Last night, Carolyn and I became two of the last hundred people in America to see Jersey Boys, the smash Broadway musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. A touring company is parked up at the Pantages in Hollywood for a while and while we both enjoyed it, I did get the feeling that it was, you know, the touring company — and not the first or second one. In fact, this isn't even the first touring company of Jersey Boys to play the Pantages.
In the men's room after, I overheard the sentence, "You should have seen it in New York" in two separate conversations. I noticed later that we were seeing understudies in the two biggest roles — Frankie Valli and Tommy DeVito.
But hey, it's a solid story with great songs — songs that for the most part, you love before you even buy your tickets. It's the kind of show where people walk into the theater humming the score. As long as those four guys up there can sound reasonably like the records, it oughta work…and it did, though I'll bet other casts get closer.
That's as negative as I want to get about a group of actors who worked their butts off on that stage doing what is clearly not an easy show to get through. The whole company did a fine job. So many of the actors doubled, tripled, quadrupled and I'm sure even quintupled that they seemed like a cast of thousands up there.
The audience cheered it all and I noticed among the folks who were the right age to love The Four Seasons, a surprising number of kids. It's a good entry-level musical for young teens who can handle some strong language. Am I glad I went? Absolutely. My only regret is I didn't go a few years sooner.