JERSEY BOYS,A Review-Fantastic-WOW

I just got back from seeing the Broadway Production of Jersey Boys and loved every minute of it. For those of you who may not be familiar with the show, it is the story of the Four Seasons singing group featuring Frankie Valli. You remember such hits as "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man" and many many others. I have always been a Four Seasons fan ever since they first came out and still have their albums from then ,but this brought out some facts I never knew about them. In a recent interview Bob Gaudio says this is exactly the way it happend. It's like seeing them in concert only not just the current songs, but their whole life from start to the current day.

The whole show is divided into four parts or "seasons"of course. Spring is their beginnings where they meet each other, Summer is their careers taking off and at the top of their careers, Fall is the beginning of their demise and Winter is their break up and Frankie going solo.

I particularly liked the way the actors portraying Nick Massi, Tommy Devito ,Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio would step out of their time period and address you, the audience, as to what is going on. For Instance: Tommy Devito standing in front of a back drop of Power lines, Water Towers and Telephone poles typical of New Jersey, says to the audience in his best Guido accent, "There are only three ways to get out of New Jersey 1)Join the army,2) Get mobbed up and 3) Become a star." Getting mobbed up or at least involved with the mob and becoming a star plays big role in their lives. I never realized that Tommy was a driving force behind the group with his extreme ego driven, outspoken, don't tell me what to do type of attitude. He discovers Frankie and makes him a featured performer in his band. Later on Frankie befriends Bob Gaudio who is a genius in writing songs and very smart and intelligent. Tommy is reluctant to hire him,but at the insistance of Frankie he does. Thus the feud of egos and intelligence takes over. When Bob is in a bar talking with one of the local girls he quotes a line from a famous philosopher to which she replies, "You're not from around here are you."
I also loved the way they segued into each song. At one point Bob Gaudio addresses the audience saying he once saw a movie where actor John Payne slaps a girl across the face and says ,"How does that feel?" She replies,"Big girls don't cry." At that point they go into that famous song. Many of the other songs also had segues like that which made it outstanding. I also liked the references to their neighborhoods of Bellville ,Bloomfield and Newark which is my area now. They got their name from a bowling alley called The Four Seasons in Newark, N.J.

Later on they meet up with Record producer Bob Crewe. I always knew of him from seeing his name on all their albums, but I never knew he was this flaming gay guy. Frankie turns to the audience and says, "Bob was different, but this was a time when people thought Liberace was theatrical."

The play is a brilliant masterpiece and covers forty years of their career. It wasn't all a bed of roses, in fact it was one hell of a roller coaster ride. There is Tommy owing a $150,000 debt to his mob friends and a half million in back taxes, there's Frankie splitting from his wife and later his teen age daughter running away and dying from a drug overdose, Nick Massi threatening to quit and start his own group repeatedly and Frankie and Bob Gaudio agreeing to go solo with him writing and Frankie performing. Throughout all this the songs are there done to perfection as we remember them. "Can't Take MyEyes Off of You," "Oh What a Night," "Dawn Go Away" and many more favorites thathad the audience cheering and applauding. When Nick finally leaves the group after acting peculiar and disgusted and frustrated to them he turns to the audience and says, "You sell a hundred million records and see how you handle it."

Nick Massi died on Dec. 24th 2000 of cancer in a Newark hospital. Frankie mentions about him in the play and the play ends with Frankie, Bob and Tommy re-joining at the Rock n Roll hall of fame a few years ago. Tommy is currently living in Los Angeles where the mob can keep an eye on him and writting his memoirs. Frankie is still performing with Bob Gaudio,""I'm like that energizer bunny," he says,"I keep going and going." You don't have to come to New York to see Jersey Boys as there are many road showings of it throughout the country.You can find them on the link I'm enclosing here. :)

I'm enclosing a link to the Jersey Boys website. Click where it says Media then when streaming video comes up click on the two small pics in the upper left hand corner to see some performances and songs. Enjoy. :)

http://www.jerseyboysinfo.com/broadway/