Oh, What A Night in Boston!
August 1st, 2009Boston has fallen head over heels in love with the JERSEY BOYS National Tour, now playing at the Shubert Theatre through September 26! Here’s the latest rave review by Iris Fanger in The Patriot Ledger!
In Boston, Frankie Valli is played by Emerson College grad Joseph Leo Bwarie, who effectively portrays the character’s rise from a stage-struck 16-year-old to a bonafide star.
What a thrill it is to hear his voice broaden in range to that eerie falsetto, finding new ways to punch the rhythms, and projecting a credible emotional reaction to the gains and losses along the way. Josh Franklin as Gaudio runs him a close second, followed by Matt Bailey as the bad-boy Tommy DeVito, and Steve Gouveia as Nick Massi, the perennial second banana.
At Wednesday’s press opening, the audience alternately sat mesmerized or broke into cheering, as the music – loud, melodic, accessible, and memory jarring – engulfed the house. For those of us who counted out the years of our adolescence listening to these songs, it’s a journey back. For everyone else, it’s an evening of sheer pleasure due to the stellar caliber of the professionals who packaged two hours worth of a theatrical high.
The endearing gimmick of the enterprise is the blending of now and then, to hook viewers on the history of the group while charming them into falling in love with the actors.
Read Fanger’s full review in PatriotLedger.com.
Great review…so true!
Comment by Carolyn — August 1, 2009 @ 3:40 pm