BWW Reviews: 'Can't Take Your Eyes Off' JERSEY BOYS at Hershey Theatre

When is a jukebox musical not a "jukebox musical"? If anything, it's when the musical is by its subjects, when they're an integral part of putting the show together. If JERSEY BOYS were any less a jukebox musical, it would be the original band on stage talking about their story and giving a concert themselves. With music by band member and composer Bob Gaudio, lyrics by "Fifth Season" Bob Crewe -- in short, with the music and lyrics by the band's songwriters, one of whom was a band member, and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, JERSEY BOYS isn't as much a jukebox musical as it is a musical documentary of a hair-raising story that wasn't in the news at the time.

The Four Seasons. Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. A band forged in and out of jail, with financial debts to the Mob, personal debts to each other and everyone else, The Four Seasons had to clean up their image at the time they were performing together in order to be marketable, though these days they'd be pretty weak thugs next to a group of rappers. JERSEY BOYS, currently on tour and at the Hershey Theatre, tells the story that didn't make it to the teen magazines, and needs no color added to be sufficiently dramatic for anyone.

As for the show itself, it's a loosely but fascinatingly connected string of events that exist for the one purpose of leading up to at least one song per scene -- thirty-four songs, in whole or in part, cross the stage and the ears of the audience. It's part show and part tribute band, the entire difference being that the audience is never quite convinced it's listening to a tribute band. The audience, heavily women who are already veteran Four Seasons and Frankie Valli fans, are at the Four Seasons concert of their lives, nearly rioting at the first strains of "Sherry," thundering at "Walk Like a Man," and waiting for Frankie to hit that falsetto one more time.

For those who can't quite remember, "Frankie Valli" on the Hershey stage is Hayden Milanes, not Valli himself, though he's blessed with a falsetto that rivals the original. Bob Gaudio, Valli's partner in almost all things, as well as the composer of the novelty hit "Short shorts" (yes, the Nair commercial song) even before that, is Drew Seeley. Formerly on Broadway as Prince Eric in THE LITTLE MERMAID, Seeley gives a marvelous performance as the guy with the actual credentials who's forced to prove himself to his band mates anyway. Band member Nick Massi is portrayed by Keith Hines, and Tommy DeVito, the first of the "Four," by Matthew Dailey. Dailey's no stranger to jukebox musicals, having toured in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER -- "THE MUSICAL, but here he gives a solid performance as the egocentric, mob-connected self-appointed leader of the group.

One of the best performances of the show, however, isn't by one of the Four Seasons but by Barry Anderson, playing "Fifth Season," producer, lyricist, and friend, the now-recently-deceased Bob Crewe. Formerly in the Broadway and national tour casts of LEGALLY BLONDE, a Disney recording regular, and a veteran of television's beloved 30 ROCK, Anderson owns Crewe's part, as well as much of the production, though unlike Milanes and Dailey, he's not on stage almost all of the time. He is, however, a definite, lingering presence when he's not on stage, commanding it as he does. It's only fair that the Crewe and Gaudio characters rule the stage, as they're the ones who created the band's and Valli's music.

The characters' lives are difficult (especially Valli's, as the show recounts the failure of his first marriage and his daughter Francine's suicide), as might be expected, and the story's decidedly gritty, but much of the audience may not even notice, especially once "Sherry" bursts forth partway through the first act.

If there's anything lacking musically, it may be that there's never a complete performance of "Oh, What a Night (December, 1963)", the song based on Gaudio's full discovery of why girls exist. The scene explains the event, but while the song is on stage more than once, there's no complete performance of what was an enormous hit. But there's everything else: "Big Girls Don't Cry," Rag Doll," "Big Man in Town," "Bye, Bye Baby (Baby, Goodbye)," and the like. Expect the person next to you to be singing uncontrollably whether you like it or not; expect people in front of you to be jumping around in their seats. Surprisingly, people were not dancing at their seats or in the aisles, which seemed as if it would have been the next thing happening. Expect, also, more story about people not Frankie Valli than you might anticipate; this is the band's story, not merely the Frankie Valli story. Tommy DeVito's rise from bowling alleys to hit band member to Mob-enforced obscurity in Las Vegas at the height of the band's career is possibly the most compelling story line, while Nick Massi's own story is unfortunately minimal.

The six-Tony-winner is at Hershey Theatre through February 1, and if The Four Seasons are your thing, this show is. With Gaudio and Valli originally empowered to pull the plug on the show if they didn't approve of it, it's more an authorized biography with music than an "oh look, jukebox," which makes it considerably easier to love than most for those who don't enjoy the usual style of the genre. It's also worth seeing for the staging, which is beautifully handled. For information and tickets, call 717-534-3405 or visit HersheyTheatre.com.