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[0:10] Robert Bannon: It's the Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon. My name is Robert Bannon. You're listening to some Broadway World over here on Broadway Podcast Network, iHeartSpotify. I am really excited about our next guest. I remember when their debut album came out, and the word on the street was some of Broadway's best singers were getting together to keep doo-wop music alive. And as a Jersey boy myself, who grew up right there in Fort Lee, New Jersey, I was obsessed with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in Jersey Boys. So I wanted to see what they were going to do. Not only did they put out music, not only did they start to tour performing art centers and theaters around New York area, they went big, y'all.

Like PBS specials across this country, Christmas albums. They're not performing in little living rooms somewhere in New York City. They are out on the road. And they have big announcements for us all here today. I'm so excited because I'm such a fan of them individually. Their voices are incredible. And then they get together. If you Google them, it says Supergroup under their name on Google. That's because they are.

[1:16] Dominic: Hey, we're here.

[1:18] Charles: Here we are.

[1:18] Robert Bannon: I expect every answer to be in four-part harmony only. Otherwise, get off the show. I that's mandatory. So who is responsible for this Google-approved supergroup?

[1:33] Dominic: All of us, unfortunately.

[1:36] Robert Bannon: Dominic, tell me, how did this come? How do you know each other? Were you all just out at Ripley Greer with your book trying to get an audition and said, let's make a gig?

[1:46] Dominic: Some of that, for sure. Yeah. Um, the nucleus of the group started at the August Wilson Theater. As you mentioned, we were uh most of us were doing Jersey Boys at the time, and um, we were like, hey, people want to hear this music. Like, of course, they're coming here to hear Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, but there's so much music that came before them and after. And we know that Frankie was influenced by doo-wop. And we thought, you know, there's still some original doo-woppers out there singing and doing their thing, but it might be fun if some younger guys got a band together and breathed some new energy and life into this incredible foundation of American music, you know.

[2:28] Sonny: So let's, Sonny, what happened when you approached with this idea, or did you come up with like how to do it?

[2:34] Sonny: No, no, Dominic came. Yeah, Dominic came to me. We knew each other from teaching Broadway classroom little workshops, and he said, you know, do you have any interest or experience with doo-wop? And it turns out my uncle is in one of the great doo-wop groups called Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge. So it was sort of serendipitous. Um then we got together, we learned about six songs, and we presented it at APAP conference here in New York to try to get some gigs, and that first year we got, you know, what was it, three or six gigs? But then we had to make a show because we only had the six songs. We learned more songs and we got a show and we did the first show and like people liked it. We were like, huh, this is, we maybe have something, and then that grew the next year, let's say 10, 15 gigs, 30, and now, uh, and then now we do 60 to 80 to 100 gigs a year.

[3:28] Robert Bannon: So now they all have a private island somewhere in the world.

[3:33] Dominic: That's right. Shout out to Johnny Maestro on the Brooklyn Bridge. If you ever hear him sing "You'll Never Walk Alone," it may be the greatest recording of all time, sings his teeth out. Um, so that's in the bones over there.

[3:45] Robert Bannon: Charles, do you remember the moment when you were asked to be a part of this group? And what were your original? I mean, Apex, if you don't know, it's like every corner in New York City, somebody has a magic dog show, a performance of ventriloquists, a group of different singers together. When did you realize this was something that may actually happen?

[4:06] Charles: So it was a really funny story. Uh Dominic and I were actually doing the workshop of Motown the Musical during the afternoons. And um at night I was doing Jersey Boys on Broadway. I was doing double duty, uh, which I love doing. I'll rest when I'm dead. Uh, but uh he came to me in rehearsal. He was like, hey, you know, we have this doo-wop group, two of our guys are playing Frankie Valli. I feel like you could cover one of them and come in and sub into the group. Um, and I was like, Yeah, this is a could be a great little side gig. Um, and so I came into the group and I started subbing in for the Frankie Valli track. Um, and then it turns out we kind of morphed it around. I got officially Motown the Musical was coming to Broadway.

I officially got the role. We decided to revamp the group a little bit, add the Motown into it. Um, and now here we are, um like almost 15 years later, still performing. What we thought was gonna be like a little side gig to help make the ends meet is up the majority of our year now touring.

