October 20, 2013
Jersey Boys musical is currently performing at Uihlein Hall Marcus Center For The Performing Arts in Milwaukee, WI through October 27, 2013.
Buy Jersey Boys Milwaukee WI Tickets Online!
Jersey Boys sings a definitively American tune – Reviewed BY Mike Fischer, Special to the Journal Sentinel
Late in “Jersey Boys,” the musical about the Four Seasons now back at the Marcus Center, Frankie Valli sums up his life by telling us he’s “still chasing the music, trying to get home.”
The strategic choice to showcase Valli’s disconnect between where he is and the place he’d like to be — in a hard-lived life where music both separates him from home and holds out the promise he’ll get there — tells us a great deal about why “Jersey Boys” has been so successful.
Yes, the harmonies in all those well-loved hits are still amazing and faithfully reproduced here, in a show that satisfies every nostalgic twinge by refusing to tinker with what already works.
Even as Frankie and his mates were reaching for heaven with their distinctive sound, “Jersey Boys” never lets us forget that their personal lives featured jail time, mob ties and broken marriages. Both the songs as well as this show reflect a long string of exits featuring wives, girlfriends and daughters, as well as friends, band mates and business associates.
Hence the decision by book writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice to use the four seasons of the year as a frame, with each band member taking one and telling a different version of their collective story. For despite the timeless sound that the Four Seasons achieved together, their history unfolds in time, ruthlessly marching on and running down.
Appropriately, brash Tommy DeVito goes first as “Spring,” when it’s easiest for us to mask what’s selfish and cruel as youthful capers and headstrong pranks. As Tommy, Nicolas Dromard makes clear that if Tommy is a goofy clown, he’s also a bullying lout who struts like a rooster but never learns to walk like a man.
Bob Gaudio — the missing piece this group sorely needed — handles “Summer.” Jason Kappus plays him as a sunnier version of Frankie himself, traveling the same road from innocence to experience without the accompanying heartbreak. Like the season he embodies, Kappus offers light and humor as an antidote to some of this show’s darker moments.
As bassist Nick Massi, Brandon Andrus captures the color and underlying sadness of autumn. Andrus’ quirky, deadpan comedy is already baked into his role. But Andrus also captures the melancholy that’s just beneath the surface, in a man who knows the end is coming and is too tired to stop it.
“Jersey Boys” is a quintessentially American story about a dream we’re all chasing, one song at a time.
Read the complete review {Via JSOnline.com}
Tickets are selling fast for Jersey Boys performances at Marcus Center. Click here to Buy Jersey Boys Milwaukee WI Tickets NOW!
March 1, 2013
The Jersey Boys Musical national tour currently performing at Hershey Theatre through March 03, 2013. David N. Dunkle reviewed the musical at PennLive.com. Here is the review:
Although billed as a “jukebox musical,” the show offers relatively few complete songs by the Four Seasons, a pop group out of New Jersey that scored a string of memorable hits during the 1960s. Many of their memorable hits are truncated or split into two or more parts in favor of “Rashomon”-style exposition about the group’s undeniably interesting back story.
It’s an interesting tale of a band’s rise to fame, as it evolved from the so-so Four Lovers into the high-flying Four Seasons, but eases into repetitiveness as each original member takes his turn telling his version of the group’s highs and lows. Forward momentum is maintained through a narrational gimmick that divides the show into four “seasons.”
There’s no real depth here, though there are some heartfelt moments, as when Valli mourns the death of his daughter. Many scenes resemble a seres of greetings-from-the-shore postcards featuring the group’s highs and lows. The standout in the early going is Colby Foytik’s charming portrayal of Tommy DeVito, a fast-talking, quick-tempered Jerseyite who was the driving force behind the group’s formation.
All in all, “Jersey Boys” is a mixed bag that sometimes drags a little but manages to charm audiences anyway. The relationships may be thinly sketched at times, and the downsizing of some classic songs is a bit troubling, but when the lights stay on this is an award-winning show with a good heart that always seems to draw a crowd.
