It's a step back in time to both the swinging sixties and the singing sixties tonight as the Tony, Grammy and Olivier award-winning musical Jersey Boys hits Manchester Opera House. Telling the story behind the story of world-famous rock'n' roll group Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, we're invited along for the often less than harmonious ride.
The journey through their personal lives that is. The musical harmonies couldn't be more on point.
The night begins with a French rap adaptation of Oh What A Night: Ces Soirées-La - to show how far and wide their songs have travelled and still do. Whether you're a sixties or a nineties baby, you can't fail to recognise classics such as Sherry, Beggin, Stay and many more.
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Then we are introduced to the (other) fab four: Frankie Valli, Nick Massi, Bob Gaudio and Tommy De Vito, as they begin their stellar ascent from the New Jersey housing projects to global fame. Ryan Heenan makes a superb Frankie, even nailing that famous falsetto, while Dalton Woods' Tommy DeVito is suitably bombastic as the self-appointed leader of the pack.
The songs are woven cleverly into the story as we witness the calamity behind the uniformity of the suave, sequin-suited Romeos their fans saw on stage. We hear about it all, from family problems and broken marriages - "You never lie to your mother and you never tell the truth to your wife" - to prison spells and million dollar debts, none of which, thank goodness, seemed to affect their musical output!
Big Girls Don't Cry, Bye Bye Baby, Working My Way Back To You, Can't Take My Eyes off You - we're treated to them all in what surely has to be one of the most perfectly balanced songs to narrative musicals there is.
Set changes are lightning fast, with all four boys: Frankie, Tommy, a moodily mysterious Nick Massi (Christopher Short) and archetypal good boy Bob Gaudio (Blair Gibson) more than deserving of that triple - threat label - their singing, acting and dancing are superb.
There is humour too, with witty one-liners and some colourful peripheral characters including the straight-talking Joe Pesci (George Salmon). Can't Take My Eyes Off You is the unsurprising smash hit of the show, with the crowd up on their feet dancing and singing along.
There isn't a dull moment in this production. The story draws you in and the songs get you up. Oh What A Night Indeed!
Jersey Boys is at Manchester Opera House until October 29
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