[5:00] Russell: So when this took off, I was gonna ask you all, how do you guys departmentalize your individual careers with the Doo Wop Project? Because they're two big, you're all Broadway babies, you all have your big gone careers, and then you have this big, you know, this taking on a life of its own. So, how do you guys handle that?

[5:18] Charles: Well, like Charles mentioned earlier, I he, you know, he started out as a cover. I myself started out as a cover too because one of the other bandmates left to go do the national tour of Beautiful, the Carol King musical. And so I came in and I started swinging in on a couple of different tracks. And then eventually, that was 12 years ago, which is great to think. But yeah, it was a while ago. So now I've become a little bit of a fixture in the group. Uh, and it's great. And what's great about the group is that it affords you the opportunity to go and do those things and be creative and come back to the fold. And you come back even stronger than you were when you left. It's like riding a bike.

[5:57] Robert Bannon: So, Dominic, how does it work about picking the music? Is there someone do you all are you all collaborative? Do you all keep the same vocal parts? Do you come with ideas? Do you set time in a calendar to say, like, this is when we're gonna rehearse like what is the behind the scenes of something like this?

[6:12] Dominic: Yeah, it's really a scheduling nightmare, frankly. But like now we know, like when we first started, we were like, Oh, this is really hard to get everybody in the same room, but now it's like that's a given. So we just work within that. Um, and yeah, and so Sonny's our musical director and our arranger, but we'll all choose the songs, and then we'll get into a room and we'll be like, Oh, this would be cool. Let's do it like this. Oh, Russell, this sounds great on your voice, you sing this. We all kind of know where our strengths lie at this point, you know. So it's like I do a lot of like the baritone middle kind of harmony stuff. Russell's obviously singing up there, doing the Frankie Valli stuff brilliantly.

We should also mention that um John Diaz, who is traveling today, he's another Frankie Valli that we have in the group with an incredible voice, and of course, our bass Dwayne Cooper, who's busy this morning, he brings this energy and that booming big bass voice that is just iconic to doo-wop. And so, yeah, we work with everyone's schedules, we do like a first draft of a song. Sonny goes away, works it out, charts it out, he comes back, then we do like a second draft, then the band comes in, and that's like the third draft, and then usually we're good.

[7:22] Robert Bannon: And sound, I mean that is um, amazing to me. And shout out to Dwayne and John who have the most amazing voices and are real, they look um no offense to y'all, but they look way better in a dress than all of you all do because they miss the truth. These are facts, and trust people recognize them on the road for their drag personas as well.

[7:48] Dominic: They are superstars. Um, so while we have you here, Dominic, you have a bunch of Broadway shows, like you just mentioned. We talked about Jersey Boys and we talked about Motown and we talk about um Bronx Tale and all that. Sonny, for you and your career, and we'll talk about your Broadway career in one moment and mention your credits. But do you guys ever have a moment where you have different ideas? How do you do you have a path? Do you sign in blood? Do you say we're gonna not fight? Do you wrestle in the backyard? How do you make it work together?

[8:17] Dominic: Wait, have you been at our rehearsals?

[8:21] Robert Bannon: I wish we could settle in wrestling. The thing about the Doo Wop Project is we are married at this point. It's been 15 years, so um, like any marriage, you sort of understand that it's more important to keep this thing going than to worry about everybody's little, you know, differences of opinion and stuff. And yeah, we get in, I wouldn't call them fights with little arguments. Um, but the majority of the time we're on the same page. We have different ideas. If somebody, you know, it's usually like a democracy, we vote on it, you know. If everybody's feeling, oh no, I think we should not do that song anymore. We should try this or what about this feeling, you know it is very I do the majority of the like writing out of the notes but it is a very collaborative experience.

And if you ever watch that Beatles documentary that came out like a year or two ago, it's very much like that. It's like we're just in a room, somebody has an idea, we try the next idea and at the end of that documentary they may let it be, so you know it all works out in the end.

[9:28] Robert Bannon: Well shout out to you if you if you've seen A Beautiful Noise, if you saw Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet, if you saw a bunch of other shows, that's all Sonny out conducting and doing helping out with the music and on tour and on Broadway. So Sonny is busy and probably knows way more than a C, a G7 and an F chord on a piano.

[9:48] Sonny: And I know those ones for sure.

[9:50] Robert Bannon: Those are the only three I know so that's Russell for you all what's it like to take this music on the road and now you get to go all different places and get to stream your music all around the world and sometimes you take modern music as well as the classics and merge them together. The track listings of your albums are like the wildest randomest shuffle play on a on your phone. So what is it like to be able to take this music around the country?

[10:18] Russell: It's really special uh twofold because we get to help the generation that grew up listening to this music relive those experiences and we get to share that with them. It's like a gift to those audiences. But we also get to bridge that generational gap and introduce this music to a new generation. And perhaps they didn't realize that you can trace the evolution back to this early foundational music to the pop music that we listen to today. And so that's what we really strive for. That's the that's sort of our mission statement, and that's our modus operandi of the Doo Wop Project. And that's why that that's really the project part of our name. That's where it comes in.

[10:59] Robert Bannon: It's pretty awesome. And we know we talked about Frankie Valli and Big and the sound of music. She said she wrote a note to me. She said, I would kill for your high notes. And I guess we're still employing.

[11:18] Charles: So, Charlotte and your voice and and your your career and this these brothers now that you're all on the road with, what's it like in terms of learning music? I once had the worst summer of my life trying to sing barbershop quartet music in The Music Man. It is not easy to it is a skill. It is way harder than you all make it look. So, what is the what is the advice, or how do you guys make it sound so good?

[11:43] Sonny: Well, you know, like I said earlier, we've been together for about 15 years now, so we kind of know each other's voices like really well. Um, and we know how to blend with one another. So that really helps when it comes to learning music. For me, it's just about listening to the songs on repetition. But the funny thing is naturally we just fall into a chord, like we can hear a song and kind of immediately know who's gonna sing which part in the song, even if we haven't spoken to each other. We'll come into rehearsal that day, and we'll be like, I was thinking Russell would be on top of this one, I'd be in the middle, Dominic will be, you know, and we're like, everyone's like, Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.

And whenever we start to sing, we just can naturally fall right into the chord. Um, especially, you know, if we have a sub in the group or something like that, that's um we know how to like fill the holes. So for me, it's about like going in, learning the song, understanding you know where the song structure is going and uh finding my part and following it along.

[12:27] Robert Bannon: I love it and I would list your credits but we'll be here till Christmas. He has done a lot of Broadway. He's a Tony nominee. We love Joe Smokey Robinson and I'm sitting in Detroit right now. Um, so we love we love Motown musical and what you did with that show and kudos that's sing y'all sing the they're singing sing and play sunny play every all of them so Dominic the idea comes along how long have new music been on the back burner and what can you what are we allowed to know about the future of what's going on what's your plans for the rest of the Doo Wop Project this year?

[12:27] Dominic: This year we're gonna release this new album and start touring our new show Echoes of the Street. We're super excited about it. Um, you know, we do shows and we always go out after the show and we meet people and they're like you need to do this song you need to do this song, you know you need to do "Blue Moon," you need to do and we're always kind of like okay all right you know so but this time we took a lot of those tunes that people were asking us to do and we put them into this new album so our fans are gonna be stoked we're excited to perform them and um I just think it's we're lucky I mean this is what our fifth album guys fourth studio look we have we have there's there's a live album right that's our PBS special Christmas album which is great that's the first album we did that's our second, our third studio.

[14:03] Sonny: Yes, second studio album, um, so this will be our fifth. So, like, how many people get to do that? We go into these amazing, we were just at, um, Boulevard Carol Music last night, like rehearsing our new show. I'm walking around, there's Springsteen on the wall, there's Bowie, you know, Lauryn Hill, Celine Dion, and then we recorded at Power Station, you know, where all these legendary bands have recorded. I just, it's wonderful to be able to, like, I'm from San Francisco, I came to New York to be in show business, to do theater, to make music, and I'm, you know, we're still doing it. So that's enough for me, you know.

[14:43] Robert Bannon: Sonny, what is the sound? I mean, I know it's The Doo Wop Project, so I get the idea, but yeah, I mean, if we look at the track listing of this, there's stuff that is super modern, you know, pop princesses to Kenny Vance and, you know, that R.I.P. Kenny Vance, one of the greatest songs ever. I mean, this is a wild range. So, how do you take these amazing songs and change them into this sound?

