. How did y'all sing at the same time they were singing? Where were you? Were you really singing? Yes, yes we. Were, yes you. Did. It was really tough. It's the. Are you working? Is that for you? Yeah. Like, is that really. It's. Yes, it's a good compliment. It's a good compliment. Yeah. Yeah yeah. And you know, we've talked about the Everly Brothers out style outsized and enduring influence. But is not reflected in the show like do or are there any song selections that aren't the Everly Brothers, but maybe famous artists who were heavily influenced by them? Yes. Yeah. We we, there's a like a mid we call like the middle section of the show. If there were two act, I would like start the second act and it we go into. Yeah. Like the people who were influenced by them. And we tried to pick, we tried to pick some like less traditional or like some less obvious songs, in there as well. I'm not going to give anything away, but like, we, you know, there's artists who are very clearly, influenced by them. And, you know, I think we covered those in there, but, yeah, we we had to put a section in there just like this is the the impact that they had on the music industry. They weren't just, you know, some brothers because a lot of that happened, you know, during their breakup. So it was like it wasn't like they broke up and then they disappeared from the set. Guys like, no, they were still really impacting people. And it meant people really were hoping that they would get back together. And, Nick, I absolutely have to ask you, you performed with Linda Ronstadt. I mean, I've been a lifelong fan. Like, that was always on heavy rotation in my house growing up. I was like, raised on it. How did that come about? Can you tell me that story? Yeah, yeah. So I'm from Tucson, Arizona. I was part of the Tucson, Arizona Boys chorus. And, they're. It's my reason why. Yeah. Okay. There. Yes. So there you go. And, and Linda Ronstadt being a Tucson native, we every year for Christmas would sing at the San Javier mission. And so she came in and rehearsed with the boys chorus, and we got to sing with her. And then, at the Sound of Your Mission, we sang down, on the stage, and then she sang in the rafters like an angel. So it was 28 boys, and then one Linda Ronstadt, up in the balcony. And I just remember that it was like having. Yeah, just like having an angel sing to you. It was remarkable. And so. Yeah. So that's how that came about. Awesome. Well, we are about out of time. But before I let you go, I had one last question for you. You know, after performing this show for audiences, what do you hope someone who knows the Everly Brothers well takes away? And conversely, what do you hope someone who's maybe never heard of them takes away? My, I would love to answer the first one. I always really enjoy when somebody comes up and they say, I'm a I've been a big fan of the Everly Brothers my whole life. I didn't know blank about that then. You know, I didn't know that this happened. And so that to me, I find to be like, yes, we did it. Like, you know, because like I said, you know, there's so much information about them. How do you squeeze it all into 90 minutes? And the fact that we put something in there that, like a lifelong fan, mega fan of theirs walks away saying, oh, I didn't know that about them. It's like, yes. Like to me, that's like a huge win. Yeah. I also think, I don't know if you have a one of the best pop. Yeah. Yeah. One of the best compliments, that you can get is. Wow, you boys really looked like you had fun up there. And I think that when you can just show that you had a good time and leave it on the stage, you know, there's there's no secret. We do a lot of shows. We, we tribute a lot of artists. But all of it. And so when the audience sees that, that you've really given it all and, and put a part of your soul on the stage and they say, gosh, man, you can you're sweating up there. You really looked like you had a lot of fun. And the answer is yes. And it's just a wonderful, easy thing to be able to say. Like, yeah, we had a good time because this is good music. All right. Well, that is all the time we have for today. But I want to thank my guests. I've been speaking with singers, actors all around, entertainers and creative collaborators Gerard Mancuso and Nick piano. Together they'll bring Phil and Don Everly to life, right before our eyes and Florida Repertory Theater season opening production of Forever Everly, the Everly Brothers rockumentary. The show runs in the art stage Studio Theater September 15th through October 25th. For more information or to secure your tickets, visit Florida Rep Dawg or call the box office. 239332 4488. Jared and Nick, thanks so much for taking the time. I can't wait to see the show. Thank you. Very much. Be there. And if you missed any of today's show, you can always hear episodes in their entirety on our website, WGCU.ORG/GCL, or subscribe to our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts for now. Thanks for listening. I'm John Davis. This is WGCU FM Fort Myers 90.1 WMKO Marco Island 91.7 FM NPR for Southwest Florida.