Read the complete review {Via PennLive Blog}
Jersey Boys performances in Hershey Pennsylvania through Sunday, March 03, 2013. Buy Jersey Boys Hershey Theatre Tickets Online at discounted prices, SAVE $10 when you spend $350+ by using code AFF$10.
December 8, 2012
Jersey Boys Musical is currently performing at Orpheum Theatre TN through December 16, 2012. Jon W. Sparks reviewed the musical at CommercialAppeal.com. Here is the review:
“Jersey Boys” is making a return engagement to the Orpheum, bringing the memorable tunes of The Four Seasons and enough sharp writing and storytelling to make the production more than a collection of hits.
Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice wrote the book, and their approach and style make all the difference. They found the story of the rise, peak and breakup of the group to be compelling and they gave it a Rashomon-like narrative, with each of the four members telling their own version of the tale.
The result is a story arc with changing perceptions, but with plenty of the songs that to this day have that pure pop appeal; the group has sold 175 million records, after all. For a production with so many songs, however, there is a lot of dialogue, and it is as catchy as the tunes.
The performers are fine, conveying plenty of energy and wit. The arrangements are carefully re-created from the original and not “Broadwayed up,” as Elice puts it, so what you hear is what you heard on the radio back in the day. The singing reminds us of the groups’ vocals but doesn’t quite replicate them, and sometimes the punch is missing.
And while the music is pleasantly pop and OK for any ears, be advised that the language used by those boys from New Jersey gets pretty rough. A warning in the lobby advises that “Flashing strobe lights, loud gunfire and authentic, profane, Jersey vocabulary are special effects used in this production …”
Read the complete review {Via CommercialAppeal.com}
Still there are few tickets left for this Broadway Hit musical. Buy Jersey Boys Orpheum Theatre TN Tickets Online at discounted prices, SAVE $10 when you spend $350+ by using code AFF$10.
December 2, 2012
Jersey Boys Musical in Cincinnati OH and is currently performing at Procter & Gamble Hall (Aronoff Center) through December 09, 2012. Jackie Demaline reviewed the musical at communitypress.cincinnati.com. Here is the review:
There are two things that have made bio musical “Jersey Boys” a mega-hit since it opened on Broadway six years ago.
There are the songs, which pushed The Four Seasons to the top of the charts back in the Sixties – “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Oh, What a Night” and many, many more that sold a ka-zillion records.
The other thing? You couldn’t make this story up.
Broadway in Cincinnati presents the smooth-as-silk, entertaining from start-to-finish first national tour at the Aronoff Center through Dec. 9. If you love Sixties music, this is your show.
If you missed “Jersey Boys” in its sold-out Cincinnati debut a couple of years ago, it’s a bio musical that gets everything right in the telling of the rise and falling apart of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.
Tommy DeVito (John Gardiner), Frankie Valli (Nick Cosgrove), Bob Gaudio ((Miles Jacoby) and Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda) each tell a part of the story from their point of view and it’s compelling stuff, interspersed with solid performances of hits, hits, hits – “My Eyes Adored You,” “Stay,” “Let’s Hang On,” “Rag Doll.”
“Jersey Boys” presents the facts of Four Seasons life: playing bowling alleys, brushes with the mob, endless miles on the road, heavy-duty partying, falling in and out of love.
Read the complete review {Via communitypress.cincinnati.com}
Jersey Boys musical tour will be at Procter & Gamble Hall (Aronoff Center) through December 09, 2012. Buy Jersey Boys Cincinnati OH Tickets Online at discounted prices, SAVE $10 when you spend $350+, Use code AFF$10.
June 23, 2012
Jersey Boys second national tour is currently performing at Winspear Opera House and continue through Sunday July 15, 2012. Jersey Boys musical reviewed by Mark Lowry at The the Star-Telegram.
On its second national tour stop in Dallas, this time at the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Winspear Opera House, Jersey Boys is still too good to be true. The 2006 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical, which chronicles the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons — and is packed with their unforgettable music — is playing through mid-July in the Lexus Broadway Series.
