REVIEW: Jersey Boys

It's been a while my friends.  My bad.  Let me hit you with this review, check it.

Jersey Boys is labeled as being "The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons".  There are a few things you KNOW going into this thing.

1. Everybody says you will love it
2. The music will be very good

Those are givens, but those don't necessarily mean that the musical will be good.  So was it?


You bet your ass it was.  My review of In the Heights was somewhat unstructured, and more of a rant about how stupid the play was.  I still support that contention, because it sucked.  But I think I'm going to review this play a little differently.

I really liked the musical, and like I said, you know the music is going to be good.  But I'm going to start breaking down the categories that make up a musical and reviewing and commenting in that manner.

The Music
This should be obvious already.  This is music from The Four Seasons, including Sherry, and December 1963 (Oh What a Night).  The first act hit most of their music and when you look at the playbill about 75% of the song list occurs in the first act.  The music is fantastic, and their music is great music.  To me, great music is music that was good or great then, and will always remain that way, regardless of style changes.  Their music is classic in the best sense, so if you know them or not, you will really enjoy the music.  But because everyone is so familiar with their music you really need to have the right people singing the music, which brings me to my next portion...

The Cast
Not just anybody can play the part of Frankie Valli, vocally that is.  You really need to have the right voice to hit those notes, and on top of all that, play a somewhat realistic "Jersey Boy".  The cast was excellent, and is anchored by the four main characters.  The four main characters are the four original members of The Four Seasons and how they started their band and became a huge success from the street of Jersey.  The cast was very likeable and could really sing.  I saw this last night, which was November 21, 2009, so you can guage the cast from that night, although the part of Bob Gaudio was played by the understudy, he was still very good.

The Plot
Although the events they could use for the play were already mapped out for the writers, the way it was done was fairly seamless and engaging.  Without giving too much up, the story is about the four original members, and how they become ha-uge, and then how they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.  That the story covers ground from the late 50's, early 60's through to 1995 is amazing.  The musical moves quickly, and is very enjoyable.  One of my favorite parts about the dialogue was that there was no shortage of profanity.  Fuck, that's how I talk, it wouldn't be authentic if these guys from Jersey didn't curse up on stage.  The four main characters each tell their own portion of the story.  In lieu of a curtain hiding the scene change they use a monologue of one of the four main characters at various portions of the musical to bridge certain scenes, adding some extra details that couldn't necessarily fit as a scene.  The musical was very informative, and done really well.  I have nothing but good things to say about this play.

The Set
When I walked in and saw a chain like fence, and the metal stairs and walkway I didn't really know what to think.  I thought, well maybe this is the first set of a few minor set changes.  Most plays these days use a generic set design and add and remove elements to transform the way it is meant to be utilized.  What could have been very peculiar ended up really working.  This set acted as the backdrop to Jersey, various bars, apartments, American Band Stand, and The Ed Sullivan Show.  The set was designed very well, very simple, and worked for what they were doing.  This was one of the elements I was most impressed by.

The Conclusions
There was the right amount of joking, the perfect amount of music, and in the end this was a very informative musical.  A lot (about 95%) of this stuff I didn't even know about.  I knew Frankie Valli was a famous New Jersian, but up until about a decade ago I thought December 1963 (Oh What a Night) was a Billy Joel song.  DEAD WRONG.  The opening scene is one of the funniest I've ever witnessed, especially from the perspective of this band.  I don't want to give it away, but I thought it was great.  I highly recommend seeing this musical.  I received these tickets as a gift, and the tickets were pricey (judging from the number I saw on tickets, and no, it wasn't my seat location), but I still think it's worth it.