Jersey Boys - Review

February 20, 2015 by Pete Thorn

Jersey Boys

The best description for Jersey Boys, showing from now until 28th February at the Cliffs Pavillion comes straight from the title of one of the many and great musical numbers, ‘Oh, What a Night!

This high energy uplifting show is a chronological biography of the Four Seasons (taken from the name of a bowling alley) and is spiced up by being told from four different points of view. It has a quality you rarely find in musicals – gritty honesty – as well as the best collection of pop songs since Mamma Mia!

They were a group who appealed primarily to a blue collar audience – “the factory workers and truck drivers, the guy flipping burgers, and the pretty girl in the diner”.

Jersey Boys captures the tensions and thrills of four testerone-charged young men discovering fame and fortune after years of failure.

Matt Corner who stood in for Tim Driesen as Frankie Valli gave an excellent performance, superbly mimicking Valli’s soaring falsetto, whilst capturing the singer’s pain and resilience.

Stephen Webb is outstanding as the go-getting, recklessly spendthrift Tommy DeVito who finds himself edged out of his own band, and there is excellent support from Sam Ferriday as the educated Bob Gaudio and Lewis Griffiths as the humourous finicky bass player, Nick Massi. In fact there isn’t a weak link in the whole cast.

Jersey Boys will have you singing along from a list of wonderful songs including; ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’, ‘Oh! What a Night’, ‘Bye Bye Baby (Baby Goodbye)’, ‘Rag Doll’, ‘Beggin’ and ‘Sherry’.

Be sure not to miss out on this fabulous production by picking up one of the few remaining seats before they all go. You will not be disappointed!

Review by Pete Thorn part of leigh-on-sea.com