Wade Preston Boeger
Biography

Photo by Angelica

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Richard Rodgers Theatre, 2004. Photo by Claire

Wade Preston is a singer/songwriter, composer and pianist who performs regularly as a solo artist.
He most recently starred in the Broadway Musical Movin’ Out, and is an original cast member.

In July of 2008, Wade has the honor of doing the rehearsals and sound checks for Billy Joel in Hershey, PA and Shea Stadium, essentially as the "stunt Billy."
"Thanks for doing this," Mr. Joel said to Preston at a recent rehearsal in NYC. "You're making my life very easy."

With roots in classical, boogie, and New Orleans barrel house style piano playing, Wade mixes Billy Joel / Elton John vocal styles with Ray Charles passion. His keyboard abilities are reminiscent of Keith Emerson precision mixed with the passionate abandon of Jerry Lee Lewis. Preston is a favorite amongst live music lovers.

Performing at the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation Benefit

Wade Preston played the role of the Piano Man in the Billy Joel / Twyla Tharpe Broadway hit Movin’ Out since it’s inception in May of 2002 until its closing in December of 2005. Wade also covered the synth chair in the band. He holds the record as the Piano Man with the most consecutive shows performed without a break, and, when the need arose, the only Piano Man to play both the lead role and the synth chair at the same time.

Also, check out www.myspace.com/wadepreston and www.myspace.com/wadeprestonband

Scroll down for a historic promo shot with Dick Clark and some links to TV performances featuring Wade playing with the legendary Chubby Checker in 1982.


The Great Guitar Smash, Hard Rock Cafe, Times Square New York, August 8, 2005
That's Little Steven with his back to us and Brian Wilson
Photo by Bob Frady
Before Broadway, he'd played hundreds of club dates and private parties, opened for name acts, performed on nation television including TNN's Nashville Now, toured with several name acts, released a CD of his own music, scored three films, two plays, and sang on Saban's hugely successful Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers movie The Zeo.

The Strand, Redondo Beach, CA, 1990. Photographer unknown
In 1997 Wade started a swing big band, which he kept him busy up until 2001 when he started writing an opera for a small orchestral ensemble.

When the Broadway production of Movin’ Out called in 2002, Wade put his opera on hold, and concentrated solely on the Broadway show. Now, with a few years under his belt as the Piano Man, he's concentrating on getting back to his roots, entertaining smaller, more intimate audiences, with just a piano, a microphone, and a few friends.

"Here's to getting another CD out! It's long overdue."

Wade (at 19) with Dick Clark and Chubby Checker on American Bandstand, 1982
From left to right, unknown saxophone guy who was there for this one show, Wade, Robbie Walsh (guitar), Sammy Merendino (drums), Dick Clark, Chubby Checker, Joe Martinez (bass).
Photographer unknown

I did a number of TV shows with Chubby. Among them, the short lived Friday's.
Victoria Principle was the guest host. The three songs we did on that show have resurfaced on YouTube.com.
Remember. It was 1982, and I was 19. Victoria and I got along rather well.
Song # 1 - Running: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9ZZPpjBmhsQ
It was the '80's. The now infamous Kramer turned racist Michael Richards got his start on this program with skits like the one that starts off this song. What a great band we had. Drummer Sammy Merendino went on to do all kinds of great things, including the drum track to We Didn't Start The Fire by Billy Joel. Roy Robertson played sax for years and went on to start one of the most successful jingle agencies in Maryland. He now owns six, count 'em, six radio stations in the DC area.
Song # 2 - Harder Than Diamonds: http://youtube.com/watch?v=poEgGqHadA8
It opens with a close-up of my hands. That was my grandfather's ring, given to me by my dad, and I gave it to my brother. Pooka shells were in, too, as you can see. It was the '80's... My good friend Robbie Walsh plays electric guitar wonderfully as he still does today. The only thing wrong with this is Evan Pace's acoustic guitar playing. He produced the record, but never played with us except for this TV performance. It really was a distraction with him jumping around like he was a member of the band, pretending to be cool, and playing out of tune. When I moved to LA I called him numerous times, as he had asked me to, but he never returned my calls. Welcome to LA, Wade.
Song # 3 - Burn Up The Night: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vodqf8KtRss
At the end of this segment after the song I can be seen doing the twist with Victoria Principle while the credits were running. Watch it to the very end. Hilarious. When my friend Phil Melchers and I watched this on TV later that night at my hotel, we laughed so hard we both ended up on the floor in tears. True story. We probably laughed for twenty minutes. Ahh, it was the early '80's...
 
