The National tour of Jersey Boys, the Grammy® and Tony® Award winning Best Musical, plays its 500th performance this Friday, March 14. The tour is currently in its final week (through March 15) at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Morsani Hall, where it has been one of the most successful engagements in the theatre's history. The show set a new box office record for the week ending March 9, grossing $1,705,414, and it also set a new record for Carol Morsani Hall on Saturday night, March 8 opened to a sold-out house of 2,586 patrons.
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Jersey Boys is the story of
Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons –
Frankie Valli,
Bob Gaudio,
Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi, and how this 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 sound and sold 175 million records worldwide – al Academy Award winner
Marshall Brickman and
Rick Elice, with music by
Bob Gaudio, lyrics by
Bob Crewe and choreography by
Sergio Trujillo.
The production stars stars Erik Bates (as
Tommy DeVito),
Steve Gouveia (as Nick Massi),
Christopher Kale Jones (as
Frankie Valli) and
Andrew Rannells (as
Bob Gaudio) with
Jonathan Hadley and
Joseph Siravo. The ensemble comprises
Miles Aubrey,
Matt Bailey,
Holly Ann Butler, Sarah Darling, Christopher DeAngelis,
Jamie Karen, Nathan Klau, Michelle Knight,
Brandon Matthieus, Zachary Prince, Nathan Scherich,
Courter Simmons,
Taylor Sternberg and
Kara Tremel.
Jersey Boys premiered at La Jolla Playhouse, October 17, 2004, where the musical played a record-breaking run prior to the Broadway production.
Jersey Boys opened at the
August Wilson Theatre on Broadway to critical acclaim on November 6, 2005 and continues to set new weekly box office records, remaining among the five top grossing shows in New York. The
Jersey Boys National Tour opened to rave reviews in San Francisco on December 1, 2006 and played a 44-week, record-breaking run. The Tour also played Los Angeles, Sacramento, Tempe, San Diego, Costa Mesa, Seattle and Houston. The show is currently playing in New York,
Chicago and in cities across the U.S. on a National Tour. Performances begin in London on February 28th (opening March 18) and Las Vegas on April 4th (opening May 3). After the Tampa engagement, the national tour will play Minneapolis, MN March 19 through April 20, 2008.
The Original Broadway Cast Recording of
Jersey Boys, produced by
Bob Gaudio, received the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album and has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Jersey Boys: The Story of
Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (Broadway Books) is the official handbook to the smash Broadway hit and is now on sale.
