Nicholas Alexander and Marlana Dunn (Photo courtesy of Musical Theatre West)
Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley
Carpenter Performing Arts Center
Thru March 2
One of the most successful jukebox musicals in history, Jersey Boys has been produced nationally and internationally for some 20 years now. After its 2004 debut at the La Jolla Playhouse, the show—featuring the chart-topping songs of the Four Seasons— went on to a lengthy Broadway run, garnering the 2006 Tony Award for Best Musical.
Based on candid interviews with members of the band, Jersey Boys broke new ground when first produced. Its unvarnished treatment of its subjects, who grew up rough-and-tumble in working class New Jersey Italian families, shows the seamy side behind the ascent to fame. The womanizing, the infighting, the divorces, the mob connections — all provide the backdrop for a steamroller progression of hits. The show may be unvarnished, but it is slick, with a hint of hagiography in the mix, particularly concerning Valli, whose character progression feels suspiciously sanitized.
Musical Theatre West, the producing company behind this undertaking, is a venerable entity that has been around some 70 years and counting. Jersey Boys was selected as the season opener by popular audience request, and judging by the reactions of Sunday’s sellout crowd, it still enjoys an enthusiastic fan base. This lavishly outsized production has plenty of glitzy trappings, and director TJ Dawson keeps the apparatus moving with deceptive ease. Nonetheless, it’s a clanking vehicle that shows its age. Stephen Gifford’s massive scenic design is impressive, but Jean-Yves Tessier’s neon-heavy lighting occasionally veers into the murky, while Alena Milos’s uneven sound design is persistently problematic.
The musical’s heart lies with its four leads, of course, the Seasons’s original members—song writer and hit-maker Bob Gaudio (Taubert Nadalini), the frustrated and unsung Nick Massi (Grant Hodges), and Tommy DeVito (Joe Abraham, valiantly substituting for regular cast member, Anthony Carro), whose uncontrolled gambling plunged the group into crisis. And, of course, there’s Frankie Valli (Nicholas Alexander), the breakout star whose three-octave vocal range, with its distinctive falsetto, became the group’s signature sound. Replicating that once-in-a-generation voice is a near-impossible feat, but Alexander does his best in a creditable turn. Nadalini and Hodges are standouts in the cast, as is Marlana Dunn as Valli’s first wife and Skyler Gaines as the Season’s eccentric producer and collaborator.
It’s hard to believe that Frankie Valli, at age 90, is currently on a “farewell tour” scheduled to end this April. Perhaps he’s aging better than Jersey Boys, which despite all the flash and frills, seems timeworn — a tribute to a once stellar act now fading into obscurity.
Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach. Fri., 8 pm, Sat., 2 and 8 pm, Sun., 1 pm; thru March 2. 562-856-1999. https://musical.org. Running time: 2 hours and 45 minutes with an intermission.
