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ICE CUBES: The Jersey Boys do it again
Last year, Philly couldn't get enough of Jersey Boys. So with nothing spelling success like more success, the second national tour of Jersey Boys pulled back into Forrest Theater last weekend.
ICE CUBES: The Jersey Boys do it again
Last year, Philly couldn’t get enough of Jersey Boys, the quirky Tony Award-winning musical about the life, songs, times and crimes of the Four Seasons. The Forrest Theater had some of the biggest numbers throughout its 2010 run. So with nothing spelling success like more success, the second national tour of Jersey Boys pulled into the same theater last weekend with a new cast featuring a Philly-area native Brandon Andrus (as Nick Massi), a Jersey-born new Frank Valli in Brad Weinstock, Colby Foytik (Tommy DeVito) who joined the Second National Tour after a 10-month run in the show's Las Vegas production, and Jason Kappus (Bob Gaudio), who starred on Broadway in American Idiot. Better still, for the opening night, last Friday night’s audiences got treated to a performance-ending bow (and an after party at Smokin’ Betty’s) starring the real salt-and-pepper haired Gaudio, book co-writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, director Des McAnuff and choreographer Sergio Trujillo.
Before the show, I chatted with the creative team in the lavish bar/bathroom/basement lobby of the Forrest. Having spoken with Gaudio several times about his relationship to his theatrical baby, we blabbed about the rare necessities of last-minute changes noticeable to those (like me) who have witnessed the production several times in the past. It was a true wonder though that McAnuff was in attendance. He was getting ready for the next day’s live shoot of Faust from the Metropolitan Opera of New York (for airing on several hundred cinema screens throughout America), as well as mounting Henry V in London, Jesus Christ Superstar in LaJolla and pushing Christopher Plummer through his Stratford Shakespeare stage with a one-man show. “Working with Bob was a dream from start to finish, especially since he and Frankie never wanted to do the typical jukebox musical,” says McAnuff who smelled great, wearing a scent whose name I refuse to disclose so that I, and I alone, can buy it and wear it. It was strange hearing Trujillo and Elice talk about how they grew up with the music of their collaborator mere feet away. Elice in particular told a funny story about not being allowed to listen to the Four Seasons’ demon rock 'n' roll at home. “Instead I got it from my camp councilors during the summer,” says Elice. As for his and Brickman’s infamous sit down with Gaudio and Vallli about the various tales of their mobbed up past, Elice joked, “We couldn’t include it. If we tried to, I wouldn’t be sitting with you now.” With that, Brickman made two motions — one zip across his lips and one slash across his throat — with a big smile.
(a_amorosi@citypaper.net) (@ADAmorosi)
Photos by A.D. Amorosi
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