Director and choreographer Julie Tomaino rocks Jersey Boys for the Arts Club Theatre Company
The artist has a deep appreciation for what she calls a “brilliant” script
Julie Tomaino.
The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Jersey Boys from September 5 to October 20 at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER Julie Tomaino was 16 years old when she first discovered musical theatre. Born and raised in Vancouver, she was accepted into a local theatre production of Anne of Green Gables choreographed by Valerie Easton. She was hooked from the very beginning, and she bawled her eyes out when the production wrapped up.
“I really realized that this is my community and this is my family and I couldn’t imagine not seeing them every day,” Tomaino says in a phone interview with Stir. “When it’s your first one, you’re really bit by that bug. I think with musicals it’s the connection to story and the heightened expression in song and dance that can just really encapsulate even more emotion and bigger, deeper feelings. I love theatre in general but specifically musicals just speak to my soul. I’m grateful every day I go to work; I am so lucky to be doing this as my job.”
Now based in Toronto, Tomaino travels across Canada and the U.S. putting up musicals, having worked with Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, Thousand Islands Playhouse, Theatre Calgary, Western Canada Theatre, and beyond. This past summer alone, she acted as director and choreographer of 9 to 5 The Musical at Chemainus Theatre Festival and The Full Monty at Port Hope, Ontario’s Capitol Theatre. Now, she’s working on Jersey Boys for the Arts Club Theatre Company, opening its 2024-25 season.
The show tells the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and the group’s meteoric rise from blue-collar New Jersey to stunning global success. In the past few years, Tomaino has directed and choreographed Jersey Boys for the Citadel and Thousand Islands. It’s a crowd-pleaser, she says, with music that is timeless. Think “Sherry”, “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”.
“I really, really love the show; I love the story,” says Tomaino, who lived and worked in New York City—including six seasons as a Rockette—from age 19 to 32. “The script is brilliant. It’s a bio musical, a jukebox musical, but it’s different because the script is really strong. And yes it’s a chronological story and a true story, but more than that, the way the book writers [Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice] and writers of the show [music by Bob Gaudio; lyrics by Bob Crewe] intertwined music in just the right places to speak to what the emotion was at the time, or what Frankie has going through in his personal life… I just have a deep appreciation for the brilliance of the script.”
She pitched it to Arts Club artistic director Ashlie Corcoran, who had been trying to secure the rights to the show for some time.
Tomaino’s love for directing and choreographing runs so deep she credits the work as helping her make a mostly full recovery from a stroke she had in 2017. The only things that haven’t come back are her abilities to dance “full-out” and to write by hand. Having grown up with a mom who teaches dance, she is able to successfully describe the physical gestures she’s seeking from performers and use her phone to take notes.
“My creative process was not really affected,” Tomaino says. “I will say my love for what I do is part of the reason I suspect that I recovered so well. I had such motivation to get back. I just loved what I did and didn’t want to give it up. At no point during my recovery did I think I would not be back doing what I love. Everybody thinks that’s why I got back. I was driven. It’s a strong motivator.” 
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