Jersey Came to Nashville (or Oh What A Night!)
TPAC’s production of Jersey Boys tells the story of American pop band Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons from the band’s formation in 1960 to present day. The jukebox musical presents their story in four parts, each part narrated by one of the band members to get their own unique perspective.
The first part, “Spring” is narrated by Tommy DeVito (Harry Sperduto). He recounts meeting Frankie Valli (Coby Oram) and taking him under his wing, inviting him to join his band with his brother Nick DeVito and friend Nick Massi (Owen McCredie). Tommy runs the band, but they have very little success. Tommy commits various small crimes and scams to make money, even going to prison once. He’s running a pin-setting scam at a bowling alley when his fellow conspirator Joe Pesci (yes, THAT Joe Pesci) introduces the group to a singer-songwriter from Bergenfield who he thinks will complete their band: Bob Gaudio (Peyton Schoenhofer).
Bob takes over narrating the second part, “Summer” describing how they formed their band and finally settled on a name. They use the name of the alley where Tommy was running his scam: the Four Seasons. Bob is the group’s songwriter, and their breakout hit is “Sherry” followed quickly by more big hits like “Walk Like a Man” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” Bob’s part ends as loan shark Norm Waxman confronts Tommy and the band after a concert to collect Tommy’s unpaid debt of $150,000.
Nick takes over narration for the third part, “Fall” and backtracks to describe how much Tommy was gambling. When all of his debt is added up, it actually totals $662,000. Frankie says that the band will take on the debt for Tommy with Waxman insisting Tommy be placed in Las Vegas under the mob’s watch as collateral. Nick quits the band.
In the last part, “Winter” Frankie takes over to tell the rest of their story. Frankie and Bob hire replacements to keep the band a quartet and then eventually Bob requests to be moved to a background role to keep songwriting and producing. They do pay off Tommy’s debt and have continued success including Frankie’s first solo record. The last part of the musical features the reunited Four Seasons at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1990. Then each member closes with a monologue of how they are doing currently. There was one line in this part that I found very strange. Bob says about Frankie, “He’s got a new family now. Three boys.” I really feel as though that line should be something like, “Frankie remarried and had three boys.” Instead of making his first marriage and daughters feel like the “old” family kicked to the curb.
Going into this musical, based solely on the songs that I knew, I thought this would be a wholesome, perhaps silly play. I was completely surprised at the grit, vulgarity, and emotional depth of the story. The four actors did really wonderful jobs of making you sympathize with their particular character while not shying away from their checkered early past or glossing over their individual sins. The result was a really complex view of each person. For example, Tommy worked for a mob boss, gambled away thousands of dollars while not paying the band’s taxes, and tried to sleep with Frankie’s girlfriend. Somehow he is still my favorite character, partly because of the way he protected Frankie at the very beginning, basically plucking him from obscurity and taking care of him. But mostly because Sperduto’s portrayal of Tommy was so charismatic and humorous. No matter who was narrating, I found myself searching for Tommy on the stage. Schoenhofer did a wonderful job of highlighting the fact that Bob Gaudio was the youngest of the group, often seeming almost innocent with his enthusiasm. McCredie seemed to be pitching his voice quite low to match Nick Massi’s bass.
When he was singing, I didn’t notice it at all, but when he was speaking it seemed slightly unnatural. I did really enjoy his wry humor and after he stood up and delivered his frustrated and scathing monologue about Tommy, the whole audience cheered. Coby Oram managed to embody Frankie Valli perfectly from age 16 to age 56. His character had the most growth, going from the awkward adolescent years to the confidence of a full grown man, and then showing his devastation at the death of this daughter. Although his falsetto was a bit more nasal than Valli’s, he had a beautiful voice and, as the lead singer, the most demanding role.
The four men had great chemistry together and their voices worked so well, it was as if it really was the Four Seasons in front of us. I had such a good time in fact, that my only real criticism is that the 15 minute intermission somehow lasted over 30 minutes with no explanation. My favorite line was from Frankie’s character describing the highlight of his career: “But four guys under a streetlamp, when it was all still ahead of us… the first time we made that sound – our sound – when everything dropped away and all there was was the music – that was the best.”
While Jersey Boys has left TPAC, their tour continues, and The Sound of Music is coming to Broadway at TPAC October 13-18th. Tickets are almost entirely sold out, so if you want to see the show, you’d better move fast!
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Bethany is a wife, mother, and dog mom. In her spare time she likes to read, write fiction, and go out with her family. She feels lucky to live in Music City where she can go to the symphony or theatre all the time.
