Jersey Boys

In recent years, Broadway has seen the debut of a slew of shows based on existing musical acts. There's Mamma Mia!, based on songs from ABBA, and Movin' Out, presenting the Billy Joel catalogue. After all, baby boomers who grew listening to bands from the '60s and '70s are now in their prime earning years, and regularly frequent the theater.

Then again, though these are some of the more popular "jukebox musicals," Good Vibrations and All Shook Up (featuring songs from the Beach Boys and Elvis Presley) certainly demonstrate that having a large fan base doesn't necessarily translate to Broadway success. Personally, I have mixed feelings about writing musicals around a pre-existing band, since it seems like it would stymie the creation of original material and dumb down Broadway. Besides, isn't the point of musical theater to discover new music, not just rehash old favorites?

My misgivings aside, I still happily agreed to go see Jersey Boys with Britton last night. The musical is a fictionalized account of Frankie Vallie & the Four Seasons and their rise to stardom. Take the usual hard-knocks tale of struggling teens with a gift for music, add in some Jersey mobsters and a cameo by a young Joe Pesci, and presto, you have yourself a plot. The play is divided into four parts, or movements, if you will, each named after a different season and narrated by one of the four members. My favorite band member was Bob Gaudio, who shot to fame after writing "(Who Wears) Short Shorts" at age 15. He is considered the most cerebral of the bunch, and is responsible for writing many of the Four Seasons' hits.

Joisey Girl: So, who's the girl in the song? Your girlfriend?
Gaudio: No, it could be any girl. Every girl. It's what T.S. Eliot called the objective correlative.
Joisey Girl: You're not from around here, are you?

The true star of the night though was the Four Seasons' music itself. I've casually listened to many of their songs on the radio, but this was the first time I'd examined their discography in detail. And some of their lesser known hits are incredibly catchy. Take a listen to "Rag Doll"; supposedly it's based on the true story of Gaudio who was approached by beggar girl in Manhattan. In between an incredible falsetto from the actor playing Frankie Valli and the cute doo-wop choreography, I was pining for the good ol' days of boy bands wearing suits. By the end of the night, we were all singing and clapping along to the encore of "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)." I've never seen an auditorium so full of smiles.

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One more aside: I needed to fix a bike flat before the show, so I trekked to the nearest bike shop looking for help. They were closed for the day, but luckily, a cop was around and offered to help me fix my flat. (Brings new meaning to the phrase "to serve and protect.") In the midst of this, who strolls out of the shop?! Joe, whose last 4-5 messages I've been ignoring. Cue awkward conversation...Go figure, a city of 8 million people, and I manage to run into the one person I'm actively trying to avoid. After he left, my friend Britton (and the cop) were gut-busting laughing at me. Now that, was the clutch part of the evening.