'Memphis' writer keeps the upbeat

When David Bryan phones from a stage in Houston, the Bon Jovi keyboardist isn't calling to discuss his band's tour updates or studio news.

He's not giving love a bad name. He's not talking about Slippery When Wet, Richie Sambora, or other topics typically Bon Jovi.

The New Jersey native who started playing with Jon Bon Jovi when the singer still used his given name "John Bongiovi" (Bryan's real last name is Rashbaum) is in the Lone Star State, readying a theatrical production of The Toxic Avenger, his second musical stage pairing with playwright/novelist Joe DiPietro.

Their first? Memphis, the Tony-winning, rocking romantic tale loosely based on disc jockey Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music in the 1950s.

Now on its first tour, Memphis opens at the Academy of Music on Tuesday and runs through Jan. 22.

Among other prizes, the show won four Tonys in 2010, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Score, and Best Orchestrations.

Bryan is "amped" that Philly (a home away from home when Bon Jovi recorded 1985's 7800° Fahrenheit at Philly's Warehouse studio) finally gets a chance to experience his rocking historical musical. "The touring production is a testament to what Memphis is on Broadway, where it's been for three years and almost 1,000 shows. Honestly, we're just so upbeat about it."

Being upbeat is a big part of being David Bryan. Fellow Jersey native DiPietro, famed for writing book and lyrics for I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change (the second-longest-running Off Broadway musical) says in a phone interview that there's an optimism about Bryan that you don't usually find in theater folk. "Most of them are pretty tragic and pessimistic," adds DiPietro, laughing. "Then again, maybe David's optimistic because he's had people screaming at him in adoration his whole life. Who knows?"

After calling himself the "ultimate optimist," Bryan (who will turn 50 in February) proves as much when discussing the forlorn finale of Memphis, "Steal Your Rock 'n' Roll." Though it's about one character's rise and another's fall, Bryan says that through everything, the ill-fated character "stuck to his dreams no matter what - that's the person I am."