As an actor in theatre, J. Robert Spencer has starred in the USA in shows such as SIDE SHOW, FINIAN´S RAINBOW, HEARTLAND, TOMMY, CATS, and LUCKY DUCK. In 2004, he was cast and originated the role of Nick Massi in the Tony and Grammy Award Winning Musical JERSEY BOYS; and in 2008 he was cast in the critically acclaimed Broadway production of NEXT TO NORMAL and originated the role of Dan Goodman.

In 2005 J. Robert began his Independent Film Company 7 Spencer Producions. He produced, wrote, starred and directed his first Independent feature comedy titled ‘Farm Girl In New York’, which Dvd is being distributed online by Maverick Entertainment and will be released 1st February 2011.

We have talked with J. Robert Spencer, and he has told us how he introduces his first film ‘Farm Girl in New York’: “It is a whacky comedy about two guys from the midwest who come to New York City and hold a fake audition to meet girls. It is filled with a lot of slapstick comedy, great music, and has a sweet heart. It is along the lines of such great inspirational comedies like BLAZING SADDLES, DUMB AND DUMBER, and about a 1,000 Saturday Night Live skits assembled into one simple story line.”

For J. Robert, directing and starring in this film means everything: “I am an independent artist and the fact that I was able to shoot and direct and deliver my movie, my way, with my vision was incredibly rewarding. Having said that, it also was a bit stressful because I WAS IN CHARGE! I had talked the talk when I pitched the comedy and raised the funding, and now I had to walk the walk. I´m just so thankful that it fell into the right hands of the right distribution company of MAVERICK ENTERTAINMENT.

The actor and director tells us that he is very proud of audience reaction to the film, specially the one of a good friend of him: “My good friend Joel Zwick, the director of ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’, and Henry Winkler, a.k.a. The Fonz, both got to see my film and both LOVED IT! How amazing that was for all of us to know that these two entertainment icons took the time to watch it, loved it, and understood our comedy! That was both humbling and thrilling! As far as our audiences, I’m pleased to say I hear the same thing over and over... “It´s so funny!” “I didn´t know what to expect, but, I LOVED IT!” My favorite quote so far was, “You have a very odd sense of humor!” I love that one. But when you sit with the audiences at the film festivals, and you get to hear all this laughter coming from complete strangers who don´t know you, don’t know anything about the film, or what´s about to ensue... it makes my smile really big and let’s me know that we did our job and we did it well. I’m very proud of our crew, cast, investor, and all of our efforts as an independent film company and team!”

J. Robert Spencer tells us about the band he created last year alongside three of the original’s Jersey Boys cast, Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria and Daniel Reichard: THE MIDTOWN MEN. They were touring USA last 2010 and have more scheduled concerts for this New Year: “Our concerts are amazing and going extremely well. We just performed in 46 cities last year, including two weeks in Canada, and we´re gearing up for the year 2011!”

The original Broadway Nick Massi explains to us how the idea of creating this group came up: “THE MIDTOWN MEN was an idea that came about because we are Broadway´s original Jersey Boys.  We started getting asked and notified by fans if we were ever going to perform together again.  So, we decided to get back together.  We reinvented ourselves, our sound, and now we perform all this amazing iconic music from some of the greatest groups of the 1960´s that we never got to perform in Jersey Boys.   Groups like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Motown, The Four Seasons, and when you wrap that around a tremendous 7 piece band, having all four of us relive and tell stories of the old days when we got to perform for Katie Couric´s 50th Birthday party, meeting Bill Clinton, Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks, Martin Scorcese, and then we´re able to dress up in nice suits, and being able to be our own bosses and do our own show our own way is very exciting and rewarding!“

Apart from this tour, J. Robert Spencer has interesting new projects coming on: “I performed with Lachanze last year in a concert with the Boston Pops called ‘Handel´s Messiah Rocks’ which is available on iTunes. I have another film that I Executive Produced and Star in called ‘Heterosexual´s’ that´s in the midst of a distribution talks as well, and I am Executive Producer of a Documentary called ‘On Coal River’. These films have done very well at the festivals, and I´m hoping for the world to be able to see them in the near future.”