[15:05] Charles: Well, so we look to the past, we try to, uh, you know, really honor this music, which started around in the inner cities around a street corner. These guys didn't have instruments, they just had their voices, and that's sort of how doo-wop came about. They were mimicking instruments, you know. Um, so that's the foundation of it. But we're singing that music today in 2025 with our ears, with our experience. So it ultimately sounds more contemporary right away. Um, but then early on, I don't know how this happened, but we decided that we should, like, take a contemporary song and give it a doo-wop twist. And Duane, our bass singer, coined the phrase "doo-wopify" the song. So that's what we do.

We take a contemporary song and, um, you know, give it the doo-wop treatment, you know, three-part harmony, a bass line, and a melody on top, and, uh, add a kicking band, and, uh, voila. Now you have a doo-wopified pop tune from today on our new album. It's, you know, our sort of, um, ideas majority old school doo-wop, and about, you know, about 70% of that, about 30% contemporary doo-wopified songs. So we have, um, uh, Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" on our new album, and we have Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off." So, you know, we're trying to do it all over here.

[16:33] Robert Bannon: I love it. So, Russell, I'm assuming you all throw in another Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons song on the new album, you have "Dawn" on it. You gotta, Russell, you better wake up early and warm that voice up. That is not an easy song to sing.

[16:49] Russell: He's ready to go and drop it. Russell's the first guy up.

[16:51] Charles: I wake up, I wake up and I'm like, I'm so jealous. I'm a hater. I am such a hater. Um, when you hear these arrangements and you guys get in the studio, what is it like? Do you do it, uh, live? Is it piece by piece? Do you layer the vocals? What is the nerdy music behind the scenes in the booth?

[17:11] Sonny: Well, I think to Sonny's point is we already choose music that sort of lends itself to the doo-wop genre. It feels like it could be easily doo-wopified, and so then that makes it easier for us to lock into the harmonies and to the style of the piece based upon our frame of reference. Um, but in the studio, um, we sometimes it's piece by piece, you know, like we'll take a piece of music and we'll work out one stanza of it and then go back, listen to it and see if we have to revisit it. But for the most part, we rehearse it through and then we usually sing it through like one pass at one take. Yeah. And then we can always, you know, um, insert, uh, solos or embellishments as we need to. But we always have to keep in mind that it's something that we're going to be singing live.

And so we, uh, we have to take that into consideration. We have to think about the live show. And, uh, so then our frame of reference and, uh, our sort of learning tracks are the CD itself or the album, you know, which is wild.

[18:24] Charles: I'd be fired in a week. So I would be fired. Charles, when you guys are putting together a live show, can you give us a little scoop? I know you're in rehearsal, you guys are working on a live show as we speak, you're in rehearsals. What can we expect? What do you have up your sleeve? Some of the hits that we know you from that you're familiar with, some of the new album, what are we gonna see on stage this go around?

[18:30] Charles: That's exactly right. Um, what's exciting about this new show is I think we've really stepped our game up a little bit. We know this stage show, you know, we know how to do this so well now that we've been able to enhance it. I think there we're doing a lot, a little bit more choreography than we normally do, I will say. Um, we're bringing a lot more energy. If people already marvel at how much energy we bring to the show, well, we're bringing a little bit more even though we're 15 years older than we were when we started. Um, but also I think, God bless us, right? But I also think that we allowed our musicality to really shine through here and really have a lot even more fun than we did. I think when we first started, we were just trying to, you know, go with this, the idea of this genre, and we're still doing that.

However, we're really getting to add some of the music and the sounds that we really like to listen to on our own into this as well. And we're really excited that we do have a new pop Taylor Swift song. It's our first time covering Taylor Swift. I think that's gonna be really exciting. I'm also excited about the Daft Punk song. Um, and we do doo-wopify another Broadway tune, um, for the second time, which I'm really excited about too, because we also have to honor our roots and like where we all come from. That's where we got our love and enjoyment for performing live is on Broadway. So I love the new Broadway song that we're doing too. It's "Somewhere" from West Side Story, which is really beautiful.

[20:05] Sonny: Yes, doo-wop finds the sun time right out there in the show. Uh, is gonna be something really special. Um, Dominic, are you, do you have tour dates out? Are they coming out? We can go to your website to stay up to date.

