`BYE BYE LOVE': EVERLY BROTHERS TRIBUTE AT RYMAN AUDITORIUM STARS FORMER SOUTHEAST STUDENT

Arnold native Jeff Boyet wasn't involved in theater and didn't play in bands while he attended Southeast Missouri State University in the early 1990s. He managed the campus radio station and graduated with a degree in mass communication-radio.

Five years later, the 27-year-old Boyet finds himself playing Don Everly in the musical "Bye Bye Love," now on the stage of the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The Everly Brothers debuted "Bye Bye Love," their first hit single, at the Ryman in 1957.

Boyet and his partner Matt Newton, who plays Phil Everly, were in Cape Girardeau earlier in the week on a publicity tour.

How Boyet wound up in in "Bye Bye Love" is one of many career twists the duo attribute to the hand of God at work.

After graduating from Southeast in 1993, Boyet moved to St. Louis and worked at a radio station. While there, he played the Cowardly Lion in a production of "The Wizard of Oz" and General McKenzie in "Ten Little Indians."

After deciding to pursue a musical career three years ago, he did what a lot of other people do -- quit his job, sold his house and moved to Nashville. He recorded two albums under the stage name of Dale Jeffreys and performed at the Opryland Hotel and the General Jackson Showboat before auditioning for "Bye Bye Love.

Boyet and Newton were two of 250 hopefuls who tried out for the roles in Nashville. Auditions also were held in Cincinnati, Dallas, Lubbock, Texas, and Atlanta.

The producers kept switching the pairings, and only put Boyet and Newton together in the last hour of the last day. "They were looking for the sound," Newton said.

That famous Everly Brothers harmony is difficult to match. But the brothers' mother, Margaret, was there on opening night and afterward told them she thought they were lip-synching.

"She said she was transformed to 1957," Newton said.

The Everlys' music was not new to the performers. The Everly Brothers' "Bird Dog" was the first song Boyet ever learned on the guitar. "I was raised on the Everly Brothers," he says.

They also were chosen because of the way they look.

"We don't look like the Every brothers but we look like brothers," Newton said.

The 24-year-old Newton, a Washington, Ind., product, is a veteran of show productions at Opryland USA, the General Jackson Showboat and Six Flags. He has varied experience, from singing opera to playing in a band. He majored in vocal music at Vincennes University.

The musical follows the Everly Brothers from their early years of seeing their parents and relatives playing music and their fledgling performances on radio shows to their performances at the Ryman and eventual induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

It makes the point that theirs was a new sound, a hybrid of country harmonies ladled onto a back beat.

Newton and Boyet play the Everly Brothers as adults. Two other cast members play them as children. Other members of the cast play their father Ike, mother Margaret and incidental other characters, including famed guitarist Chet Atkins and the Susie immortalized in the song "Wake Up Little Susie."

The show runs through Oct. 24. If it's like it's predecessors, tributes to Hank Williams and Patsy Cline, the run could be extended to two years.

The Everly Brothers themselves, who reunited in 1983 after an estrangement of some years, have not yet seen the show but have said they will do so this summer.

Boyet and Newton, both struggling to make their Nashville dreams come true only months ago, can only grin at each other at the thought of the Everly Brothers sitting in the audience of "Bye Bye Love."

"Jeff and I both are strong believers in God driving your life," Newton says. "He's doing great so far," Boyet added.

Every Brothers Top 10 hits

"Bye Bye Love" (1957)

"Wake Up Little Susie" (1957)

"All I Have To Do Is Dream" (1958)

"Bird Dog" (1958)

"Devoted to You" (1958)

"Problems" (1958)

"(Til) I Kissed You" (1949)

"Let It Be Me" (1960)

"Cathy's Clown" (1960)

"When Will I Be Loved" 1960

"So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad)" (1960)

"Walk Right Back" (1961)

"Ebony Eyes" (1961)

"Crying in the Rain" (1962)

"That's Old Fashioned (That's the Way Love Should Be)" (1962)