‘Jersey Boys’ comes to town as musical is being prepped for the big screen

Contributed photo The cast of "Jersey Boys" in the musical's finale.

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By Terry Morris, Staff Writer 10:47 AM Saturday, January 14, 2012

How good is the musical “Jersey Boys”?

It has reversed the usual subordinate progression of Broadway musicals being spun off from movies.

Hollywood is planning a screen version of the show about the early to mid-1960s boy band The Four Seasons, which captured the 2006 Tony Award for best musical and a 2006 Grammy for best cast album.

The 25th longest-running show in Broadway history has raked in more than $1 billion in ticket sales around the world.

It’s Dayton’s turn to add to those receipts.

A freshly minted national tour will come to the Schuster Center for the first time on Tuesday, for a three-week stand.

Written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice with music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe, “Jersey Boys” follows the rise of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons from humble blue-collar origins to superstardom as the most popular band before The Beatles.

The group’s hits, most of them written by group member Gaudio, are performed throughout the show with a joyous spirit that sometimes stands in contrast to the struggles the group’s members experience in their private lives away from the stage and recording studio.

The list includes “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Dawn (Go Away),” “Candy Girl,” “Stay,” “Rag Doll,” “Working My Way Back to You,” “Let’s Hang On,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” (credited to Frankie Valli), “Who Loves You?” and “Oh, What a Night.”

The Four Seasons sold 175 million records.

Elice was a grade-school kid from New York City who first heard those songs when counselors in their late teens to early 20s played them during his summers at camp.

“The counselors were our heroes. They were who we wanted to be. So I knew the songs. I had no idea what was behind those upbeat happy pop songs,” until he was asked to help create a show about the rise and fall of four Italian-American kids from the wrong neighborhood who might have ended up in prison or with the mob if not for their music.

In setting out to write the show, “We started with their story, not with their songlist,” Elice said. “ ‘Jersey Boys’ gives a new context for the songs.”

While the show has been categorized by some with the pejorative term “jukebox musical,” Elice said it’s a play with music that “tells a really good story. It was courageous of them (Valli, Gaudio and the others) to say, ‘Go ahead and put that story out there.’ It’s a grown-up story about the second family you make on your own, the friends you choose in your life and the bonds you forge like blood.”

The dialogue includes adult language.

Gaudio had already tasted fame when he met Valli.

At age 15, he wrote a neat little novelty song called “Short Shorts” that became a hit for his group, The Royal Teens. The record company wanted the band to tour, but Gaudio’s parents wanted him to stay in school.

His high school principal actually convinced them to let him chase that dream, and they listened. “He definitely went out of the box,” Gaudio said. “I left high school at 151/2. If I had stayed in school, who knows?”

Bergenfield (N.J.) High School finally gave him his diploma in 2009.

A year after leaving school, Gaudio met Valli and joined a group that was called The Four Lovers at the time.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Elice said Valli was “an incredible singer with a four-octave range” and Gaudio was “a kid with a gift for writing hooky songs. Until they got together, the falsetto voice (Valli’s trademark) had never been the lead before.”

Gaudio said his first band didn’t really have a lead singer.

“The first time I heard Frankie, I said to myself, ‘Oh, boy! This is a great singer. I can write whatever I want and he can sing it.’ The possibilities were limitless. It was very inspiring. We had a fabulous partnership.”

Valli, who was front and center, is still performing and is still recognized wherever he goes.

“I’m invisible. I can sit in the audience for ‘Jersey Boys’ and hear what people say about the show,” Gaudio said.

“It’s amazing how emotionally people get caught up in the show. When we were on stage, looking into those blinding lights, I don’t think I ever knew what it was really like for the audience. I don’t think I really ever experienced the connection that I see in this show by sitting in the audience and seeing what these songs and this story means to them. It’s a privilege for me to feel that now,” he said.

When asked for a favorite memory from his Four Seasons days, Gaudio was almost sheepish about sharing one “that’s pretty corny, but I will never forget it.”

The band’s first hit, “Sherry,” had been out for just a couple weeks and was playing on the radio when he and Valli drove to Frankie’s house. “We didn’t even get out of the car when Frankie’s wife ran out of the door and screamed at us to hurry up and come inside because Frankie was on Dick Clark. We sold about 100,000 singles in about two weeks after that. I knew then that we had something.”

The film version of “Jersey Boys” is expected to hit the screen in 2014. The live show was staged by Tony Award winner Des McAnuff. The cast includes three female performers who play more than 50 roles. Running time is 150 minutes, including intermission.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2377 or tmorris@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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