PROVIDENCE -- The Tony Award winning Jersey Boys slammed the Providence Performing Arts Center with all the familiar tunes of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and pulled the curtain back on what it was like growing up in a band and an industry that can eat you up and spit you out -- just like that.
The musical covered a lot of ground from the group’s eventual formation as the Four Seasons -- named after a bowling alley where they gigged -- in the late 60’s and up to 1990, when the original foursome was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jersey Boys is presented to the audience in four parts: spring, summer, fall and winter. Each part begins with a prologue from one member of the group.
Jersey Boys opened in New York on Nov. 5, 2005 and by the time it closed over 11 years later, it was the 12th longest running show in Broadway history. It returned with a new production in 2017 and played at PPAC as part of the theater’s Encore Series.
The 2 hour and 35 minute production crammed in a lot of songs and story, but nothing felt rushed. The scenes flowed into one another effortlessly taking the audience through a wide range of emotions.
The audience delighted when Frankie Valli (played by Courter Simmons on Friday night) launched into “Sherry”, the group’s first number one hit.
The audience cringed when they learned founding member Tommy DeVito (played by Corey Greenan) ran up $500K in gambling and loan shark debts.
The audience giggled when the group’s primary songwriter Bob Gaudio (played by Eric Chambliss) lost his virginity during “December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)” and his bandmates poked particular fun at the line “it ended much too soon.”
The audience empathized with the group’s bass player and singer Nick Massi (played by Jonathan Cable) when he wanted to leave the group simply because he missed being home.
The Jersey Boys is not for the faint of heart. Anyone thinking they are going to see the glitz and glamour and fame and fortune of this wildly popular group better get ready to cover their ears. Growing up in Jersey is a culture all to itself, but throw in the unimaginable struggles of trying to break into the music business and having song after song rejected -- well then, you’re in for quite a few drops of the F-bomb and other lethal language.
Musicians will tell you they have two families -- home life and the band. And juggling the two can be a backbreaking task. The Four Seasons’ members go through marriage, divorce, bouts of infidelity, loss of a daughter to a drug overdose, hit records, guest spot on the Ed Sullivan Show, long days on the road, missing home, and countless reinventions.
There are 33 songs in the show, including 5 #1 hits and 11 songs that made the Billboard’s top ten. Simmons portrayal of Frankie Valli was not a karaoke version of the performer’s vocal range from tenor to extreme falsetto, but a genuine singing tribute to the hits “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man”, and “Rag Doll’.
Most of the group’s hits were written by Bob Gaudio and their producer/lyricist, Bob Crewe.
All four performers stood equally on their own as individual members of the group, and came together as one with perfect harmonies when singing the songs that made the Four Seasons famous.
The audience rose to its feet at the “Who Loves You” curtain call.
And we all wish we could have stayed “just a little bit longer.”