Jersey Boys Remains a Knockout Theater Experience in St. Louis!
May 24th, 2011Critics around St. Louis can’t take their eyes off the JB national tour production! Check out a preview of Dennis Brown’s fantastic review:
The pulsating musical Jersey Boys is back at the Fox for the second of what surely will be numerous visits. How is the show holding up after five years on the road? That’s not even an issue; the production remains extraordinarily crisp. Of more immediate concern is whether or not any tickets will be available for this weekend’s final performances.
Many a show has sought to evoke the bubblegum music era of the late 1950s and early ’60s. But none has succeeded like this relentlessly energetic account of the rise, fall and reclamation of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, four New Jersey teenagers who were unprepared for the pressures of fame. What distinguishes Jersey Boys from similar musicals is its acute understanding of the story it’s really telling. In its soul, and despite its subject matter, Jersey Boys is not really about a singing group; it is about a sound.
In fact, the real behind-the-scenes saga of the creation of the Four Seasons is much more labyrinthine than the simplified version told here. From 1956 to 1961, Valli and his group performed under thirteen different names (the Variatones, Frankie Love and the Four Lovers, Frankie Valle and the Romans, to name a few). Librettists Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice have adroitly managed to distill a complicated story down to its essence.
There’s lots of credit to be shared here among the original creators and the current performers. But let us not forget the unknown people — be they stage managers or company managers or dance captains — who are keeping this show stiletto-sharp. Thanks to them, Jersey Boys remains a knockout theater experience.
Visit RiverfrontTimes.com to read the full review.
