Theatre: Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys
Brilliant performances, sharp direction and the most fabulous songs make the Jersey Boys, the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, an evening of pure feel good but this is also a musical with a difference.
While Mama Mia was a tale created around the hits of Abba, this musical tells the personal stories of the band members themselves. The result is compelling, humorous and very moving.
Coming from the poor streets of New Jersey with its huge population of Italian immigrants, their musical beginnings were interspersed with spells in jail for petty crime. It was reckless but charismatic Danny DeVito (Glenn Carter) who calls the shots at the start, spotting Valli's talent but also getting him into trouble with the law when, as DeVito put it, he needs 'Some walking around money'
Bass player Nick Massi (Philip Bulcock) comes from the same background but educated and upright Bob Gaudio (Stephen Ashfield), the keyboard player and brilliant composer of most of their hits, is appalled when DeVito's cavalier attitude to bill paying lands them in the cells for a night.
Mob connections and tax problems see DeVito exiled from his own band while Valli and Gaudio seal a profits split on a single hand shake that still holds good today.
Love, loyalty and the toll of life on the road are all grist to the sharp moving script but it is talented Ryan Molloy, who starts the show as a young and insecure Francesco Castelluccio and ends with a performance as sexy show stopping Frankie Valli that leaves the female members of the audience weak at the knees.
Hits like What a Night, Big Girls Don't Cry and Can't Take My Eyes Off You are an instant fix of late Sixties and early Seventies nostalgia. Book yourself a treat now. Jersey Boys really does deliver a night to remember.
Jersey Boys is booking until 24th October 2010.
Buy tickets on 0844 482 5151 or online via jerseyboyslondon.com
