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I have to admit I was sceptical of Jersey Boys. Yet another Jukebox Musical? A redeeming fact was that it won the Tony Award in 2006 for Best New Musical, beating out The Colour Purple, The Drowsy Chaperone and The Wedding Singer. But, after seeing a performance clip from the Tony Awards, I was convinced that four guys standing behind microphones could not make a good musical.

Boy, am I glad to be wrong!

It’s premise, we are told in the opening by Tommy DeVito: “You ask four guys how it happened, you get four different versions.” What results is an energetic, fast paced, entertaining night at the theatre. It is full of songs you didn’t know you new.

At the centre of the show are four wonderful performances. Gareth Keegan as Frankie Valli seamlessly transforms from wide eyed innocent to strong, independent leader. Stephen Mahy is incredibly warm as a softer spoken Bob Gaudio, the writing talent that drove The Four Seasons to the top of the charts. Glaston Toft, as mostly silent Nick Massi, can certainly tell a joke. But the real star is Scott Johnson, who has the shows best role as trouble maker Tommy DeVito. He gets the best lines, the best story arc, and Johnson carries it all with a bravado you can't help but like. The chemistry between the four leads is crucial. There’s something about the four of them together that is believable.

But the magic really begins when they sing together. They blend magnificently producing a full, smooth sound. My favourite scene would be, funnily enough, the first time they sing together. There is a simplicity to the staging of “Cry for Me” that lets the vocals shine, and gets to the heart of what Jersey Boys is about: the music.

I must also give major kudos to the supporting cast. All of whom inhabited the plethora of bit parts so well, that it made it seem as though there was an endless supply of actors waiting in the wings.

As with all Jukebox Musicals, music is an imperative part of the show. However, in this case, the music is able to transcend the jukebox musical trope of music for music’s sake, and actually drive the story. The music is the plot.

Jersey Boys is often described as a documentary musical; but is a documentary of the music as well as The Four Seasons. The music acts more like a soundtrack, often used to reflect the characters emotions, rather than as an expression of that emotion as traditional musical theatre would.

However, when the music does venture to being used in the traditional musical theatre sense, it is very jarring. I am specifically re thinking of “Oh What A Night”- the first song to be explicitly used out of the “Soundtrack mode” of the rest of the show. Oh, I get the joke of "Oh What A Night" as Bob Gaudio tells of the night he loses his virginity, but it is incredibly jarring I context with the rest of the show. And for such an up tempo number it seemed incredibly under-staged.

The show is incredibly tight. It demonstrates the polish that other major musicals (*cough* Wicked *cough*) lacked. The tightness of the material and the creativity of the staging is what is behind the success of the show.

A few minor complaints: The Jersey accents were inconsistent. Every character broke accent several times. Stephen Mahy was the worst offender (even though he was doing more of a generic American accent, not a Jersey accent like the rest of the cast.

Also the balance of sound was off. Several numbers suffered from over amplification, leaving the audience struggling to hear the lead vocals.

My only other complaint was that the audience was not informed that understudy Gareth Keegan would by playing Frankie Valli. This is not meant as an insult to Mr Keegan in any way, I enjoy seeing understudies and I enjoyed his performance. I only bring this up because in the American theatres, the audience must be notified two of three ways if an understudy is performing.- 1. An understudy board, 2. A program slip, 3. An announcement prior to the commencement of the show. None of which was done by the Princess Theatre. The audience should know which performer they are seeing, especially if there is a substitution for the LEAD.

Should I See it?

Do not miss it. Oh what a night.