[20:12] Dominic: Yeah, website's up to date. Fall tour dates are out. We're about to post, uh, the 26th for the first quarter. We'll put those dates out there soon too. That's super busy. We're blessed and thrilled. Just wanted to also mention we have an original doo-wop track that we're gonna be releasing, uh, written by Elliot Lurie, who wrote, um, "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" by Looking Glass. He sent us an email saying, "Hey, I found you guys on, um, Spotify. I like writing songs. I wrote 'Brandy,' like, check out this song." And then we like listened to, we were like on the road in Ohio and we were like, "Oh, cool." Our manager sends us this song, and we're like, "This is a good song." So we recorded it. So that's our first original. Um, and we're super proud of it and be able to add to the doo-wop canon, like another cool doo-wop tune. I'm so excited for this new music to come out.

[21:04] Sonny: I know it takes a village, and I know you probably all do a lot of work yourselves and are out here on the hustle with this group, but tell us a little bit about the team that's behind this because you all are not just, uh, it's not just you all. I'm sure you guys are on the road, you have a whole group that helps you manage your management and stuff. How's it grown from the beginning?

[21:22] Sonny: Yeah, we've been through a lot of managers along the way. Um, and currently we have a great manager, Jared Miller, who, uh, you know, Dominic and I do a lot of the sort of administrative work of this group. We sort of always have. So me and Dominic are on the phone with Jared at least once a day, if not ten times a day. Um, there's just anything that can go wrong will go wrong. You know, last night we showed up at the rehearsal studio and they forgot that we were coming, and you know, we need a whole band set up and everything. And so we're on the phone with him, and he's like, "Oh, I paid for it, the whole thing." So, um, they set us up and it worked out. But yeah, there's so many moving pieces.

Um, I would say the person who makes the most money with The Doo Wop Project is Delta Airlines. Um, you know, because we're, we're 10 people traveling all over the country and, and, uh, it's a lot, but we have it down to a science at this point. Um, and, uh, we always show up on time and get to the gig and put on a show.

[22:27] Russell: I'm sure you're excited to get together with your brothers and be back on the planes and the buses and the trains and however you get around.

[22:38] Russell: Yeah, I am. I'm thrilled. It's always great to go and meet the people and get their feedback and just to see how jazzed they are about, uh, this music and this project. It's a dream come true. It really is.

[22:53] Robert Bannon: And Charles, what can we say about what your plans are for the year? How do you stay healthy for the whole year? I mean, you have a gig tomorrow. There's shows up the wazoo here on your website.

[23:07] Charles: You know, my claim to fame is I go to the gym and work out every day. Um, when I was in high school, in fact, my choir teacher taught us one lesson. She said, "If your body is warm, then your voice is warm." So I really use the gym as my warm-up, but also it just helps me stay fit and healthy and able to still be doing what we do on stage, like I said, 15 years later. Um, it's no small feat for us, but we enjoy it so much that it's fine. So working out, eating healthy, trying to get enough rest, lots of water, and, uh, Grether's Pastilles. If I really need to get these working from them because they really keep me going.

[23:44] Robert Bannon: Well, I'm super excited, everybody. The album is gonna be out. We're gonna stay up to date. Um, this is gonna be a crazy, uh, list of songs that are on this album, and they continue their legacy of they are the premier doo-wop group out here on the road right now. And if you love this music and you grew up with this music, no matter if you're a hundred years old or 12 years old, if it moves you and is moving to you, this is the group that you definitely have to see. I'm half the time in New York and half the time in Detroit. And there's two shows coming up in Michigan. There's shows all over the Tri-State area. So I will see you all on the road. I have to come catch you on a show.

[24:17] Dominic: And, um, better, we'll hook it up. Let us know. I'm there. I'm so excited. I'll have the full album memorized in case I need to jump in and sing.

[24:28] Russell: Yeah, yes, perfect bass. Duane, I'm coming for your spot. The Doo Wop Project on Instagram is where we're gonna follow. And everyone go to the doowopproject.com. Make sure you check out the new album, the old albums, and get your tickets to see the shows. It's such an honor to talk to you all. I'm so, I'm such a fan of what you do, and it's so moving what you all do out here. So keep up the good work.

[24:47] The Doo Wop Project: Thank you, thank you, Robert. Thanks.