NEW YORK – “Jersey Boys” is something like the Four Seasons meet “The Sopranos.” It’s a rowdy, rollicking musical drenched in “Joisey” lore and comes to The Villages on Friday.
I saw it this week in New York City’s New World Stages Theater. It’s a blue-collar Jersey tale about four guys who used music to escape the wrong side of town.
Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi joined forces as The Four Seasons and sold millions of records through 1960s and beyond. The hit list includes “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Dawn,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and “Oh, What A Night.” They made it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Like today’s rap stars, the Seasons were street tough and had numerous scrapes with cops and crooks. And like rappers, the Jersey Boys’ dialogue is filled with F-bombs and other off-color four-letter words.
“Jersey Boys” manages to tell each of the Seasons’ stories with humor, pathos and depth. But it’s the music that dominates.
Frankie Valli, the singer with the bluesy, falsetto voice, is the center of the musical. Valli seems to be searching for meaning in his life. He is a driven and sometimes tragic figure who discovers money, fame and success come with a steep personal price.
Toward the end of the show, Valli faces the audience and says that “family” means more than anything.
The first act gives background on the rise of the group.
Oldies fans will enjoy listening to the group’s formative years as they sing such songs as “Silhouettes,” “Earth Angel” and “I Go Ape.”
Tommy DeVito is a thuggish character who forms the group and takes little Frankie Castelluccio (Valli) under his wing.
“In my neighborhood there were only three ways out,” DeVito says early on. “You could join the Army. You could get mobbed up. Or you could become a star.”
Valli’s voice was the ticket to stardom. But he couldn’t do it alone.
Things took off when songwriter Bob Gaudio joins the group. Gaudio was 15 when he wrote a big hit, “Who Wears Short Shorts” for the Royal Teens.
Gaudio forms a bond with Valli. Gaudio then writes the first big hit, “Sherry” in 1962. Producer Bob Crewe molds the group and their sound. Even after the Beatles and British Invasion, the Four Seasons stayed near the top of the charts.
The hits kept coming but the group was pulled apart. DeVito gets in trouble with the mob over gambling debts. He also mismanages the group’s money and leaves them nearly $1 million in the hole.
DeVito is gone and Nick Massi also leaves. Valli and Gaudio soldier on. It pays off when Gaudio writes “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”
Gaudio eventually leaves and Valli keeps singing despite a divorce and family losses.
The staging of “Jersey Boys” is a big reason for its success. The stage features a walkway above it. Characters are constantly moving across the walkway with dramatic power.
Three screens behind the upper stage show videos, cartoonish figures and dates. When the Four Seasons performed on The Ed Sullivan show, there was a camera on stage. You can watch the black and white video of the performance on a screen above the stage.
This show is packed with dynamic choreography and songs. Valli sang “My Eyes Adored You,” to his wife in an emotional scene near the end of Act One.
“Walk Like A Man” closes the first act with high intensity, as the stage lights are turned up and nearly blind the audience.
I was impressed with the New York cast, especially Aaron DeJesus as Valli. His vocals, movements and acting talent made Valli come alive.
The cast at The Sharon for two sold out shows on Friday and Saturday:
Jonny Wexler as Frankie Valli; Tommaso Antico as Bob Gaudio; Corey Greenan as Tommy DeVito and Chris Stevens as Nick Massi.
“Jersey Boys” is a theatrical marvel that enhances the music and lives of the Four Seasons
Frankie Valli sums up in a speech on stage what this group and its songs meant to him.
“The first time we made that sound — our sound– when everything dropped away and all there was, was the music– that was the best.
“That’s why I’m still out there singing. Chasing the music. Trying to get home.”
