Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Tim Driesen, Sam Ferriday, Lewis Griffiths, Stephen Webb, Amelia Adams-Pearce, Charlie Allen, Damien Buhagiar, Henry Davis, Leanne Garretty, Matt Gillett, Dayle Hodge, Sean Kingsley, Dan Krikler, Sinead Long, Nathaniel Morrison, Luke Morton, Dominic Smith.
Truth is always stranger than fiction, especially it seems when it comes out of the state of New Jersey. From the shores of Cape May, through to the boulevards and gambling houses of Atlantic City to the alter ego and sometimes expensive reminder of American life in Newark. Truth is what keeps you out of harm’s way, talent, talent gets you noticed and when you have the ability to combine both truth and talent, that’s when you have a sure fire hit in Jersey Boys.
The lives and times of Bob Gaudio, Nick Massi, Tommy DeVito and Frankie Valli, The Four Seasons, is one that truth can be said to come from many quarters, four voices, four different reasons to their fortune and success, to their music and to the near destruction of one of the greatest bands to come out of America all captured on the Liverpool stage for arguably the most refined set of music lovers in the country.
If there is a problem about Jersey Boys, it comes in the form of its cleanliness, its polish and refined gloss and it could be argued that uniquely it suffers from its film counterpart really getting below the belt of American hardship and portraying New Jersey with its true warts and all never say die attitude. A state of contradictions, a state of poverty and of beauty, a place in which America really stands out as disparate more than any other save for the city of New York and its surrounding boroughs.
The polish though is to be expected, after all, theatre can only ever portray so much grime and passion and for all that is missing, the very heart of the production remains, the music that made America listen was as potent and as rich as Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe envisaged and as arguably one of the greatest voices in American music history, Frankie Valli, could have sang.
To replicate the voice of Mr. Valli takes such artistry that it is surely too big an ask to find someone who could take on the extreme task, however in Tim Driesen, the voice was as near faultless as could be expected and with superb additions to the cast in Lewis Griffiths, who provided the quiet but booming voice of bass player Nick Massi and Matt Gillett giving Bob Crewe that edge of perfection which is needed in which to carry the man’s name forward, the polish, too severe in other quarters, was fitting and justified completely in the stage presence of the band who bought such songs as Walk Like A Man, Let’s Hang On, Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry and the compelling December 1963 (Oh What A Night) to the world’s attention.
A night where truth always overshadows fiction, for nobody could ever write a tale so fascinating as that of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Oh What A Night indeed.
Ian D. Hall