August 22, 2012

Jersey Boys 1st Natl Tour Offers Joy at the Jubilee!

August 22nd, 2012

Another rave review for the JERSEY BOYS first national tour production in Edmonton. Check out the sneak peak by Anna Borowiecki:

In this Broadway touring production, Nick Cosgrove, a young star in the making, plays Frankie Valli, the superstar hero whose nasal falsetto took The Four Seasons into the big time.

His performance was so authentic the audience forgot Cosgrove wasn’t Valli. And when he sang the confection Sherry and his trademark song, the 1967 lounge ballad Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You, the crowd went wild.

But this isn’t just Cosgrove’s show. The rest of the ensemble is extremely talented and delivers a remarkable sincerity in this stretch of much-travelled highway.

First off Timothy Quinlan (Tommy DeVito), stepping in for John Gardiner, is the bad boy extraordinaire, who lands himself $160,000 in debt with the Mafia and accumulates a tax department lien of another $500,000.

It was DeVito who discovered Valli and became a self-appointed mentor. Quinlan hits a home run and plays his character with a mix of paternal wisdom, arrogant brutality and bootlicking smarminess.

Preston Truman Boyd is Gaudio, the brilliant composer who’s more comfortable behind the scenes than in the limelight. It’s his off-the-cuff, jukebox melodies that turn into a combustible mix of admiration and jealousy.

Of the entire ensemble, Boyd’s character is the most restrained yet delivers some of the snappiest lines. At one point after their huge hit Big Girls Don’t Cry, he proudly says, “Now I even have money in my pockets that doesn’t make noise.”

And then there was Michael Lomenda’s bass playing Nick, a man who gave his children to his sister so he’d have more time to “screw around.” Oddly sympathetic, Lomenda is a rich baritone – the perfect counterpoint to Cosgrove’s falsetto.

Visit StAlbertGazette.com to read the rest of the review.

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