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Storyline: The history of Frankie Valli and the
Four Seasons is presented through a blend of the memories of those who lived
it including lead vocalist Valli, song writer and group member Bob Gaudio
and group member Tommy DeVito. The story is punctuated with performances of
over thirty of the group's songs from best sellers like "Sherry" and "Can't
Take My Eyes Off Of You" to songs early in their career where they were just
the back up group to other lead singers.
There have been many attempts in recent years to use the
catalogue of an established star or group as the score of a Broadway
musical. After all - the common wisdom goes - people already know and
presumably love the music, so half the battle of creating a successful
musical should already be won. Would that it were that simple! Some have
tried to append the catalogue to a story unrelated to the singer or
songwriters who made the songs popular in the first place. That worked for
Mamma Mia! but that confection of a musical was the exception to the
rule of failure that gave us the likes of Good Vibrations (the Beach
Boys) and All Shook Up (Elvis). Others have found success in
something akin to the revue format with Smokey Joe's Cafe (the hits
of songwriters Leiber and Stoller) but more often the effort seems ill fated
as in Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) or even musicals with the name of
the star/subject like Lennon. None, however, found the secret of a
biographical piece of solid dramatic structure punctuated with the
infectious music of the subject - until now.
Neither Marshall Brickman nor Rick Elice had ever written
the book for a Broadway musical before they teamed up to do Jersey Boys.
Brickman had been head writer for Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Elice
had been creative director of a Broadway PR firm. Somehow, they found the
key. It was drama. Jersey Boys may use all the tools of pop and
pizzazz, but the show does so to tell a compelling, dramatically satisfying
story. That may sound simple, but think of the thousands of non-musicals
that set out to tell a compelling, dramatically satisfying story and how few
of them succeed. Add the complexity of using pre-existing songs with lyrics
written with anything but autobiography in mind. Then consider the challenge
of casting.
For the main narrator and group founder Tommy DeVito, the
producers came up with Christian Hoff, who had been a pinball boy in The
Who's Tommy for director Des McAnuff a decade ago, and has toured the
nation in musicals for most of the time since. He brings a confidence based
on that experience to the stage which supports the decision of the Tony
voters to name him best supporting actor in a musical. They also came up
with a talented and impressive cast for all the other roles as well. But
none was as impressive as a young man by the name of John Lloyd Young who
had never appeared on a Broadway stage and who wasn't a singer. He takes the
role of Frankie Valli from innocent youngster with a strange falsetto to
mature professional with complete believability and dramatic intensity,
while also delivering the signature sound of the Four Seasons with magnetic
force. No wonder he took home the Tony Award for best lead actor in a
musical! (He performs six evening performances a week.)
Music by Bob Gaudio. Lyrics by Bob Crewe. Book by
Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. Directed by Des McAnuff. Choreographed by
Sergio Trujillo. Music direction, vocal arrangements and incidental music by
Ron Melrose. Orchestrations by Steve Orich. Fight direction by Steve Rankin.
Design: Klara Zieglerova (set) Jess Goldstein (costumes) Charles LaPointe
(wigs and hair) Michael Clark (projections) Howell Binkley (lights) Steve
Canyon Kennedy (sound). Principal cast: Peter Gregus, Christian Hoff, Mark
Lotito, Daniel Reichard, J. Robert Spencer, John Lloyd Young or Michael
Longoria.
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