Jersey Boys opened September 17th at the Ohio Theater in downtown Columbus to an ecstatic audience who embraced the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. This was my first time at this jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice.
A jukebox musical is a musical--it can be live or film--that uses a group of popular songs as its score.
In this case the music was made famous by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and serves as a backdrop to the group's story. The musical embodies the group's rise to fame and its eventual breakup as told by of the four characters. Jersey Boys opened on Broadway in 2005 and has toured abound the world, winning four Tony Awards in 2006 including Best Musical. The story is about the characters' great success, their challenges, their criminal backgrounds and their eventual demise. It's engaging and fun and the audience feels as though it is part of the story. The production stars Nick Cosgrove, Nicholas Dromard, Jason Kappus and Brandon Andrus. Jersey Boys continues at the Ohio Theater through September 29th.