JERSEY BOYS Comes to TheatreZone In Naples

TheatreZone, Naples' professional Equity theatre company, will present Jersey Boys, the Tony Award-winning musical that tells the rags-to-riches-to-rags story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, charting their rise from the streets of New Jersey to international stardom. The musical runs March 6-16 at TheatreZone, located on Livingston Road at the G&L Theatre.

 

Written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice with music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe, Jersey Boys explores the bonds of brotherhood, the pursuit of dreams and the price of fame between the show's many songs — 34 numbers — mostly written by Bob Gaudio.  It is the true story of how a group of blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks became one of the biggest American pop music sensations of all time. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide - all before they were 30. 

 

Jersey Boys is told in four parts — four seasons, each narrated by a different band member — that give four different points of view about the group's rags, to riches, to rags trajectory. Audiences are transported through the decades with chart-topping hits like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don't Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” and “Can't Take My Eyes Off You,” and the inevitable big finale, “Oh, What a Night.”

 

“Jersey Boys is a blend of unforgettable music, high-energy choreography and a riveting life story that will have audiences singing along all night,” says Mark Danni, TheatreZone's Founding Artistic Director. “Frankie Valli's signature falsetto and the tight harmonies of the Four Seasons are essential to the show's magic, requiring exceptionalist vocalists to bring these timeless songs to life.”

 

Jersey Boys premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2004 and opened on Broadway the following year, where it ran for 4,642 performances, until 2017. Jersey Boys won four Tony Awards in 2006, including Best Musical. It also reintroduced the Four Seasons' music to new generations, cementing their legacy in rock and roll history.

 

Danni will direct Jersey Boys and has cast a quartet of powerful male singers from around the country for the intricate four-part harmonies behind the group's trademark sound.

 

Karen Molnar Danni will choreograph the show's brisk pace and momentum. Music director Anthony Brindisi, a New York and Las Vegas-based pianist, orchestrator, conductor, composer and keyboard programmer, will conduct a band of seven live musicians. 

 

Meet the Cast

New York actor Mike Backes plays lead guitarist Tommy DeVito, a natural-born leader who organizes the group while making music under the streetlight.

 

Central to the cast is the headliner, New York actor Chris Oram who, as Frankie Valli, delivers the singer's famous falsetto.

 

Quinn Corcoran, with his dynamic tenor voice, has been cast as songwriter and keyboardist Bob Gaudio, a prodigy who came into the group having composed his first hit song “Who Wears Short Shorts?” at the age of 15. 

 

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