Bob Gaudio, The Deer Hunter, and Jersey Boys…
June 17th, 2012
Bob Gaudio (Photo Credit: J.T. Macmillan Photography)
TulsaWorld.com has had some great continuing coverage of the JERSEY BOYS national tour production that is playing in Tulsa through June 24. In today’s edition, check out a preview of James D. Watts’ interview with original Four Seasons member Bob Gaudio:
If Bob Gaudio had not seen the movie “The Deerhunter,” it’s possible that the musical “Jersey Boys” would have never seen the lights of the stage.Gaudio is one of the original Four Seasons – “the last piece of the puzzle,” as Preston Truman Boyd, who plays Gaudio in the production of “Jersey Boys,” now at the Tulsa PAC, says when his character first enters the show.
Gaudio was still in his teens, with a hit song to his name – the bubblegum pop fashion manifesto “Short Shorts” – when he joined Frankie Valli, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi in the group, where his songwriting talents created a string of hits that made the Four Seasons one of the most successful bands of the 1960s and ’70s.
“There’s a scene in ‘The Deerhunter’ where the characters are in a pool hall, and they start singing along to ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,’ ” Gaudio said during a recent telephone conversation. “It was so beautifully done, and it really made an impact on me – that maybe these songs we created to be heard on the radio could transcend that.”
To Gaudio’s mind, live theater was a logical place – growing up in New Jersey, he and his family would regularly take in the shows on Broadway.
But Gaudio’s original thought was a show that might be more along the lines of “Mamma Mia!” – with Four Seasons songs worked into a conventional book musical.
“There’s a lot of diversity in our music, and there is a storytelling element in practically every song,” Guadio said. “I thought it would make for an interesting show that could have some impact.”
What had real impact, however, was the history of the Four Seasons, which became the story told in “Jersey Boys.”
Visit TulsaWorld.com to read the full interview.
