By Claudia Carbone
The hit musical Jersey Boys returned to Denver November 9 for the fourth time. It will run through November 13.
More than 13 million people have seen the toe-tappin’ hand clappin’ award-winning musical about the career of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons that spanned the decade of the 60s. Now Denver audiences get to see it again, this time with two Colorado boys in the touring cast. Arapahoe High School grad Matthew Daily plays Tommy DeVito and Pamona High graduate Andrew Russell plays several characters. Both young men weren’t born when the Four Seasons were the top vocal group of the era.
Those of us who were will love this nostalgic romp through 60s hit songs like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man,” the band’s first three consecutive hits that topped the Billboard charts. A total of 33 songs are in the show, including favorites “Oh, What a Night,” “Stay,” “Bye Bye Baby,” “Let’s Hang On,” “Who Wears Short Shorts” and “My Eyes Adored You.”
This ultra slick performance is entertaining from the get-go when Tommy DiVito steps on stage and tells the audience how he “found” a young Frankie Castelluccio (Aaron De Jesus) at age 16 and how the group got their start by playing in clubs “in places you fly over on the way to Nevada.” In the early years, the Italian boys from New Jersey called themselves The Four Lovers, The Romans, and finally the Four Seasons after seeing a sign for the Four Seasons Lounge. Frankie changed his name to Valli and became the lead singer with his strong falsetto voice.
The show is part narrative, part acting and a whole lot of singing and dancing. The transitions are seamless, and big blocks of illustrations and changing color in the background coordinate with the storyline like a mood ring.
The story unfolds as each of the four band members takes a turn at narrating his perspective of the career representing one of the four seasons. DiVito starts with spring and the young lads’ punk beginnings. Bob Gaudio (Cory Jeacoma), who was the fourth member to complete the group when it launched and its songwriter along with producer Bob Crewe (Barry Anderson), narrates summer symbolizing the height of their success. In the second act, Nick Massi (Keith Hines) in the fall sequence tells of troubles the band ran into due to DiVito’s increasing debt to the mob and a strained relationship between DiVito and Gaudio. Winter has Valli explaining that Massi left the group and how Valli broke out as a single — Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons — with the hits “You’re Just Too Good to Be True” and “Working My Way Back to You” and the sadness in his life when his daughter dies of a drug overdose.
In the final scene, the group is reunited at the 1990 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Two of the original Four Seasons group have passed away: Nick Massi who died of cancer on Christmas Eve in 2000 at 73 and producer/ songwriter Bob Crewe who died in 2014 at age 83.
This musical is one you don’t want to end. In fact, it carries on with the audience dancing in their seats until the final last note.
Oh, What a Night!
Jersey Boys was written by Academy Award winner Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and choreography by Sergio Trujillo. Director is Tony-Award-winning Des McAnuff.
This show runs about two hours and 35 minutes with a 20-minute intermission. It is not recommended for children younger than 12 due to offensive “Jersey” language. For tickets, visit www.denvercenter.org or call 303-893-4100.
Colorado native Claudia Carbone is an award-winning journalist based in Denver. She is a contributor to ColoradoGrandparent.com as well as other magazines and websites.