Jersey Boys Thoughts from Gaudio and Bwarie
January 9th, 2009Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Sharon Eberson states that Bob Gaudio, who wrote the Four Seasons songs that Frankie Valli’s soaring voice helped take to the top of the charts, and Joseph Leo Bwarie, who plays Frankie in the touring company of the Tony-winning “Jersey Boys,” made the same point in separate conversations, using different cultural touchstones.
The point was: The Four Seasons were a hit because of the music, but their story remained mostly untold until the stage production took us inside their personal lives.
As such, “Jersey Boys” is more than just a jukebox musical in which hit songs are distributed throughout a made-up story. Familiar songs such as “Sherry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” and “December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)” are sung in the context and chronology that produced them.
“We were not MTV boys,” Gaudio said recently by phone from his Nashville home.
“There weren’t those VH1 shows, ‘Behind the Music,’ or ‘Inside the Actors’ Studio,’ there wasn’t all that personal information being put out there. And no TMZ” gotcha moments, echoed Bwarie by phone from Denver, where he was playing Valli in the touring company that arrives in Pittsburgh today.
Visit Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for the full story.
The Four Seasons were the very first singers that I
saw live-in-concert. I had a “feel-good” reason for
wanting to see “The Jersey Boys.” I had no idea of
the group’s background that I would see played out on
stage. It brought a whole new respect for not only a
great sound of the era but the commitment of a handshake. We need more Jersey Boys today.
Thank-you Frankie Valli-with-an-”I”
Thank-you Bob Gaudio
Thank-you One-&-All concerned with bringing
this story to us in the form of the music
we loved.
Comment by Lois Bogart — February 8, 2009 @ 12:55 pm
The best musical by far. I could see it over and over again. Fantastic!!
Comment by Rita Schindler — February 12, 2009 @ 9:48 pm