Port Moody woman debuting at this Vancouver theatre

Tiana Jung always wanted to perform with the Arts Club Theatre Company.

A graduate of Port Moody’s Heritage Woods Secondary, Jung moved to the Big Apple after Grade 12 to earn her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from New York University’s famed Tisch School of the Arts.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the entertainment industry shut down.

In 2020, Jung moved back to Metro Vancouver where, for the past four summers, she’s been teaching the Arts Club's Musical Theatre Intensive for teens, as well as doing voiceover work and winning some regional theatre and TV/film roles.

Now, Jung is in rehearsal after clinching a supporting part in Jersey Boys, a popular musical that Arts Club Theatre Company is staging at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage.

The company season opener starts on Thursday, Sept. 5.

“It’s really exciting,” Jung told the Tri-City News in an interview. “It’s my first show with the Arts Club as a performer. It’s a dream come true.”

Jung will make her début as Francine Valli — the second daughter of Frankie Valli — in the production that tells the story of The Four Seasons’ frontman and the American band’s rise to stardom in the 1960s with songs like:

“Sherry”
“Big Girls Don’t Cry”
“Walk Like a Man”
“Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”
“December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)”

Formed in New Jersey, the Four Seasons is described as one of the best-selling musical groups with more than 100 million records sold around the world.

Though Jung didn’t know too much about the band or its history, she said she was drawn to audition for the Arts Club Theatre Company show because of its director and choreographer: Julie Tomaino, a former Rockette who worked at the Radio City Music Hall when Jung was studying in New York.

Jung also remembered Tomaino’s dance steps in the Theatre Under the Stars’ Shrek in 2014 and her guest appearance in a theatre class. “She brought this incredible energy and she had a great vibe,” Jung said.

But Jung was also attracted to audition for Jersey Boys after seeing her friend Jason Sakaki portray Bob Gaudio in the Citadel Theatre show in Edmonton; for the Arts Club version, Sakaki reprises the role of a founding band member (Gaudio also wrote the music for the musical).

Meanwhile, Shannon Hanbury, a graduate of Port Coquitlam’s Archbishop Carney Regional Secondary, is the standby for Francine Valli, as well as the show’s assistant choreographer and dance captain.

As for her next move, Jung said she’s returning the Chemainus Theatre on Vancouver Island to take on the role of Lydia in the holiday romance Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, from Nov. 22 to Dec. 22.

Still, she longs for New York. “My goal is to get back to there one day and be successful,” she said.

Jersey Boys: The Story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons runs from Sept. 5 to Oct. 20 at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage (2750 Granville St., Vancouver) from: