We talked to Trip of Love star Joey Calveri about the 60s theatrical extravaganza taking the New York stage by storm...

I saw Trip of Love a couple of weeks ago and let me tell you that show looks exhausting to be in!

(Laughs)

Is it one of the most physically demanding shows you’ve done so far?

Yeah, I mean for me I’m just onstage for five numbers, but the ensemble is definitely going crazy. I would be pretty exhausted if I was one of the dancers in this company, they work so much harder than I do.

Earlier today I walked into a restaurant and they strangely played a lot of the songs featured in the show. Did you personally have an affinity to 60s’ music or do you think the whole world is obsessed with it equally?

Oh yeah I most definitely had an affinity with it, I’m a huge 60s fan, I’ve always loved the rock from the era. “Born to Be Wild” is an amazing song and I’m a huge Steppenwolf fan, there’s also “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”, and all these other songs in the show which are incredible. “Moon River” too is one of my favorites.

Besides Trip of Love, you’ve also been in Saturday Night Fever, Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic and of course Rock of Ages, do you have some sort of permanent nostalgia for the past that keeps you in period shows?

Most definitely, I’m kind of a Bohemian studier a little bit, I’m really big into art, culture and things that influence certain movements. I’m a big fan of the Beat generation and literature, also jazz music, and the hippie movement. The style of the past is something that has always thrilled me, what people wore, what music they listened to. Whether it’s the disco movement, or hippie culture, those have been I’ve always studied the most.

I kept thinking about Mad Men, which kinda brought baby boomer nostalgia back to pop culture. Were you a fan of the show?

Yeah, I always thought how interesting it was they showed “the martini people” which were a whole different thing going on at the same time in the 60s.

In the “Ne Me Quitte Pas” number in Trip of Love, we are reminded of how topics like the waste of youth in war and foreign invasions are still so relevant. Even though the show is a lot of fun, it often touches on some very dark elements, was this what attracted you to do the show?

Jimmy [Walski]’s creation is fantastical but it’s all based on fact. It’s a 60s fantasy, someone in Japan called it The Nutcracker of the 60s, so the thing I love about the show is that we go from all this fantasy to the end of the 60s when the idea of real love and that sort of thing came crashing down on everyone.

How different has audience reaction been to the show in New York, compared to Japan?

In Japan the show was really successful, audiences respond differently in Japan than they do in America, it’s definitely a different vibe, but everyone’s getting very much into the show in both places.

You’ve been in shows like Rock of Ages which was popular for many years, and have also been in shows like Wonderland which closed soon after it opened, do you find there’s a right time it takes for a show to find an audience?

I do believe it takes some time for a show to find an audience, especially in New York City, this city has audiences that are very “theatre” and “drama” based, so they have ideas of what they wanna see, and everybody usually wants to see a formula of something known, so when you come along with a new formula, it takes a little while for people to discover it. People who love the 60s for instance are going nuts over this show, and I know there’s a lot of buzz in town, but it does take a little while for a show to catch on.

Do people stop you in the street to talk about Stacee Jaxx all the time?

Oh yeah, all the time, which is a wonderful thing! Stacee Jaxx got me in the public eye a little bit, so I’m grateful for that. But you know I always do the same kinda thing in all my roles anyway, I’m kind of the smarmy, sensual, crazy guy, I play dark characters, that type of thing, so it’s kind of a given, people are like “oh, he’s going at it again!”

Does your band Machine Elves go on hiatus when you’re doing a show or do you just multitask?

I multitask a lot (laughs), basically theatre comes first because it’s my job, it’s my career, and the Machine Elves is a sideproject I do and hope will become more popular so it can be more of an “official job”, so basically they wait for me to do what I’m doing and then we line up gigs.

Is there any crossover between your musical theatre fans and rock people?

Yeah, which has been kinda new. I’ve just started noticing that, because really musical theatre people aren’t the biggest lovers of hard rock, so you don’t get a whole lot of them in there, but there’s been a lot of the rock people who have come to the theatre. It must be said that a lot of Rock of Ages fans came out to support my band though.

You’re the perfect guy to explain my brothers how you can like both rock and theatre and still be cool.

Exactly (laughs) rock and roll musical theatre, man!

Speaking of classic musicals, what’s one Sondheim song you love and one of his characters you’d love to play at some point?

Oh yeah! There are just so many, Sondheim is fantastic and I’ve always been a fan, so probably...I think Georges Seurat, I’m also a painter, so the whole idea of art in Sunday in the Park with George just blows my mind. How the things you can leave behind in this world are children and art.

I had no idea you painted too!

It’s kind of a new thing for me, I started doing it in my free time and I put a few of them out there, and they’ve been selling, I have a painting that’s going to be up at the Hourglass Tavern in Restaurant Row.

I guess you do multitask.

Yes I do!

For tickets to Trip of Love click here.