Interview by Paul Salfen and Drew Pearson
JERSEY BOYS is the behind-the-music story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. They were just four guys from Jersey, until they sang their very first note. They had a sound nobody had ever heard… and the radio just couldn’t get enough of. But while their harmonies were perfect on stage, off stage it was a very different story – a story that has made them an international sensation all over again. The show features all their hits including “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Oh What A Night,” “Walk Like A Man,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and “Working My Way Back To You.”
They were just four guys from Jersey, until they sang their very first note. They had a sound nobody had ever heard… and the radio just couldn’t get enough of. But while their harmonies were perfect on stage, off stage it was a very different story – a story that has made them an international sensation all over again.
In the early 2000s, Bob Gaudio, an original Four Seasons member, sought to make a musical from the discography of the band. Little was known to the public about the group’s history prior to the premiere of the musical, because the magazines of the era did not write much about them. In their research, Brickman and Elice were surprised to find that the members had prison records, which might have prevented their music from being played if it had been publicized when they were active.According to Gaudio, “Back then, things were a little clean-cut, don’t forget, so the idea of our story getting out was horrifying to us.Other bands of the time projected street-tough images, but The Four Seasons cleaned themselves up in order to be palatable for mainstream listeners.
In this interview with Jon Hacker, who plays Frankie Valli in the touring Broadway show, we hear Drew Pearson sing a little of “Walk Like A Man.” Drew is originally from New Jersey. Buy tickets to the Dallas show, which runs through January 9th HERE
JERSEY BOYS is Broadway’s biggest success story. It won four 2006 Tony Awards® including Best Musical; the 2006 Grammy® Award for Best Musical Show Album; the 2009 Olivier Award for Best New Musical and the 2010 Helpmann Award for Best Musical (Australia), along with many other awards worldwide.
This full-scale Broadway musical is based on the lives and careers of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Though actors portray each of The Four Seasons, this is not an impersonation show but rather a musical documentary of their career as a group. The cast of 21 performers takes audiences through the rags-to-ROCK-to-riches story of The Four Seasons in this Tony, Grammy® and Olivier Award-winning Best Musical.
SOME FACTS:
The Company
- 49 people in the traveling company
- 19 actors – 14 tracks onstage, 1 Frankie Alternate, 4 swings, 7 musicians (incl. Conductor), many of whom appear on stage.
The Music
- The Four Seasons sold 175 million records worldwide – all before they were thirty years old.
- 33 songs in the show, including 5 #1 hits, and 11 songs that made Billboard’s top ten.
- 19 hit songs by The Four Seasons or Frankie Valli didn’t make it into the show, and are listed in the playbill as “The Ones That Got Away” (including 4 top ten hits).
- As the musical traces the origins of the group when they performed songs written by other groups, the songs in the show represent work by 34 songwriters, including Otis Blackwell, Dorothy Fields, Louis Prima and Judy Parker. Most of the hits of The Four Seasons were written by original member of The Four Seasons Bob Gaudio and their producer/lyricist, Bob Crewe.
