THE jukebox musical lives. By bestowing the Tony Award for Best Musical on "Jersey Boys," Broadway certified that shows built around old baby-boomer favorites - in this case, the songs of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – are here to stay.
Adding much to the show’s emotional impact was the performance of John Lloyd Young as Valli.
THE jukebox musical lives.
By bestowing the Tony Award for Best Musical on “Jersey Boys,” Broadway certified that shows built around old baby-boomer favorites – in this case, the songs of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – are here to stay.
Before “Jersey Boys,” jukebox musicals had fared poorly with critics and audiences.
Beneath Shubert Alley are buried the corpses of “Good Vibrations” (the Beach Boys), “Lennon” (John Lennon) and “All Shook Up” (Elvis Presley).
So discredited was the form that last summer, when it was announced that “Jersey Boys” was coming to New York, theater insiders sneered: “Oh, no, not another one of those losers.”
Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, who wrote the book to the show – which, in VH1 “Behind the Music” fashion, tells the back story of The Four Seasons – admitted that raising money for “Jersey Boys” was difficult. Nobody, it seemed, wanted to be associated with yet another dreaded jukebox musical.
And yet, from the very first preview, it was apparent that something exciting was happening at the August Wilson Theatre.
Baby-boomer audiences not only were dancing in the aisles to such favorites as “Sherry,” “Oh, What a Night” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” they were also emotionally absorbed in the tale of working-class guys from New Jersey clawing their way up the showbiz ladder.
Adding much to the show’s emotional impact was the performance of John Lloyd Young as Valli. Young, a Broadway newcomer, was awarded the Tony last night for Best Actor in a Musical.
His co-star Christian Hoff picked up the award for Best Supporting Actor – a surprise win, and one that demonstrated how much Tony voters approved of “Jersey Boys.”
Audiences do, too – the show grosses $1 million a week and is on track to be one of the most successful musicals of all time.
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