The Men of Jersey Boys: DeVito, Gaudio, and Valli!
May 4th, 2008As we’ve noted, this weekend has ROCKED! Jersey Boys Opening Night in Vegas (just wait for details!), Frankie Valli’s birthday, the JB OBCR topping the charts again this week–and in the Sunday Los Angeles Times, Paul Lieberman has one of the most interesting in-depth stories on the men of Jersey–Tommy DeVito, Bob Gaudio, and Frankie Valli. This feature includes some great photos and a video interview with Tommy DeVito!
Here’s a short preview of this terrific piece:
There are so many incarnations of the show, or new ones in the works, they have a “Frankie School” in New York to teach all the lead actors how to sing in the falsetto that anchored such chart-toppers as “Walk Like a Man,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night).”
Each night “Jersey Boys” plays in one time zone or another, it ends by informing the audience what became of the original 4 Seasons: how bass player Nick Massi, always the afterthought (the “Ringo”) is dead now . . . and how bad boy Tommy DeVito lives here in Vegas, supposedly exiled to its golf courses by the Mafia . . . and how their boy genius songwriter Gaudio gravitated to Nashville, passing days now on his yacht . . . and how Frankie Valli alone is still singing, “like that bunny on TV with the battery,” the show tells us. “Chasing the music.”
Of course, that’s a stage version of things, so a little theatrical license is expected. But there’s one big factor those sum-ups don’t take into account — what the show itself, and its success, has done to their lives.
You think Gaudio really is lounging on some lake with new “Jersey Boys” to launch around the world? “I’ve got a boat,” he says, “that I haven’t seen in two years.” You think DeVito wields only a putter these days? Approaching his 80th birthday, he’s back in the recording studio with his guitar in hand.
Frankie? OK, true to his word, he’s still singing “Sherry.”
But he says, “I wish I could turn the worry button off.”
loved the music since it came out in 60′s. my husband and i saw the play in new york and bought the soundtrack. our grandbaby who is five heard it and was hooked from the get-go. it was so dramatic that we hunted the play down in minneapolis (we are flight attendants) and took him. it was worth a million dollars in regards to how much he enjoyed it and the pleasure we got from seeing his reaction. Thanks
Comment by connie dowdy — May 13, 2008 @ 8:38 pm