Review: JERSEY BOYS Serenade Memphis at the Orpheum Theatre

JERSEY BOYS is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. This award-winning show has been running on Broadway for more than ten years. Its wild popularity spawned touring companies that have been breaking box office records in venues around the world. It was adapted into a film, produced and directed by Clint Eastwood in 2014. The current national tour opened at the Memphis Orpheum on October 25 and it will play through October 30th.

This production is a tour-de-force and a crowd-pleaser, but at the end of the day it's still a jukebox musical. As with other shows in that genre, I had trouble with the narrative for three reasons: the script hurtles us through a massive amount of information so quickly we're forced to skim along on the surface, it's impossible to separate fact from poetic license, and consequently the story line feels like nothing more than a hastily-stirred cement to anchor hit songs together. Boil down a forty-year slice of biography while attempting to tidily tie in song titles, and you get a contrivance.

In their attempt to cover the highs and lows of this rollercoaster epic in under three hours, playwrights Brickman and Elice have actors routinely breaking the fourth wall as sort of a verbal shoehorn to make room in the plot for thirty-four hit songs. In the process, some tangential events were touched on that might have been just as well left alone, while other bigger questions left me making mental notes and reading Wikipedia later that night. What I learned was that the Four Seasons wrote their own songs, invented their own sound, and sold 175 million records worldwide before they were thirty. (The preternaturally youthful Valli is 84 years old and still performing today!)

The hits in this show include: Big Girls Don't Cry, Sherry,Walk Like A Man,Oh, What A Night, and Can't Take My Eyes Off You. Nineteen other hit songs by The Four Seasons or Frankie Valli didn't make it into the show, and are listed in the playbill as "The Ones That Got Away."

Middle-of-the-road script aside, Jersey Boys is great entertainment thanks to its marvelous music performed by the four stellar young actors who bring charisma, heart and solid technique to their roles: AaRon De Jesus is wonderful beyond words as Frankie Valli, Matthew Dailey plays a poignant Tommy DeVito and Keith Hines is absolutely convincing as Nick Massi -- three men from the wrong side of the tracks driven by a dream, propelled by talent, and caught in the cult of machismo. In contrast Cory Jeacoma plays the sensitive and cerebral Bob Gaudio, the young prodigy who came up in more comfortable surroundings and became their hit songwriter while still in his teens. That well-cast quartet can harmonize, move, and make us want to stand up and cheer. Another standout cast member is Kristen Paulicelli who plays a heartfelt Mary Delgado, Valli's first wife.

These talented leads were supported by fifteen energetic swing members who played multiple roles. Dressing this rapid-fire show was a job-dropping feat. Some performers had up to a dozen quick costume changes that often included wigs: 75 costumes/looks for the male swings, 37 for the female swings, and all looked crisp and finished with every entrance. (I can only imagine what had to have been going on back stage to pull that off!) This sartorial splendor is the artistry of Jess Goldstein. Charles LaPointe is the wizard behind the consummate coiffures.

The only aesthetic choices I disagreed with were the poorly-executed comic-book style graphics projected above an otherwise clean and versatile set. They're distracting, trite, intrusive and add nothing to the story. I also have to take issue with the lighting in the scene where the audience is presumably backstage. Once we're pulled through that figurative looking glass, bright stage lights are cast directly into our (dilated) eyes. Unlike the performers, we have been sitting in the dark for over an hour. From my seat in the orchestra section, the effect was painful, pulling me out of the fantasy of the show and back into a stinging reality. And last, but not least, there were sound challenges. In some numbers the vocalists were overpowered by the musicians. I don't know if this was an opening night wrinkle or an issue with the venue, as it has happened on other Orpheum opening nights.

But despite those imperfections, JERSEY BOYS is an all American show with great music and a lot of heart. A musical you're sure to enjoy, particularly if you're sentimental about old time rock and roll. You'll walk away smiling and singing.

Photos by Jeremy Daniel

Jersey Boys plays through Sunday, October 30, 2016

Tickets available at the Orpheum Theatre website,

The Orpheum Box Office (901.525.3000), the ticket counter at The Booksellers at Laurelwood,
and Ticketmaster (901.743.ARTS).

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