Theatre review: Jersey Boys has smooth moves, authentic grit, and style for miles
At Arts Club’s Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, Julie Tomaino helms a honed production that hits all the high notes of the Four Seasons story
Photo by Moonrider Productions for Arts Club Theatre Company
Arts Club Theatre Company presents Jersey Boys at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage to October 20
A COUPLE OF SEASONS ago, the Arts Club Theatre Company staged Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, telling the personal story of the iconic title character. Now, it’s time for the fellas to take the stage with Jersey Boys, a bio musical of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The show, which won the 2006 Tony Award for Best Musical, recounts the exciting, yet often complicated and sometimes heartbreaking, story of the group—all powered by its nonstop parade of hits.
The group’s members started from humble beginnings in 1950s New Jersey before climbing to the top of the music industry. The story centres on Frankie Castelluccio (an endearing Elliot Lazar), who at the start of the show is an impressionable 16-year-old with a sweet voice. Tommy DeVito (the confident, street-smart Darren Martens) takes Frankie under his wing. While Tommy and his friend Nick Massi (a loveable Tanner Zerr) want to make music, they also have a tendency to get in trouble with the cops. So the first few years of Frankie’s friendship with the pair sees more arrests and jail time than music making, but Frankie manages to bloom as a singer. At the suggestion of his love interest, Mary Delgado (a playful yet wise Emma Pedersen), Frankie decides to swap his last name of Castelluccio for Valli.
When the guys meet Bob Gaudio (a poised Jason Sakaki), who despite his young age has already scored huge success with writing the hit song “Short Shorts”, things start to come together. But as the young men’s journey up the music industry ladder gains momentum, so too come challenges that threaten their friendships and the sense of loyalty that has been ingrained in them throughout their Italian American upbringing.
This production introduces Vancouver audiences to Lazar, who possesses an incredible voice, complete with a fantastic falsetto. As Lazar’s Frankie develops throughout the show, so does his singing, and when he croons “I’m in the Mood for Love” midway through Act One, it’s clear that we’re watching an extraordinary talent.
Martens, Sakaki, and Zerr all offer distinct personalities that make for engaging dynamics; they move fluidly and sound terrific in their many musical numbers together. Kudos also go to the talented trio of Pedersen, Sarah Cantuba, and Tiana Jung, who are on overdrive throughout the show, seamlessly playing all the female characters. Amid the numbers performed by Lazar and his crew, a nice touch comes when the ladies get a moment to own the stage themselves with “My Boyfriend’s Back”.
Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s book does a great job of keeping the decades-long story moving, infusing humour to balance the sometimes-heavy subject matter. The songs, which include such hits as “Sherry”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, “Walk Like a Man”, and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You”, are not only great to hear performed by the cast—under the masterful music direction of Ken Cormier—but are also well placed throughout the show to set up and carry out the emotional highs and lows of the story.
Ryan Cormack’s brilliant set provides a perfect playground for all the action. While the original Broadway production took place on a mainly bare stage adorned with scaffolding, Cormack offers a wonderfully unique concept, with music stereo dials above the stage and giant speakers on either side that open to reveal different settings. Likewise, costume designer Barbara Clayden has let her creativity flourish, dressing the cast in some fun pieces of ’60s fashion—especially the women’s chic streetwear and puffy patterned dresses, paired with beehive hairdos. Clayden also adeptly re-creates the iconic looks of the Four Seasons, including their matching red blazers with black trim.
Special mention must go to dialect coach Alison Matthews, who has done an excellent job of helping this cast of Canadian performers, many of whom reside in Vancouver, sound like authentic New Jerseyans. Everything here, from the intonations to the fashion, is convincing for the period and locales.
At the helm of this production is director and choreographer Julie Tomaino, whose talent for both jobs results in seamless transitions between the staging and dance. For example, near the beginning of the show, when Tommy and Nick are led to jail, their steps with the guards evolve naturally into choreography. And while the Broadway production’s choreography consisted of a lot of passionate step touches, Tomaino, assisted by Shannon Hanbury, has incorporated plenty of variety into the moves, adding sparkle to the numbers.
While Valli and the Four Seasons had a clean, all-American look, their real lives were anything but clean. Jersey Boys is about the messiness that can happen in life and how to still live authentically and unapologetically. The Arts Club’s production captures that idea so genuinely and with such style that, to paraphrase one of the Four Season’s biggest hits, you can’t take your eyes off of it. 
Related Articles
