Happy Birthday to J. Robert Spencer, born Feb. 12, 1969, in York, Pa., where he attended Central York H.S. His early gigs included voice work for the Japanese anime Amon Saga (1986), Spirit Warrior (1987), The Grave of the Fireflies (1988), and Nightmare Campus (1994). After he graduated cum laude in 1991 from Shenandoah University, Spencer moved to New York City. In 1995, he was cast as the replacement Rum Tum Tugger in the fourth national tour of Cats, and he made his Broadway debut two years later as a swing in Side Show, where he met Jenny-Lynn Suckling, whom he married in 2002.
In the early 2000s, Spencer also appeared in Side Show composer Henry Krieger’s Lucky Duck at La Jolla’s Old Globe (2004) and in the Off-Broadway revivals of Weird Romance (2004) and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (2005) at the York Theatre. Then in 2005, he was cast in his breakthrough role: Nick Massi in the Tony-winning musical Jersey Boys (2005). Below is the original cast performing “Oh What a Night” at the 2007 Tonys.
With his newfound notoriety, Spencer formed the film company 7 Spencer Productions, for which he has produced, written, directed, and acted in independent movies such as Farm Girl in New York (2007) and Heterosexuals (2010). He also starred in the 2008 Boston Pops production of Handel’s Messiah Rocks, under the baton of Keith Lockhart, which was taped for PBS. Below is Spencer singing “He Is Fire” from that concert.
Spencer returned to Broadway in 2009 with the Pulitzer-winning Next to Normal, after joining the show for its out-of-town tryout at Arena Stage. He received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Non-Resident Production for the D.C. show and a Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Musical for the Broadway production. Below is Spencer and Aaron Tveit singing “I Am the One.”
After that show, Shenandoah University presented him with an honorary doctorate. Then in 2011, he formed the singing group The Midtown Men: Four Original Stars from Broadway’s Jersey Boys, with whom he has performed more than 700 concerts across the U.S. and abroad in Italy, Canada, Mexico, and China. The group has also produced and recorded several CDs and filmed the PBS concert documentary The Midtown Men: Live in Concert, which you can watch a clip of below.
In the past decade, Spencer has performed in workshops and productions of several new musicals, including The Water Dream (2013) and Bayonets of Angst (2014) at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, winning a NYMF Award for Excellence for Outstanding Individual Performance for the latter, and Because of Winn Dixie (2019) at Goodspeed Musicals. Below is a promotional video for Bayonets of August (featuring Spencer about 1:40 and 2:30).