Oct 30, 2009  |  By: Patrick Folliard  | COMMENTS     

The Four Seasons were one of the biggest musical acts of the ’60s, but unlike the Beatles, Rolling Stones or the Supremes, their story isn’t so familiar. Most people can’t name the group’s members (except for maybe falsetto-voiced lead singer Frankie Valli), let alone synopsize their rags-to-riches experience. “Jersey Boys” changes all that.

With a score pulled from the Four Seasons’ extensive song catalog (including “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Sherry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “My Eyes Adored You” and many more), “Jersey Boys” tracks the rise of the pop/rock group from its lowly Jersey beginnings to the top of the charts. The show’s co-writers, Marshall Brickman (“Annie Hall”) and Rick Elice, have penned a terrifically entertaining, backstage story that spans the group’s shaky early days as a cheesy, low-rent lounge act through its transformation into a hit-making sensation and on to its eventual demise.

Currently making its D.C. premiere at National Theatre, Des McAnuff’s Tony Award-winning (Best Musical 2006) production is quick paced and utterly entertaining. 

Like most rock ’n roll true stories, the Four Seasons’ ride to fame is portrayed as predictably bumpy — brushes with crime, failed marriages, addictions, debts, disagreements and death. There are some surprises in the story too — like Bob Crewe, the young producer who collaborated on hits with whiz kid group member Bob Gaudio (Josh Franklin), and was integral to the Four Seasons’ success. Crewe is played as a bit swishy and unquestionably gay by gay actor Jonathan Hadley.

Unlike some jukebox musicals, Jersey Boys’ creators made a smart decision in not integrating the group’s music into the show’s plot and having actors sing to one another, but rather, the actors perform the many hits as the Four Seasons in concert, directly to the audience. The effect can be powerful.

At the press performance, a lady in the National’s orchestra section began reaching out to the actors as they performed. Clearly, the enthusiastic blonde of a certain age was riding a wave of nostalgia and to her, and a lot of others in the house (as evidenced by the thunderous and unceasing applause), it was as if time had rewound and the real-life, young Four Seasons were reuniting for just one more night.

Not only do the production’s four talented leads admirably recreate the Four Seasons’ distinctive sound, but they resemble the real thing physically as well (compare photos in the program), and what’s more, the libretto’s well-drawn characters give the audience a good sense of who they are: Frankie Valli (Joseph Leo Bwarie) is flawed but stalwart; group founder Tommy Devito (Matt Bailey) is the ballsy bully; Nick Massi (Steve Gouveia) grapples with OCD; and Gaudio is singularly focused on success.

Standouts in the dozen or so actors playing the Four Seasons’ friends, fans and family include Renée Marino as Valli’s hardcore Jersey first wife Mary, and Brandon Matthieus as — it seems — every black man the band ever encountered.

While these “Jersey Boys” don’t come cheap, for some fun and the Broadway experience in D.C., they’re a deal.