Jersey Boys, onstage at Lakewood Theatre Company, is an exuberant jukebox musical that hardly gives its actors time to take a breath between songs.
The relentlessly entertaining show tells the story of the 1960s quartet the Four Seasons, with a focus on its lead singer, Frankie Valli, who’s still touring today at age 90. As the character Frankie says, he’s like the battery-run bunny of TV ad fame: “I just keep going.”
For Lakewood’s staging, director Isaac Lamb cast Russell Fischer in the starring role. A vibrant Broadway actor whose batteries also never run low during the two-plus hour show, Fischer impresses with his lead vocals, which feature on most of the play’s 31 songs, often using the impossibly high falsetto that made Valli famous.
Fischer’s roots with the musical run deep. He was just out of college when he was cast as Joey, and he made his Broadway debut on his 22nd birthday. Also a stand-in for the part of Frankie, he stayed with the play for six years.
Judging by his star turn on the July 12 opening night performance in Lake Oswego, Fischer’s enthusiasm for Jersey Boys—which chronicles everything from the Four Seasons’ beginnings in the 1950s to their 1990 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame—is still going strong. An emotionally limber actor, he’s believable both as the naive Valli who gets roped into a stolen jewelry scheme and as the heartbroken father whose daughter (Aida Valentine) dies of a drug overdose.
Perhaps even more importantly for this musical, Fischer can move. In a production full of synchronized heel lifts and step-taps, his snazzy spin in “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” and his dramatic knee-drop in “Beggin’” are exclamation points in Julana Torres’ pleasing choreography.
Jersey Boys, which ran on Broadway from 2005 to 2017, won four Tony awards and a Grammy for Best Musical Show Album, and has collected a corps of zealous fans. In fact, a woman sitting a few seats away from me couldn’t resist singing along with some of the numbers. But you don’t need to have the songs or story memorized—or even be an ardent admirer of the group—to get a kick out of this production. Although I knew little about the Four Seasons before seeing the show, I was hooked by the first notes of “Silhouettes” and found myself performing a medley of their songs in the car as I drove home.
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It’s not surprising that this incarnation of the play is so engaging. This spring Lamb directed Third Rail Repertory Theatre’s Middletown Mall, which featured buoyant karaoke numbers.
For Jersey Boys, Lamb takes up that ebullience about 120 notches. It’s a big, busy production bursting at the seams with a cast of strong supporting characters, such as the Genovese crime family’s Gyp DeCarlo (Jeremy Southard) and Frankie’s sassy first wife, Mary (Danielle Valentine). Bright costumes like the eye-popping sparkly dresses on the girl group the Angels also add dazzle. With so many components, the play could have felt chaotic, but Lamb’s team keeps everything flowing. In particular, Alexandra Meyer has cleverly designed numerous sets, like the fairground that morphs into a prison cell and then becomes a swanky café with tables covered in glittery cloths.
Lakewood’s cozy 220-seat theater is the perfect venue for such a splashy production, because the proximity of actors and audience creates an electric atmosphere. The enthusiasm builds even more whenever the singers stand near the edge of the stage, giving us a taste of how thrilling it must have been to watch their real-life counterparts in the 1960s.
Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s Rashomon-style script, with each member of the quartet taking a turn to tell his version of the story, also engages the audience as the unique personalities of the band members take shape. As the first narrator, a charismatic Tyler Caffall portrays the brash baritone and guitarist Tommy DeVito. Even though DeVito gets in trouble with cops and mobsters alike, Caffall makes him more amiable than off-putting, especially when he’s singing. Similarly, as the other group members, Diego Solan Kjelland (playing Bob Gaudio, who wrote many of the songs with Bob Crewe) and Nick Serrone (as Nick Massi) create appealing personas who, despite conflicts within the band, are transported to their happy place every time the Four Seasons perform.
At one point, Gaudio draws a distinction between Four Seasons fans (everyday factory workers and burger flippers) and Beatles fans (flower children), and the script embraces the idea that working-class people possess a superior moral code. Even DeCarlo, who’s a loan shark, is a fatherly figure who looks after Frankie.
This sentimental approach can be forgiven, since it also offers escapism. And there’s no need to overanalyze the pleasure of watching Fischer deliver Valli’s mesmerizing solo hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” a song that’s been covered by everyone from the jazz singer Shirley Bassey to rap’s Lauryn Hill. Lamb and company make the familiar ballad magic, from the soulful beginning where Frankie stands alone in a midnight blue jacket to the giddy entrance of the horn section behind him—especially when they rhythmically swing their brass instruments while white lights flash around the stage.
Likewise, the Hall of Fame performance of “Rag Doll,” featuring the group in their signature red jackets, is a show-stopping moment that made me realize what a joy it is to see four tough-talking dudes from New Jersey harmonizing as they sway in unison.
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Jersey Boys is onstage through August 18 at Lakewood Theatre Company, 368 S. State Street, Lake Oswego. Tickets: 503-635-3901 or online at https://www.lakewood-center.org/.
