Far too often, when I hear the synopsis of a Broadway musical, I'm underwhelmed. Then I go and see said musical, and it turns out to be great. Take Wicked for example. I'd heard it was good, but a musical about the story of Oz before Dorothy's farmhouse touched down? Sounded iffy to me. As it turned out, Wicked was spectacular.
I should have used that experience to silence the doubting voices in my head, but there they were again as I took my mother-in-law to see Jersey Boys. I mean, come on; a musical about Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons... weren't there better rock and roll acts to make a musical out of? It's not that I'm not a Four Seasons fan, but rather, aside from some of the band's major hits, I'm largely ignorant of the group's history. While learning more about a musical act is always intriguing, I was skeptical.
I should have known better.
Jersey Boys tells the story of the rise of The Four Seasons in a very creative way. The musical is divided up into four parts, one for each season, and each of the four original members get to tell their side of the story. We see the moody, yet driven Tommy DeVito (played by Nicolas Dromard) pull a young Frankie Valli (Nick Cosgrove) on stage for the first time and, as a result, finds the missing piece of the group he envisions will get him out of the Jersey slums. We see the group add Bob Gaudio (Jason Kappus) as a new member, which leads to stardom when Gaudio's songwriting and Valli's angelic voice start mixing. We also see bassist Nick Massi (Brandon Andrus), the self-described "Ringo" of the group, quietly drowning in self-doubt. Most of all though, we get the story with a heavy dose of Jersey attitude. The cursing in Jersey Boys rivals a Scorsese film, and we see that sometimes stardom isn't all it's cracked up to be. But when the boys sing a hit like "Walk Like a Man" or "Sherry Baby," something magical happens. I don't know how long it took to find someone who both resembled Frankie Valli physically and vocally, but Cosgrove absolutely nailed every high note at Tuesday night's performance. As the quiet member of the group, Andrus makes Nick Massi the show's comic relief, especially in a scene where Massi lets go and rants about sharing a hotel room with DeVito.
The entire story is told on a sparsely decorated stage that features a couple of staircases and a balcony/catwalk, and at times parts of the orchestra is onstage, including a drummer on a riser that moved about the stage, hitting its marks as well as the actors did. I was particularly impressed by the way the cast re-created scenes from American Bandstand and The Ed Sullivan Show, playing onstage for prop television cameras at one angle while a huge screen over the stage showed what TV viewers were seeing. We are also introduced to a young Joe Pesci, who was apparently instrumental in helping form The Four Seasons before moving on to acting.
It was an amazing piece of storytelling, and even if you aren't necessarily into The Four Seasons you'll likely be entertained. One of the musical's climactic scenes, which involves the song "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" features a six-piece horn section on the catwalk driving home the song's iconic bridge while Cosgrove once again owns the part of Valli.
I ended up having a blast at Jersey Boys, and if the experience taught me one thing, it was that I'm definitely not cut out to speculate the success of Broadway musicals.
Jersey Boys runs through November 10 at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center. Click here for tickets.
