Review: Don't Take Your Eyes Off Of JERSEY BOYS Long Island Premiere At The Gateway Playhouse

On August 4, 2023, the Long Island premiere of Jersey Boys opened at Bellport’s The Gateway Playhouse and “you won’t be able to take your eyes off of it!”

Jersey Boys, hands down, is THE BEST jukebox musical. The reason why it’s THE BEST is because as opposed to taking an amazing artist’s song catalogue and piecemealing a clunky fictional story with them (i.e. ABBA and the shoddy Mamma Mia!), the creative team decided to create a standard music bio-pic, a successful film trope (i.e. Ray, Walk the Line, Bohemian Rhapsody), and adapt it for the stage. The book by Academy Award winner Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice chronicles the history of The Four Seasons and intersperses their songs allowing the audience to hear the music as it should be heard. Now, don’t worry, you don’t have to be a die-hard fan of The Four Seasons to appreciate this show. Not only will you love the music, you will be thoroughly engaged in the story as well. You most likely are already a fan of The Four Seasons and don’t even know it. For example, you may hear the opening harmonies of “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and remember the opening scene of Dirty Dancing, when Baby and her family arrive at Kellerman’s. You may hear the opening drum line of “Walk Like a Man” and recall Mrs. Doubtfire walking the inclined streets of San Francisco while “adjusting” herself. When you hear “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You”, you may be transported back to 1998 when you listened to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill for the first time. The same could be said for “Beggin'" as that song found a new audience in 2021 thanks to Måneskin. If you are a fan of any of these songs, then consider yourself “well-seasoned”.

The story of The Four Seasons is narrated by each band member during four prominent seasons of their career. Frankie Valli (Winter), Tommy DeVito (Spring), Nick Massi (Fall) and Bob Gaudio (Summer), break the fourth wall, and provide their own perspective on their history and music. 5 Number One Hits. 10 Top Ten Hits. 15 Top 40 Hits. 100 Million Records Sold. The Mafia. Love. Betrayal. Joe Pesci. Need I say more; this show has it all.

Director Larry Raben did a phenomenal job recreating Des McAnuff’s vision for Jersey Boys. Raben compiled a great creative team including: Brian Loesch, Kim Hanson, Jonah Verdon, Brittany Loesch, William Milligan and David Engel; together they truly captured the grittiness of New Jersey through an effective minimal set. Like the Broadway show, this production makes use of projections to help drive the story. There’s not a bad seat in the house at the Gateway Playhouse, however, I suggest sitting in the mid to rear orchestra that way you can take in the full experience of this great show.

Raben and Rachel Armistead did a brilliant job with casting this production. Pablo David Laucerica, Matt Faucher, Travis Murad Leland and Lukas Poost are perfectly cast as The Four Seasons.  There’s a great scene in Act I where The Four Seasons perform together for the first time. In an on the spot audition to join the group, Bob Gaudio (Poost) sits at a piano and begins singing “Cry for Me”, a very underrated Four Seasons song. As the song goes on, each member of the band joins in and you literally see magic happening in front of your eyes. Laucerica is flawless as Frankie Valli and his falsetto rivals the acclaimed singer; his performance of “Fallen Angel” will give you chills. Faucher is also wonderful as Nick Massi, a role he played in the musical’s second national tour. Not only are his bass vocals extraordinary, he is a top-notch actor; the audience truly connected with him. Poost and Leland were also excellent in their roles of Bob Gaudio and Tommy DeVito respectively. Haley Hannah portrays Valli’s first wife Mary Delgado and steals the spotlight whenever she is on stage. It was also great to see Forever Plaid’s David Engel grace the stage as manager, producer and lyricist Bob Crewe. Engel has experience with magical harmonious sounds thanks to his tenure with Forever Plaid; having him play the integral part of Bob Crewe was a nice subtle touch and symbolized a passing of the torch from a member of one great musical theater group to the next. Applause also goes out to Paloma D’Auria.  D’Auria plays various “Jersey girls” in the show, but stops the show when she plays the lead singer of The Angels and performs “My Boyfriend’s Back”. With her beautiful voice, she truly made this song her own and turned a typical filler song into a star performance!  

Do yourself a favor and see Jersey Boys at The Gateway. It’s one of the best productions I have seen on Long Island. When you see it, I guarantee you’ll say, “Oh, What a Night!”

Rounding out The Gateway Playhouse's 2023-2024 season will be The Gateway's Holiday Spectacular on Ice Starring NANCY KERRIGAN (Dec 1-Jan 1, 2024) Fiddler on the Roof (Jan 26 -Feb 25, 2024), and In the Heights (Mar 15-Apr 14, 2024). 

You can purchase tickets to Jersey Boys and these upcoming productions here: 

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