Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Jersey Boys tour, Orange County Performing Arts Center (2007)
Cast: Erich Bergen (Bob Gaudio), Steve Gouveia (Nick Massi), Christopher Kale Jones (Frankie Valli), Deven May (Tommy DeVito)
For complete info on the tour, see the Jersey Boys tour site. Tickets are pretty much sold out at the OCPAC except for Thanksgiving day, in spite of all the ads they're wasting their money to air.
Friends who had seen Jersey Boys were disappointed it was even nominated for Best Musical, winning it went beyond annoying for them. They said that the show was basically a Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons conver band concert with a lot of swearing. While I'd agree there's a lot of swearing and that the show is essentially a cover band, there is a story (told by all four members of the Four Seasons, in turn) and I found it pretty interesting. Would I rush out to see Jersey Boys again? No. Would I turn down free tickets? No. It's somewhere in between.
I certainly don't think Jersey Boys deserved to win the Best Musical Tony Award in 2006. I've seen 2 of the other 3 shows that were nominated (The Drowsy Chaperone and The Wedding Singer). I thought both of these shows were better than Jersey Boys, but I still really enjoyed the show. Perhaps it was the low expectations, but the guy I went with said he was going to assume the best and he enjoyed the show, too. Neither of us knew anything about the forming of The Four Seasons or any of the guys in the group, so it was interesting to hear their versions of how the group was formed.
I still don't think Jersey Boys deserves all the hype or the sold out audiences everywhere, but I'm glad that a show is doing well. Always a good sign for theatre as a whole and I'm a huge fan of the theatre!
Grade: BLabels: Best Musical, comedy, drama, musical, tour