Weathervane Playhouse’s production of ‘Jersey Boys’...Oh What A Night!

Photo Credit Dale Dong

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (aka The Four Lovers, The Varitones, Frankie Valli and the Travelers, Frankie Valli and the Romans, The Village Voices and The Topics along with a dozen more stage names) is a tremendously popular 1960 quartet out of New Jersey. In total they have (with varying personnel) sold over 100 million records worldwide.

As evident by their many name changes theirs was not an overnight success story. They started out as a group of miscreants (some of who did time for various offenses) that just happened to play instruments and sing. It was only through diligence, hard work and a lot of luck that they became successful. That plus the Jersey Attitude (pronounced Jousy Atti-tute) of “family and friends are the most important” that saw them through to success.

The jukebox musical “Jersey Boys” premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2004 then on to Broadway in 2005 where it was entrenched there until 2017 winning four Tony Awards. There have been two National Tours in the United States, the UK and Ireland. The show has been produced in London’s West End, Las Vegas, Chicago, Toronto, Melbourne, Singapore, South Africa, the Netherlands, Japan, Dubai and China.

The musical began in the early 2000’s when Bob Gaudio (an original Four Season Member) sought to make a musical from the band’s discography with each member taking turns with the narrative. Gaudio and Frankie Valli hired Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman to write the book and Des McAnuff to direct. Brickman suggested creating a show about the band’s history using the music to illustrate particular episodes of their careers. The title came to Gaudio during a plane ride where he reasoned the original members were “just a bunch of jersey boys”. The rest is history.

The show is currently on stage at Weathervane Playhouse in Akron and is directed by Melanie YC Pepe with Marissa Leenaarts as choreographer, Ron Hazelett as music director (with his small but powerful six piece band) and Jasen J. Smith as costume designer. Scenic design is by Richard Morris, Jr. with lighting design by Micah Harvey and sound design by Christopher Pepe.

It is France in 2000 as “Ces soirées-lá (Oh What a Night)” is being performed by a French rap group making it a number one hit. Tommy Devito (Keon Dalziel) introduces himself and explains that each of the four original members have their own version of the same story but there is one thing they agree on. It all began with them singing on a street corner in Belleville, New Jersey in the early 1950s (“Silhouettes”).

Tommy sings back-up and plays guitar for a cover group “The Variety Trio” with his brother Nick DeVito (Stuart Daniel) and friend Nick Massi (Ben Arrington) (“You’re the Apple of My Eye”). They add Frankie Castelluccio (Tony Heffner) (“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love”). When the DeVito brothers get sent up for breaking and entering (“Earth Angel”) Tommy asks Massi to take care of Frankie and help him with his vocal technique (“A Sunday Kind of Love”). Massi is sent up on a parole violation as Tommy is released. Tommy introduces Frankie to Mary Delgado (Rachael Armbruster) who convinces Frankie to change his stage name to “Valli”. The two of them soon wed.

Frankie falls prey to a fake murder scam which Tommy takes care of by calling his boss, mobster Gyp DeCarlo (Rob Albrecht) who makes a special request on the anniversary on his mother’s death for Frankie to sing (“My Mothers Eyes”). As a reward, DeCarlo tears a greenback in half giving Frankie the other half as a “claim check” for any future favor. Back on the road, the group keeps changing its name, lineup and style as they try to keep up with the fads (“I Go Ape”). While Tommy is setting up a pin-setting scam at a bowling alley his friend and co-conspirator Joe Pesci introduces them to Bob Gaudio (a singer-songwriter from Bergenfield).

Bob takes over the narrative telling about his first hit single at age 14 (“Short Shorts”) and upon hearing Frankie sing (Moody’s Mood for Love”) writes (“Cry for Me”) with Frankie in mind. He agrees to join the group only if made an equal partner and keeps his song writing rights. Bob takes the group to the Brill Building where they meet Bob Crewe (Dan Reichert) (“Backup Sessions”) who suggests they record their own material, find a real name for the group and write some hit songs he can use.

As Bob makes his way to their first recording session, now as the Four Season (named after the bowling alley where Tommy ran his scam and they failed an audition) inspiration strikes and the song (“Sherry”) is born. Soon it is followed by (“Big Girls Don’t Cry”), and (“Walk Like A Man”) making the group heroes for the working class youth of the time.

Nick Massi takes Bob under his wing convincing him to buy a “Caddy” and at a Christmas party sets him up with a woman (“Oh What a Night”). Now touring, the group adds a girl’s group The Angels (“My Boyfriend’s Back”) who end up sleeping with the various members of The Four Seasons. Things soon begin to unravel as Tommy owes thousands of dollars to loan sharks as well as the IRS. Frankie and Mary split up over her alcoholism and his constant touring (“My Eyes Adored You”) as the British invasion hits the shores of America. The group fights back with (“Dawn (Go Away)”) to reclaim the top Billboard spot.

There seems to be a trend recently with so called “jukebox” musicals. With song lists adding up to close to 30 or more tunes (plus the reprises) along with a long and convoluted story line it makes for shows lasting way too long (in the neighborhood of two and a half hours or more). Thank goodness for long intermissions (as my older friends will attest). It would be nice if theaters could be given editing rights to shorten the shows to more palatable lengths. It just seems that the shows are stuffed to the gills with each and every relatable song to the story. I am not alone in this assessment having listened to the various comments of the departing audience members. Just saying.

As for this production (realizing that it is a community theater with a 90 year history) it really is not too bad. While some of the characters do not match our minds eye depiction of the originals it is after all the singing and dancing that we come to see. Keon Dalziel as Tommy DeVito, Tony Heffner as Frankie Valli, Ben Arrington as Nick Massi and Andrew Allen as Bob Gaudio have a great blending of voices ala The Four Seasons to the point they the really do sound like the originals. Keon, Tony and Ben have the “Jousy Atti-tute” down to a “T” with Andrew as the “foreigner from Bergenfield” notching in perfectly. Other notables include Rob Albrecht as the crying Gyp DeCarlo, Brandon Crites as Joe Pesci and Rachael Armbruster as Mary Delgado. It should also be noted that ten of the seventeen performers are cast in multiple roles with quite a few costume changes involved.

For a community theater, this show is an ambitious undertaking to say the least. Most important is the casting. While looks are not everything it is the sound that is ingrained in our very souls that must be matched perfectly. Weathervane nails it. This is a very entertaining (but long) show with some great singing and dancing bits. Well worth the drive to Akron.

The Weathervane Playhouse production of “Jersey Boys” will be on stage at 1301 Weathervane Lane in Akron through March 30, 2025. For more information and to purchase tickets go to http://www.weathervaneplayhouse.com or call (330) 836-2626.