Jersey Boys Shines in Tempe!
October 2nd, 2007Kathy Allen of the Arizona Daily Star says that Jersey Boys is fun. Lots and lots of fun. Credit some fine acting and even finer singing to the four lads who play the members of the singing group. These actors, who appear to have been born long after The Four Seasons faded away with the 1960s, got the Jersey attitude just right. And the harmonizing — one of the beauties of the original group — was sublime.
It opens with a mesmerizing Deven May as the group’s founder and resident bad boy, Tommy De Vito, who’s in and out of jail before he (sort of) settles down with the group. May is a strong singer but an even stronger personality, depicting De Vito’s rebelliousness with a swaggering Jersey charm.
Erich Bergen’s Bob Gaudio, the brains of the group, was tall and awkward and just the right mixture of genius and oafishness. Steve Gouveia gave his character, Nick Massi, a passive-aggressive nature — something anyone mixed up from the start with De Vito would possess.
Rick Faugno stepped into the role of Frankie Valli with an anxious energy and a voice that apparently brought back a slew of memories for the boomer crowd that packed Gammage. Heads swayed, lyrics were silently mouthed, and hands clapped madly for the short, powerful crooner.
Read the full review on azstarnet.com.
What happened to Christopher Kale Joones?
Comment by micdyl — October 2, 2007 @ 11:41 am
I was traveling on business and caught the show in Tempe at the beautiful Gammage Theatre at Arizona State University. The Gammage has extra leg room which is nice, but I think that compensates for there being no aisles – so if you have a center seat you have a long walk down the row over people’s feet. The place is twice the size of August Wilson and the crowd was very enthusiastic. Chris Jones is on vacation so Rick Faugno is the main Frankie and Courter Simmons is the alternate. I got to see Courter at what I understand was his first performance as Frankie and he was excellent. I chatted with Courter briefly after the show to compliment him on his fine performance.
There was one place in the dialoque where there was an unexpected cheer – where the character Tommy DeVito says (I may not get this word for word) “we go on the road – Ohio, Nebraska, ARIZONA, places you fly over on the way to Los Angeles, the low spot was…” The Arizona part of the line got a big cheer.
Comment by David Cace — October 2, 2007 @ 12:58 pm
Nice review Kathy ! My daughter and I flew in from LA to watch the 2nd night performance of our favorite Jersey Boys and as always, they were such a big hit and the audience were soooo responsive to everything they did. The auditorium was full-packed considering that they have a little more than 3000 seats total. The Orchestra alone was bigger than the Ahmanson and it was packed. Like I said, the audience was more than receptive throughout the entire show and that was really exciting. That was also the first time we saw the new set of the JB and we were impressed.
After the show, we went to the stage door where we met Nathan Tate, Steve Gouviea, Erich Bergen, Deven May and of course our favorite Frankie, Rick Faugno. They were all happy to see us and we were happy to see them. I am sure a lot more Arizona audience will have lots and lots of fun watching our Jersey Boys.
Comment by Mila — October 2, 2007 @ 1:30 pm
micdyl, Chris is taking time off for his wedding.
Comment by Leanna — October 2, 2007 @ 4:04 pm
Thanks, Leanna. I just read about his wedding today.
Comment by micdyl — October 3, 2007 @ 3:09 pm