Jersey Boys Continues to Rock Hartford!
February 18th, 2009
The critics can’t get enough of the JERSEY BOYS national tour in Hartford! Below are excerpts from the latest reviews:
Amy J. Barry, The Lyme Times: Jersey Boys is much more than a musical revue, although the hit music score certainly drives the production. Writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice couldn’t have had a meatier true story to translate into a musical than this rags-to-riches tale of four blue-collar Jersey boys who sold 175 million records in seven years. Add to that a score composed by Bob Gaudio, The Four Seasons’ principal songwriter, who, in 2000 along with Frankie Valli, conceived the idea of the stage musical about the band.
It’s not surprising that Jersey Boys, which opened on Broadway in 2005, won a Grammy and four Tony Awards a year later and continues to play to sold-out audiences across the country. It’s smart, fast, funny, at times heartbreaking, and, for the most part, avoids the pitfalls of becoming just another clichéd saga of the entertainment industry.
Bonnie J. Goldberg, MiddleTownPress.com: Catch the energy of the 1960s like fireflies in a glass jar as this quartet of rough-and-tumble, coulda-woulda hoodlums pull themselves out of the crime-laden streets to create a new style. The show pulls no punches and sugarcoats none of the warts, as each member tells their tale. Lead instigator is clearly Tommy DeVito (Matt Bailey) who teams up with Nick Massi (Steve Gouveia) and then recognizes the angel voice of Frankie Valli (Joseph Leo Bwarie and alternately Graham Fenton). After several wannabes and a succession of name changes, the group latches onto the song writing talents of Bob Gaudio (Josh Franklin) and history is in the music-making.
Jan Nargi, BroadwayWorld.com: The sensation that is Jersey Boys has descended upon The Bushnell in Hartford, CT, and every middle-aged Bobby soxer and her beau that was in the audience on opening night seemed to be transported back to “late December back in ’63,” a time when a unique new sound born on the streets of blue-collar New Jersey was sweeping the nation. Clapping, cheering, and swaying to the close four-part harmonies distinguished by the lead singer’s remarkable falsetto, many avid fans responded as if the real Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons instead of a very skilled tribute group were onstage re-enacting their greatest hits.