Photos by Rebecca Williams (2002, 1989) Unknown photographer 1984

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And now, the long, sleepy version...

Wade Preston is a composer, pianist and vocalist who performs regularly solo and with his various ensembles, in addition to scoring music for film and television.
     His scoring credits include three plays. Donn Short's Accidental Clarity, and Len Jenkin's Dark Ride were performed at the Attic Theatre in Hollywood and received favorable reviews from Variety, Dramalogue , LA Reader and the LA Weekly.
     His film score credits include last year's Saban Entertainment / Hemogram comedy Hardly Newz.
     Wade's What America Builds commercial ran last year in the northeastern part of the country, along with their first children's feature Scully's Glen.
     Preston has a song writing credit on the latest Chubby Checker (who he toured with as a teenager, see photo below) CD entitled Going Back To Oklahoma, and singing credits on Saban's hugely successful Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers sequel entitled The Zeo.
      In April of 2000, Wade took on the job of Musical Director for the Edgemar Center for The Arts in Santa Monica, accompanying Jason Alexander, Nina Whitaker, and the very young and talented Jamie Bentz.
      Wade devoted most of the past two years to scoring charts for his swing band, Vivo Presto Swing, a seven piece swing / jump blues he assembled in August of '98.  Wade recorded the band live and in his Los Angeles home studio, and put out an entirely live CD of the band in August of  '99. 
 Wade has been devoting most of his free time to a new string ensemble project. The ensemble  includes a nine piece string section, drums, and additional vocalists.
     "I started the swing band as an educational project," Wade explains. "I learned so much from the experience, I've decided to do the same kind of thing with the string ensemble. It has turned into an opera, with the ensemble on stage. I'm also going to try to incorporate dancers into the project as well. Unlike the swing band, it's not intended to coincide with any trend in popular music. It's something very different, and it's all original material."
     Wade has had a lot of support from the innovative folks at Alesis. Serving as a beta tester for Alesis for three years, the Alesis QS8, and now the QS8.1, are now the top selling keyboard in the world. Wade was featured throughout 1998 in a two page life style ad for the QS8, along with his debut CD, and a synopsis of his life as a full time musician using Alesis equipment. Alesis also made mention of him in their First Reflection Magazine (no longer on the web, but check out www.alesis.com anyway). There is also a note about how the ad came about following the printed ad text on this web site.
     Wade runs his own label and publishing company called Vanishing Uncle. Since so many people have asked, the name Vanishing Uncle is Wade's  way of letting his nieces and nephews know that he thinks about them all the time, even though they don't see him very often. The logo was Wade's idea of what the kids might remember him as, a guy running out the door to yet another gig. The logo itself was drawn (in about 5 seconds) by artist Keith Spence.
     An article came out in the South Bay Weekly section of the Los Angeles Times on August 6th, 1998,  the day of Vivo Presto Swing's debut performance. The article is about Wade and his swing band by Gina Paccalo, with a photo by Brian Pobuda. Click here if you'd like to see it.
In 2002 Wade was invited to join the production of Movin' Out on Broadway, starting first in Chicago in May of 2002 at the Schubert Theatre, then moving to New York in September or 2002 at the Richard Rodgers theatre. His role in the show is primary keyboard player in the band, as well as standby for the lead piano man. Since Michael Cavanaugh,, who is the first piano man in the production, only performed five of the eight shows a week, Wade played the lead at least three times a week, often more. The show performed their last show on December 11, 2005. Click Update or Movin' Out for more info and pictures.
As a result of the Broadway production, Wade is now a resident of New York. Wade is planning on staying in NYC now that the show has closed. "It is, after all, where I'm from... it's home."
      Wade's full name is actually Wade Preston Boeger (pronounced bow'-ger), second son, fourth and last child of Joanne and Richard Boeger, from Massapequa Park, Long Island, NY. When he arrived in Los Angeles, his name was almost always misspelled and mispronounced. He asked his father if he would have a problem calling himself Wade Preston, to which his father replied, "Sure, as long as you don't call yourself Elton John."
"I'm still not quite sure what he meant by that, but it sounded like permission to me."
     Click here if you'd like to meet Wade's Mom, Click here if you'd like to meet his Dad.
     You can Email him at wade@wadepreston.com.