User:SkrymSay/The Midtown Men (article draft)

This is my draft for a new article on The Midtown Men, a musical group.

The Midtown Men are a supergroup and cover band formed in 2007. The group consists of the four vocalists Christian Hoff, J. Robert Spencer, Michael Longoria, and Daniel Reichard, all of whom are original cast members of the broadway musical Jersey Boys.

Boys in Concert
Christian Hoff, J. Robert Spencer, Michael Longoria, and Daniel Reichard originally worked together as primary cast members on the broadway musical Jersey Boys, which premiered in 2004 and opened on Broadway in 2005. The musical was a success, and the four performed and toured with the musical until 2009. In 2007, the four started performing on their own as a group calling themselves the Boys in Concert. The group continued to perform under this name, growing in popularity until they left Jersey Boys in 2009. In 2010, the group was sued by Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Marshall Brickman, and Rick Elice, for allegedly attempting to suggest that the Boys in Concert as a performing entity were related to Jersey Boys the musical. The Boys in Concert filed a counterclaim stating that the four accusers were "motivated by petty vindictiveness and malice” and were using "bully tactics."

Name change and rising popularity
In September of 2010, the case regarding the relationship between the Boys in Concert and Jersey Boys was settled out of court, and the group changed their name to the Midtown Men. Christian Hoff stated that they chose the new name because it reflected their "hardworking, middle class roots" and the fact that they all met in Midtown Manhattan. The group has been steadily rising in popularity, resulting in high-profile tours and performances, including dates at Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall.

In 2011, the Midtown Men self-produced and self-released their debut album Sixties Hits, featuring covers of various popular songs from the 1960s, including songs by the Beatles, the Mamas & the Papas, and the Zombies, among others.

During August of 2012, the group had a multitude of New York City area televisiona appearances, including performances on ABC's Good Morning America, Fox's Good Day New York morning show, and NBC's New York Live.

On November of 2012, the Midtown Men released the holiday benefit single "All Alone on Christmas," a cover of the Steven Van Zandt song of the same name. All proceeds from the purchase of the song go to the Red Cross to aid in relief efforts for people impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

The group is currently on an extensive North American tour that includes a multitude of dates across the Continental United States and Canada.

Members
Group member J. Robert Spencer has stated that he usually sings bass, while Christian Hoff and Daniel Reichard sing in a middle range and Michael Longoria sings in a higher range.

In 2006, Christian Hoff won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role portraying Tommy DeVito in Jersey Boys. Beyond his singing and stage acting career, Christian Hoff has done work as a television actor and voice actor. He has appeared as a lawyer on television shows Ugly Betty and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and he holds the Guinness World Record for highest number of different voices done for a single project for portraying 241 different characters in the audiobook adaptation of Ed Feldman's "Tell Me How You Love the Picture: a Hollywood Life."

In 2009, J. Robert Spencer was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role portraying the character Dan in the rock musical Next to Normal. Beyond his theatre career, Spencer, like Hoff, has acted in television and done voice acting work. He appeared in All My Children, Girls Behaving Badly and Law and Order, and he voiced the character Seita in the animated film Grave of the Fireflies. He has also done work writing, producing, and directing independent films.

Michael Longoria is known primarily for his work in theatre, which includes credits in the 2003 Broadway production of Hairspray along with Jersey Boys. He is also a singer-songwriter, and has performed at venues including Joe's Pub and the Knitting Factory. In 2010, Longoria and comedian Joe Piscopo put on a music & comedy revue featuring music by famous New Jersey musicians Frank Sinatra and Bruce Springsteen as well as other music from the 1960s and 1970s.

Beyond his work in theatre, which includes a role in Jersey Boys and numerous New York City productions, singer Daniel Reichard has appeared in the New York City Opera revival of Candide and has performed solo cabaret style shows at New York City venues including Joe's Pub, the Ars Nova theater, and Birdland. In 2011, Reichard produced a holiday benefit show titled Daniel Reichard's Christmas Present. Proceeds from this performance benefitted Chemo Comfort, an organization created to help cancer patients manage the side effects of chemotherapy.