And there’s good reason to believe that the show will continue packing the houses for its five-week stop here. That’s partially because the show, a jukebox/bio musical, is better put together than any other example of this genre (the book is by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice; music is by Bob Guadio and Bob Crewe, two of the original Four Seasons).
But more to the point, it’s because the music is so impeccably performed by the foursome in this case, not least of which is Brad Weinstock nailing the booming falsetto voice of Valli.
When they start such songs as Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Dawn (Go Away) and Walk Like a Man, the crowd goes wild.
You might be a little confused in the opening number, though, which shows a contemporary French hip-hop version of Oh, What a Night. That’s to set up the idea that the Seasons’ music has transcended time, geography and style. From there, we get a somewhat chronological look at this story, from the formation of the band in the 1960s, to rising and then wild stardom, and, of course, the fall as members are released (some by their own choice), and then it fast-forwards to a performance at the group’s 1990 induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Read the complete review {Via Star-Telegram.com}
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January 21, 2012
Beau Higgins at BroadwayWorld.com praised Jersey Boys first national tour production at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
Jersey Boys musical, based on the life and careers of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons is thrilling, masterful, and certainly unforgettable. I tossed and I turned remembering magical pieces of stage craft, goose bump inducing performances and everything else that makes up this Tony winning Best Musical; indeed one of the best musicals of all time.
Jersey Boys demonstrates what a juke box musical can be when all the stars align just right and all the professionals are at the top of their game. The audience at the Broward Center last night received Jersey Boys with the wildest pandemonium, seemingly endless cheering, and simply bravo’d the show within an inch of its life. Oh, What A Night, as one of the classic Four Seasons songs of Jersey Boys sings. Oh, what a night, to say the least. Anyone able to attend Jersey Boys and misses it, does so at their own risk. Jersey Boys is one of the greatest musicals of anyone’s lifetime.
Read the complete review {Via BroadwayWorld.com}
Jersey Boys will be performing at Broward Center for the Performing Arts through January 29, 2012. Buy Jersey Boys Fort Lauderdale FL Tickets Online. Use Code AFF$10 to Get $10 OFF on Orders over $350!
October 30, 2011
Andrew Beck at Hartford Arts Examiner says “Jersey Boys offers four seasons of hits in Bushnell production”.
Jersey Boys touring production offers a strong, fluid staging by Des McAnuff and choreographer Sergio Trujillo, with outstanding performances–and memorable vocalizing–by the four young actors playing the world-renown quartet: Joseph Leo Bwarie as the diminutive dynamo with a remarkable vocal range, Franki, Preston Truman Boyd as the steady, talented composer Bob Gaudio, John Gardiner as the hyper, anxious and troubled Tommy DeVito and Michael Lomenda as the laconic Nick Massi.
All the great hits are here, richly sung by the cast and backed with top-notch arrangements, including “Walk Like a Man,” “My Eyes Adored You,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Sherry” “Stay,” “Bye Bye Babie,” “C’mon Marianne,” “Who Loves You,” and “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night),” to name just a few.
Outstanding and exciting as the music is, “Jersey Boys” is no mere jukebox musical. One of its frequently overlooked strengths is its book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (currently represented on Broadway by “The Addams Family.” They tell the story, warts and all, of how the group that would ultimately take the name “The Four Seasons” from a local bowling alley initially came together in suburban New Jersey in the late 1950’s following various failed attempts by DeVito and Valley (as Franki spelled his name at that point) to eke out a living in clubs and lounges.
Read the complete review Via {Examiner.com}
Jersey Boys Musical performances continued at Mortensen Hall Bushnell Theatre run through November 06, 2011 before it moves to Washington, DC performances starting from November 10, 2011. Buy Jersey Boys Hartford CT Tickets Online, Use Code AFF$10 to Get $10 OFF on Orders over $350!
September 11, 2011
Jersey Boys Musical making its Nebraska premiere at the Orpheum Theater in Omaha, is a true story with a soundtrack of recognizable, sing-a-long music.
