Tag Archives: American Italians from New Jersey

Bada Bing Bada Boom, here’s the review of Jersey Boys

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Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons
Jersey Boys AKA Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons

Quite simply stated, Jersey Boys is one of the best audio/visual things I’ve ever experienced. The way more than apt individual who wrote/programmed the set-design/lighting hit a bases-loaded, home-run with me. The set design itself, in terms of walls, furniture, stage-lighting etc. was gorgeous, if not remarkable, but there’s another facet to the design. Large 1/4-stage size? planes of light at the back of the stage changed colors and danced to the music, in fact the phrase that came to mind was that the planes of light were the fifth instrument. For those of you – and you know who you are – the fifth instrument refers to 50s – 60s rock and roll groups that usually had only four instruments: Drums, bass-guitar, lead-guitar and rhythm-guitar. Often the planes of light were big blocks of artist’s blue.

The only iffy thing for me was that there was not one out of four, of the lead-actors in the show, with an Italian surname. In fact I recall only two or three Italian names in the entire cast of 20-30. And this is a musical about basically five or six American Italians from New Jersey. Having said that, the players that played the Jersey Boys couldn’t have been better. Not attempting to mimic or copy Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons’ voices, they just did their own thing, and their thing was good, very good.

The music was loud – good loud – and was note perfect. There was a drum set center-stage, rear and it was working throughout the night. It was difficult to determine what other – if any – instruments were plugged in as most of the soundtrack was prerecorded. If I’m wrong please let me know. It was a bit unsettling to discover the recorded soundtrack, but I got over it and really enjoyed the show.

All the great recordings from Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, starting with SHERRY were performed with great skill and expertise. And maybe, with great respect – I’m speaking of the viewpoint of the story writers.

“Jersey Boys is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is a documentary-style musical, based on one of the most successful 1960s rock ‘n roll groups, the Four Seasons. The musical opened on Broadway in 2005, and has since had a North American National Tour, along with productions in London’s West End, Las Vegas, Chicago, Toronto, Melbourne, Sydney, Philadelphia, Auckland and currently in Brisbane. Jersey Boys won four 2006 Tony Awards including Best Musical.’

Marshall Brickman
“was a member of the folk trio The Tarriers in the late 50s, with Eric Weissberg and actor Alan Arkin. He played Bluegrass guitar on the 1963 album New Dimensions in Banjo and Bluegrass with Weissberg;” “this was later reissued as Dueling Banjos, a pseudo-soundtrack album for Deliverance in 1973. (The title track was the only piece that was actually used in the film.) IMdB;” “he sang with John Phillips and Michelle Phillips in The New Journeymen before they split off to become 1/2 of the Mamas and the Papas He was an American screenwriter, best known for his collaborations with Woody Allen. He is also known for playing the banjo with Eric Weissberg in the 1960s, and for a series of comical parodies published in The New Yorker.” – Wikipedia. Makes you wonder!!!

Rick Elice
“Elice earned his BA from Cornell University, his MFA from the Yale Drama School and is a Teaching Fellow at Harvard. He was the salutatorian graduate of Francis Lewis High School in Queens, New York (class of 1973). He is a charter member of the American Repertory Theatre. His partner is actor Roger Rees.”

Bob Crew comes out as the big winner/mover and shaker, record producer/song writer, ain’t it always so.

Get to the theater.

Jersey Boys
Buell Theatre
Denver, CO 80204

Tickets/Tours
303.893.4100 | 800.641.1222
TTY: 303.893.9582
Hours: 10am-6pm Mon-Sat

Live Support
Speak with a real person seven days a week.
1 – 888 – 546 – 8561

“Times for ‘Jersey Boys’ are at 7:30 PM from Tuesdays to Sundays. Matinee performances are at 2 PM on weekends with a special matinee on August 9, Thursday, at 2 PM.”

Box Office, Theatres, Seawell Grand Ballroom Speer & Arapahoe
Drop off location 14th & Curtis St.

Check out another post about The Jersey Boys