For Bob Gaudio–Jersey Boys Is Beyond Surreal!
April 19th, 2008JERSEY BOYS national tour begins in St. Louis at the Fox Theatre on Wednesday April 23 through May 18. Post-Dispatch Theater Critic Judith Newmark recently spoke with Bob Gaudio, who spoke about the experience and surprise of seeing his life played on stage in the Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys.
When he was just 15 years old, Bob Gaudio wrote his first hit song, “(Who Wears) Short Shorts,” for his group the Royal Teens. But that’s not the strangest thing that ever happened to him.
A few years later, after his principal had encouraged him to drop out of high school to pursue music and he was getting lessons in the high life from his friends, Gaudio earned more money in a night than his father could earn in a year or more. But that’s not the strangest thing, either.
The same for producing for Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and others. Ditto for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The strangest thing is watching somebody else portray him doing all those things AGAIN in the Tony-winning musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, “Jersey Boys.”
“It’s beyond surreal,” said Gaudio, who composed nearly all of the Four Seasons hits. “I try to avoid putting myself into the scene on the stage. That just makes me crazy.”
With the show still playing on Broadway, in Las Vegas and on tour (including a tour that opens here Wednesday at the Fox Theatre), “there are four me’s out there — eight or nine if you count understudies, ” Gaudio observed, chuckling. “I never know what to expect.”
“It’s like opening a box of Cracker Jacks and looking for the surprise inside,” he said.
Read the full story on STLToday.com.
