The Boys from the Jersey Alleyways Strike a High Note
The music of the Four Seasons will always be a very picturesque affair. Singer Frankie Valli has only to open his mouth, and moonlit images of the old-time Italian ghettos of the northeastern United States are conjured in the mind, particularly those of the New York/New Jersey metro area. Director Des McAnuff delivers a realistic story which melds perfectly with Ron Melrose’s spot-on musical direction, with powerful orchestrations by Steve Orich. Imagination isn't required here, such are the vivid scenes executed onstage. One needn't try too hard, to see groups of young men clapping, singing and dancing, around blazing trashcans, on the street-corners of this special place, where the downtrodden millions rose like phoenixes to disseminate their ethnic blood in glittering waves across the cosmopolitan but grimy urban landscape. Frankie Valli's unique, iconic voice peals like a ripe august bell over an ocean of hot tenements, and the hit "Sherry" oozes from the speakers like a sub-modern Romeo and Juliet; we picture a youthful Italian-American, brooding in the summer shadows in the heart of the nighttime apartment complexes, summoning his sweetheart to the balcony, asking her to come out, to dance and be alive in a world now gone forever.
Well, almost forever. Those of you who're plugged in enough to know what's going on in the world will have already been to see the amazing "Jersey Boys", the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. This production depicts that world excellently, capturing the atmospherics of the neighborhoods to such a sharp degree you could be forgiven for forgetting that you were in a theatre. The four band members, all vigorous young men in the prime of their lives, each take turns to tell the story of how they became famous, of the twists and turns of a life both frightening and adventurous. This is old school Italian storytelling, pre-drug era storytelling, that sees old fashioned hoods pulling heists and singing in exciting new bands all at the same time. There's personality clashes and betrayals, omerta, sweat and tears, and the audience is taken on a wild and romantic ride through relatively unchartered territory. Frankie Valli, Nick Massi, and Tommy DeVito, the boys from Jersey, were joined by Bob Gaudio from the multi-storied Bronx when he met the guys after moving to their corner of the Garden State. Tommy DeVito's numerous ventures into the world of the Mob caused bust-ups and turbulence in the evolution of this beautiful musical outfit, and these episodes unfold tantalizingly for the audience, in the form of John Lloyd Young (Valli), J. Robert Spencer (Nick Massi), Christian Hoff (Tommy DeVito), and Daniel Reichard (Bob Gaudio), four actors who could not have been better suited for the roles.
Despite each band member receiving equal billing, Hoff emerges as a kind of dark centerpiece, bringing the shadowy danger of La Cosa Nostra into the picture effortlessly, staining the enchanted streets and alleyways crimson and black. Most of the big tunes are thrown into the mix, and lots of the littler ones, and the blend of action, biography, and music coalesces fabulously in a gritty whorl of artistic destiny.
Catch this wondrous trip into an extinct urban realm, one which was swallowed up by "progress", and which this great production has retrieved from the ashes in the trashcans at the corners of those streets now gone forever. Almost. Catch this amazing production now, and be quick because tickets are scarce, so take this tip and maintain the code of silence, capiche?
