'Jersey Boys' at the Palace Theater - My Review

The eight shows of the touring company of the musical Jersey Boys at the Palace Theater in Waterbury had been years in the making and highly hyped for months. Community theater people and others had highly recommended it. So I couldn't miss the chance to experience this "more than a jukebox musical" and we did so with a huge audience of die-hard fans on Saturday night. Many patrons clearly had never been to the Palace and appreciated aloud the beauty of the theater so that us "locals" could concur.

Jersey Boys is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons' rise to fame in the sixties and early seventies. Throughout the musical, the beloved songs in close harmony that the group made famous are convincingly preformed by the four actors portraying the changing members of the group. Audience members old enough to remember the iconic music (i.e. baby boomers) cheered for each one of the 33 numbers included in the show and the list of "the ones that got away" in the program includes another 19.

The gritty behind the scenes story of the foursome of New Jersey guys movies along at breakneck speed; the first act unfolds so quickly that my son had to Google the synopsis during intermission to check for our understanding. The script is as accurate as a tale can be when told from many perspectives. The book was co-written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (who also co-wrote The Addams Family.)The Palace stage looked good with the sets designed by Klara Zieglerova, but the production was not overproduced. The sound was loud enough but at times people near us had some trouble understanding the lines.

There was a sign on an easel near the door to the mezzanine that warned us of the use of strobe lights and authentic (foul) Jersey language, and there was plenty of the latter. The 52 member cast and crew brought lots of energy to the stage. In a decidedly male dominated cast, the four women held their own and covered a lot of roles. The Jersey Boys orchestra sounded great and the drummer next to me enjoyed that two drum sets were on the stage at times.

The lead role of Frankie Valli is swapped between two actors, but as far as I could tell, Nick Cosgrove performed at this performance. His falsetto voice was perfect for the challenging role. The other members of the original Four Seasons were played by Jason Kappus as the groups songwriter and the credited composer of Jersey Boys Bob Gaudio, Brandon Andrus as Nick Massi and Nicolas Dromard as Tommy DeVito. The rest of the cast included strong singers.