Jersey Boys Break into Broadway

Yes there is finally a rational reason to go to Jersey...or at least to the August Wilson Theatre where this season's breakout sensation is finding adoring new fans for yesterdays songs. Jersey Boys, the new musical featuring the story and music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, is an astoundingly bright, energetic, and exhilarating production that effortlessly puts other Juke Box Musicals to shame. .

Jersey Boys is to Jukebox Musical as what the Tony's are to theatre awards; the only one that truly counts. Lennon and Elvis are turning in their grave. Yoko Ono ought to take a few lessons from the Jersey squad on the concept of telling a story through the use of music.

Directed by Des McAnuff (Dracula, 700 Sundays), Jersey Boys vividly tells the tale of how four men from Jersey would come to be one of the most recognizable and distinguishable sounds of their day. Scriptwriters Marshall Brickman and Rick EliceFrom have constructed straight forward plotlines that take the audience on a journey through the bands struggles, rise, breakup, reunion and everything in between.

The talented cast consists of Robert Spencer as Nick Massi; Christian Hoff as Tommy DeVito; John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli; and Daniel Reichard as Bob Gaudio. As The Four Seasons was Frankie's band in the eyes of the world, Jersey Boys is in deed Young's show. From the instant his voice cuts into Silhouettes, the audience falls in love with the new young commotion.

Stranger things have happened, but a strange paradox of magical adventures and impermanent memory loss has been occurring on a nightly basis at the August Wilson Theatre.

The stage is a church, Lloyd Young is a Bishop, and Frankie Valli is God. When listening to a sermon at the Sunday Mass, its more likely than not people are not taken over with emotion and lose sight of who and where they are. They don't believe the preacher is God. If only the same concept was true for Jersey Boys. John Lloyd young is not Frankie Valli, but don't attempt to tell the audience that.

Where's that invisible voice that we all hear before the performance begins, warning us of proper theatre etiquette. Somebody should have him announce that John Lloyd is not Frankie Valli! The sensation of seeing a theatre full of people young and old, rise to their feet during the show (not the finale), screaming, singing, dancing in the aisles for the voice the world fell in love with 40 years ago is without a doubt the most mesmerizing moment that you could ever experience during a Broadway show.

The beauty of the story telling, the remembered catchy tunes, and the other talented cast members (especially Christian Hoff), don't come close to the overall experience that Jersey Boys has to offer. It's the 1960's again, we're all watching American Bandstand, and the Four Seasons are younger, fresher, and hipper than ever. This is the beauty of Jersey Boys. This is the Tony Award calling.

What are you waiting for? Your time machine awaits.