The hit jukebox musical “Jersey Boys” begins with a foreshadowing on two levels.
With an ebullient rendition of the French hip-hop “Ces-soirées la”, the 2000 international hit adaptation of “December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)” we see just how big Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons become after their humble origins—the story we’re about to watch unfold. And oh, what a night it is at Farmers Alley Theatre for the audience.
“Jersey Boys” hit Broadway in 2005 and its staying power as a jukebox musical—or, as Director Kathy Mulay insists, a play with music, because “the songs are added to enhance the drama, not to create it”—has everything to do with the popularity and familiarity of those indelible songs that are deep within our collective consciousness. It’s also a well-told, revelatory biopic for the stage, a compelling documentary-style story of how four guys from New Jersey became one of the most successful pop bands in history.
The story, with book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, is structured as the spring, summer, fall, and winter of the band’s evolution with the four members each narrating a season, because “everybody remembers it how they need to,” as guitarist Tommy DeVito (Brandon Ruiter) says, and “some things are being left out,” says bassist Nick Massi (Seth K. Hale) when he steps in.
Together with front man Frankie Valli (Nick Petrelli) and song writer/keyboardist Bob Gaudio (Austin Mirsoltani), they form a brotherhood with “the neighborhood”, the time and place from which they emerged, as a character and cultural driving force. They’re Italian-Americans and the mob, gambling, prison, women as peripheral yet a nagging desire, and personal code are nearly as crucial to their story as the music.
And the music, of course, is excellent. These lasting songs (music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe), the soundtrack of the Baby Boomers’ glory days, come to life with terrific energy and style from a wonderful cast under Director Kathy Mulay’s inspired vision and careful attention to detail as well as Chris Gray’s fine music direction. Denene Mulay Koch’s choreography perfectly captures the era and the band, heightening the live concert appeal of the numbers.
Those practically impossible-not-to-sing-a-long to numbers include “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, “Walk Like a Man”, “Rag Doll”, “Bye, Bye Baby (Baby Goodbye)”, “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You”, among many fabulous others.
Every actor gives a virtuoso performance, and in addition to the four downright charming leads who fully embody distinct characters as well as sing and dance as if they were the Four Seasons themselves, nine other actors (Dwight L. Trice Jr., Brian Panse, Mitch Voss, Sam VanKampen, Nate Hermen, Steve Brubaker, Kiara Sylvie Durbin, Sydney Harrison, and Hannah Leah Weinraub) each play a true-to-life central character as well as many other roles extraordinarily well, moving set pieces on and off the stage, creating lightning-quick, seemingly effortless scene changes, giving the two-and-a-half hour show terrific pacing as well as texture and deeper meaning as it joyfully flies by.
The way they make use of the intimate space of Farmers Alley Theatre also makes this particular “Jersey Boys” so compelling. The performers are up close and personal, so much so that you can see if not feel the sweat on their brows.
Scenic Designer Jason Frink created a turntable center stage that literally looks like a record spinning, and the spaces on and around that turntable transform into dramatically different places and scenes, from night clubs to restaurants to home kitchens and hotel rooms to the recording studio and the Ed Sullivan show set, to name a few, with help from cartoonish projections on cut-out city skylines stage right and left by Catherine Frink. Kathy Mulay’s marvelous, colorful period costumes also influence mood and character and change in a flash. As does the beautiful lighting design by Lanford J. Potts that shapes the action, from huge concerts to intimate settings, and with patterns and gorgeous combinations of colors hints at the changing seasons unfolding.
Farmers Alley’s “Jersey Boys” offers a creative vision of this beloved show and is sure to please its devoted fans as well as those who simply appreciate excellent live theatre. And tickets are selling so well they’ve already extended the run. Don’t wait to reserve your seats if you want to look forward to singing “Oh, what a night!” and mean it.
Jersey Boys
Farmers Alley Theatre
Sept. 19-Oct. 13
farmersalleytheatre.com
