Review: JERSEY BOYS Brings Special Engagement to Broadway Grand Rapids With Well Known Hits!

By: Dec. 02, 2018
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Jersey Boys
(l to r) Corey Greenan, Eric Chambliss,
Jonny Wexler and Jonathan Cable
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

Jersey Boys is a musical biography of The Four Seasons that showcases their most iconic hits and reveals the story behind the music that entertained audiences for a limited engagement in Grand Rapids this past weekend. It includes many of their well-known musical hits that will have you singing along including: "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Sherry," "December 1963 (Oh What A Night)," "Stay," "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," "Beggin," and many more.Far from a show filled with only the group's musical hits and other numbers, Jersey Boys gets to the heart of the relationships at the center of the group. It does have special focus on front man, Frankie Valli, the small kid with the big falsetto. In the show each member of the group takes a turn narrating events, illustrating how a rough and diverse group of guys from New Jersey, and their long friendships, became music history.

Jersey Boys
(l to r) The Company of JERSEY BOYS
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

When Frankie Valli (Jonny Wexler), Bob Gaudio (Eric Chambliss), Tommy DeVito (Corey Greenan), and Nick Massi (Jonathan Cable) met they were just four New Jersey teens singing together under street lamps, working hard just to get gigs and money in a working class neighborhood. As they rise to international stardom, they celebrate the highs and deal with the lows that come along with fame. Lows such as gambling debts, mafia threats and family disasters, while still having an allegiance to a code of honor learned as young boys in the streets of New Jersey.

Jersey Boys
(l to r) Jonathan Cable, Corey Greenan,
Jonny Wexler and Eric Chambliss
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

Jersey Boys is definitely a show that will leave you amazed as I cannot think of a moment when they went ten minutes without some kind of music happening during the show. The timeline of the show was continually changed by types of prop microphones to show the years passing makes the show even more authentic, which was a really interesting detail to theatre aficionados and people who are into small details! The costuming and sets, though simple, compared to other Broadway tours I've been to see, are part of what made the show so authentic to its era of music and touring that it really made you feel like you were taking the journey right along with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Jersey Boys
Jonny Wexler and Company
Photo: Joan Marcus

Jersey Boys had a limited engagement as part of the Fifth Third Bank Broadway Grand Rapids Season and played Devos Performance Hall from November 30th through December 2nd in Grand Rapids.

Up next for the Fifth Third Bank Broadway Grand Rapids Season is School of Rock at Devos Performance Hall from January 8th to 13th in Grand Rapids. For more information, tickets, and the rest of the season, visit www.BroadwayGrandRapids.com.

Connect with Jersey Boys on tour on Twitter at: @JerseyBoysInfo/, on Instagram at jerseyboystour/#, on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/JerseyBoysBroadway, and on the web: http://www.jerseyboysinfo.com/tour/

Connect with Broadway Grand Rapids on Twitter at @BroadwayGR, on Instagram at broadwaygr/, on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/BroadwayGR and on the web: https://broadwaygrandrapids.com



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