And it’s a must-see. This isn’t “Mamma Mia” with ABBA’s hit music infused into a piece of fiction.
With a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, “Jersey Boys” is a real story about real people, chronicling the rise of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, including the road bumps along the way such as the death of Valli’s daughter and member Tommy DeVito’s gambling addiction.
Jersey Boys will be performing through September 25, 2011 in Omaha – Schedule:
Saturdays – 2 and 8 p.m.
Sundays – 1 and 6:30 p.m.
Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays – 7:30 p.m.
Fridays – 8 p.m.
The music, of course, is memorable with songs written by Four Seasons keyboardist Bob Gaudio and record producer Bob Crewe, who has a major (and sometimes humorous) role in musical’s story. The score includes “Sherry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Oh, What a Night,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “My Eyes Adore You” and more.
For those unfamiliar with the show, I suggest not looking at the song list beforehand because you’ll discover which song catapulted the Four Season to fame. You also will discover which hit Gaudio and Vallie had trouble selling to record producers and radio DJs. The reveal in both cases was the performances of the songs.
The touring cast is exceptional, sounding just like the Four Seasons. Joseph Leo Bwarie leads the way with a dead-on falsetto of Valli. Matt Bailey (as Devito), Quin VanAntwerp (as Gaudio) and understudy Adam Zelesko (as bassist Nick Massi) also were impressive. The script allows for each band member to shine, letting them to tell the Four Seasons story as they remember it.
Equally impressive was the staging. Directed by Des McAnuff, the musical is fast-paced with more than 25 numbers featured and just as many scene changes. The Jersey Boys Orchestra, led by conductor John Samorian, moved effortlessly on and off stage.
In the end, the story and music are what drives the show. I don’t often see musicals a second time, but this is one I would go to again.
Read the complete review {Via JournalStar.com}
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March 7, 2011
Christine Dolen on Miami Herald.com praises Jersey Boys Musical: Jersey Boys, the Broadway smash that traces the path Valli and his pals took from Newark to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has returned to South Florida two years after it turned the box office at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts into the hottest spot in Fort Lauderdale. Expect the same frenzy during the show’s current run at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, and deservedly so. Jersey Boys is an impressively artful, thrilling piece of musical theater.
With a hit-stuffed score of songs written decades ago by the Four Seasons’ wunderkind composer Bob Gaudio and producer-lyricist Bob Crewe, Jersey Boys is the jukebox musical that sets the artistic standard for anyone wanting to build a show around existing songs
The show’s myriad elements – the revealing script by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, Klara Zieglerova’s scenic design, Howell Binkley’s lighting and Michael Clark’s projections, Jess Goldstein’s costumes, Sergio Trujillo’s dazzling lockstep choreography and Des McAnuff’s fluidly insightful direction – coalesce into a glorious whole. Jersey Boys isn’t just a great jukebox musical: It’s a great musical, period.
Any Four Seasons or Jersey Boys fans who didn’t get enough of the show in Fort Lauderdale will see some familiar faces if they snag a ticket to catch it again at the Arsht.
Part-musical, part-concert and wholly satisfying, Jersey Boys is both fuel for Baby Boomer nostalgia and great 21st century theater.
Read the complete review at MiamiHerald.com
Jersey Boys runs through Sunday, March 20, 2011 at the Adrienne Arsht Center, in Miami FL. Hurry Up for Jersey Boys Miami FL Tickets Online.
December 26, 2010
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, All the Jersey Boys Fans
Even if you are a big music fan, all you might know about The Four Seasons is that Frankie Valli was their lead singer and they had a slew of hits many years ago like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man,” to name a few.
But, if you see “Jersey Boys,” the electrifying Tony Award-winning musical based on the group’s bumpy ride to the top, you might start thinking you witnessed every hit and heartbreak.
Read the complete review – {Via CantonRep.com}
Jersey Boys is currently playing on tour in Boston, MA thru January 30, 2011. From then it is moving to Baltimore, MD February 02 , 2011 playing thru February 27, 2011.
