Jersey Boys in Vegas–A Success Because of the Music, the Story, and the People!
April 30th, 2010
Travis Cloer, Deven May, Rick Faugno, Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Peter Saide and Jeff Leibow (Photo Credit: Erik Kabik/ Retna Digital)
Cindi Reed of WeeklySeven.com is trying to solve a mystery: How has the show Jersey Boys survived to its second birthday when so many Broadway-style shows have failed in Las Vegas and what separates Jersey Boys from the pack? According to Reed:
I finally found my answer at the Jersey Boys two-year anniversary reception at the Palazzo. There was Frankie Valli, polished like a shiny gray river rock by so many years in the passing waters of fame. He was talking to a younger, slightly taller version of himself. Then there was Gaudio, tall and graceful with silver hair and at least one small gold earring. He too was talking to the younger, slightly taller version of himself. The effect was dizzying.
With the announcement of Cirque’s new Michael Jackson collaboration, it seems like this city is fast becoming the land of the live-action music biopics. Jersey Boys has something that the others can never have: living inspiration. While the other shows are memorials, Jersey Boys is a breathing monument.
“I can always feel it when I perform in the show, that night or the next day, after talking to him because he sort of brings me back home,†says Rick Faugno, one of the two people who play Valli. “I can almost feel him talking through me onstage. I always do, but I feel it more when I talk to him. Because I just had his voice in my ear, I feel it’s coming out of me, it’s weird.â€
So there you have it. Jersey Boys has thrived in the two worst years of the Las Vegas economy because of the music, the story and, most of all, the people.
Looking forward, expect a potential movie perhaps, and maybe even more music. At the reception, Valli told me about his dreams for a new type of occasional collaboration: “I have a thing about Vegas and I’ve had it all my life. It would be a dream if Jersey Boys went on and did their show and if we went on as the second show. So you saw the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Now you can see Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, for real.†Oh what a night that would be.
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