You may not love him, you may not like him, you may not even be able to stand his famous falsetto whine. But if you’re Gen X or older and even passingly familiar with the progress of Top 40 music in the 20th century, you damn well know his voice. In the pre-Beatles 1960s, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons were rivaled only by The Beach Boys in terms of record sales. “Sherry”, “Walk Like a Man”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry” — the hits just kept on coming straight on into the ‘70s.
Not surprisingly, the story of those four Jersey boys goes deeper than their disposable pop. And although Jersey Boys isn’t able to extract much pathos from their lives, patrons who are on board for a nostalgia trip probably won’t notice.
Factual as it may be, the plot of Jersey Boys is a rock ‘n’ roll cliché (even if The Four Seasons ain’t rock ‘n’ roll (even if they’re in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame)): childhood pals form a band, rocket to the top of the charts and indulge in the usual excesses, which leads to the breakup of the numerous relationships and the band itself.
With at least parts of 34 — count ‘em: 34 — songs in Jersey Boys, there’s not much time for character development. Tommy (Anthony Carro) is the founder and fuck-up. Nick (Grant Hodges) flies under the radar, as bass players often do. Bob (Taubert Nadalini) is the sweet wunderkind and total pro. And although Frankie (Nicholas Alexander) is the closest thing we get to a full-fledged person, we come away knowing little more about him than his drive and loyalty.
But Jersey Boys exists because of the music they made together, and seeing them do it is the best thing about this show even if you’re not a fan (full disclosure: I’m not). The highlight comes in Act One when the boys get their big break on American Bandstand and perform “Sherry”. Director T.J. Dawson cleverly starts this number out with the band performing in profile to the audience, playing to the cameras and crew at stage right. This looks so good — composition, lighting, the whole shebang — that they could have done the whole song this way. But almost before we know it the band is facing us for the remainder without ever losing the contextual continuity. It’s such a neat trick that we don’t mind seeing it again five minutes later.
Unfortunately, Dawson doesn’t really have any new ones up his sleeve for Act Two, where the highlight is “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You”, if for no other reason than because it’s the song that everyone in the audience — even the young’uns — know (and probably love). This would crash and burn without a proper voice casting for Valli — and God knows these aren’t songs just any ol’ good singer can handle. But Alexander is absolutely equal to the task for everything from the early screechy stuff that one must admit is fairly unique in music history to the more sedate stylings of ‘70s hits such as “My Eyes Adored You”. Carro, Hodges, and Nadalini are just as good with their harmonies. They really sound — and act — like a real band.
Although bringing a drummer (uncredited) onstage for numerous songs makes the performances more interesting, because this is the only additional musician we ever see (at least until a horn section enters for “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” in the final 15 minutes), one might think he’s a fifth member that the rest of The Four Seasons ignore. Had Dawson more fully trusted the instinct to have him onstage so much by also bringing in other musicians — especially when the boys are in the studio, where various production touches (especially handclaps) make these paper-thin tunes slightly more substantial — we’d have more variety in an overall presentation that suffers from redundancy.
Re presentation, mise-en-scène is never the problem. Stephen Gifford’s set designs are especially effective, particularly in terms of how quickly we are transported from one physical space to another. What was problematic on opening night was the sound — not for the music, which was great, but the dialog. Although the tech crew was able to remedy the midrange hum that accompanied almost everything Tommy said during the first 10 minutes (and he’s our first and main narrator, so that was a big problem), they never figured out how to stop just about every mic (including his) from regularly dropping out for a couple of seconds, usually just when a character started speaking. I presume this won’t plague the entire run — certainly I’d never experienced this at a Musical Theatre West show — but it was puzzling how such a huge issue could persist past tech week.
Shortcomings aside, there’s no doubt that Jersey Boys is a crowd-pleaser for anyone willing to pay the price of admission to willingly subject themselves to this music. And considering that The Four Seasons have sold over 100 million records, there’s plenty of you out there.
Jersey Boys at Musical Theatre West
Times: Fri 8pm, Sat 2pm & 8pm, Sun 1pm; plus Thurs, Feb 20, at 8pm and Sun, Feb 23, at 6pm
The show runs through March 2.
Cost: starting at $20
Details: (562) 856-1999, musical.org
Venue: Carpenter Performing Arts Center (6200 W. Atherton, Long Beach)