Oh, What A Show in Hartford!
February 9th, 2009Kory Loucks reports: Oh what a show. First rate, unforgettable music, and lots of it, combined with a rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches story about a time in the 1950s when men were men, especially if they were Italian, and the only options to get out of poverty in inner-city New Jersey were either crime or singing, or in the case of the “Jersey Boys,†both.
Let’s face it — no matter how talented a group is, after a while watching four guys singing song after song, no matter how varied their costumes are, can get a little old. But that was never a problem here. Almost every song had a different angle, including the scene when the group was on “American Bandstand†and the cameras filmed them in black and white and superimposed their singing onto a big screen, with archival footage of teens screaming on companion screens.
They did it a second time when they appeared on the “Ed Sullivan Show.†Super idea, especially for a large venue like The Bushnell, giving those audience members sitting far back a better look at the characters. Also innovative and effective was when they turned the stage around and made it feel like the audience was at the back of the stage. Huge, whiteout spotlights focused on the group and spilled onto the real audience — lending a vicarious sensation of what it must be like to be literally in the spotlight of a huge venue.
If you can get through this show without a smile on your face or a feeling of joy in your heart, you may want to check to make sure you still have a pulse. Seriously, if there is only one show you go to see this year, make it “Jersey Boys.â€
Visit JournalInquier.com for Loucks’ full review.
