Jersey Boys

What can you say about seeing a Tony 'Best Musical' Award winner for the first time?  It deserved the Tony?  It didn't?  Based on my first time viewing of Jersey Boys last night, it deserved the Tony.  Definitely!

Sets were cleanly managed, lighting impressive and very effective.  The leads for the Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio characters were replaced by understudies in last nights show, which might have taken a bit of the edge from the evening's show.  Courter Simmons' interpretation of Valli was winning however I thought his singing ability was not quite up to the very challenging role.  Miles Aubrey's (I couldn't find a web page on him with much information) Gaudio was excellent.  As an ensemble, the four seasonal (ahem) performers were dazzling.  Yes, the Civic's acoustics still sucked rocks but what're you gonna do?

I grew up listening to the music of the Four Seasons.  The songs of these boys from "Joisey" formed cornerstones of what was to become a lifelong love of male singing voices.  To learn of the group's backstory through these songs was educational and touching although I'm sure some poetic license was taken in the presentation.  While much criticism has been hurled at the 'jukebox musical' format, I thought this show demonstrates its value.  A too cute and too clever approach to presenting a plot perhaps, but when Valli sang My Eyes Adored You to his wife just after they divorced, it brought a tear to quite a few eyes.

If audience reaction is your measure of a show's success, then Jersey Boys was a triumph.  Tremendous applause and shouted praises followed nearly every number, some folks bounced along with the music in their seats (as did the late 50's gal and her husband in the seats to my right), and more than once the show simply stopped and waited for the uproar to settle down to a manageable level.  It was evident that the cast was touched by this reception (particularly in this week of high environmental drama) and gave an extra ounce of effort.  If there's a magic to musical theater, this is it.

Bottom line, Jersey Boys ranks in my personal top 5 shows seen this year (and there have been quite a few!).