Marshall Brickman’s Reflections on Life and JB
January 25th, 2007Michael Elkin of The Jewish Exponent has a wonderful feature on Jersey Boys co-author Marshall Brickman, who shares his thoughts on his early days, his career as a writer, and his success story with the 2006 Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys.
Here’s a short preview of this terrific story:
Oy, what a night? No, it was an afternoon lunch in which longtime buddy Rick Elice — “who had been contacted by a producer” — asked Brickman to join him for a sit-down with the Four Seasons.
Okay, responded Brickman, “but I said, ‘Who wants to see a musical about Vivaldi?’ ”
And once the stories unraveled — with the “boys” talking about their Mob ties, drug use, bickering and betrayal — it all began to sound like an Italian opera.
Brickman admits that he wasn’t exactly sold on the show,
I almost didn’t do this show. I was very ambivalent. I didn’t know much about the Four Seasons, and when I listened to their albums, I had a real chip on my shoulder.
Could that chip accede to a rock musical? Brickman also confesses that he didn’t think Jersey Boys had a ‘hood ‘hood of a chance in taking up his time.
Reflecting about the Four Seasons, Brickman states,
These are songs that guys don’t sing to a girl, they sing them to other guys about girls. There is an innocence about the material.
He continues,
It’s all about a sense of family, of being loyal to family, to the guys, which is the same kind of feeling in the ‘Godfather’ movies. It’s an Italian thing of protection.
