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Jersey Boys on Broadway - Oh, What a Night!

For part of the first act of Jersey Boys, four blue-collar guys search for a sound that will set them apart. They struggle, but when they finally discover their elusive musical identity, they become the Four Seasons — and when they sing “Sherry,” the audience at the August Wilson Theatre surfs a wave of nostalgic recognition that, over the course of the show, is reinforced by more hits, such as “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” and “Dawn.”

Jersey Boys has always been more than a jukebox musical. It is a rise-and-fall-and-rise saga about singers with roots in 1950s doo-wop, some with rap sheets and all of whom dealt with mobsters. Ultimately, it is the story of a great quartet that entranced baby boomers and put song after song on the Top 40 charts before the Beatles led the British invasion.

“It is about us, Americans, at a time that was the heyday of American success,” said Joseph Leo Bwarie, who plays Frankie Valli, the lead singer with the amazing falsetto. “Dreams were coming true. Change was happening. The music has been in the background of everyone’s life; it’s comforting. It’s not only nostalgia, it’s great music.”

Joseph Leo Bwarie as Frankie Valli in Broadway's Jersey Boys
Joseph Leo Bwarie as Frankie Valli. Photo: Joan Marcus

Bwarie is joined by Tommy DeVito (Richard H. Blake), the arrogant gambler who runs the group; Nick Massi (Matt Bogart), who thinks himself as the “Ringo” of the foursome and frequently talks about leaving; and Bob Gaudio (Quinn VanAntwerp), the keyboardist whose music transformed the group.

The 2006 Tony winner for Best Musical — directed by Des McAnuff and written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice — Jersey Boys takes place on a two-tier industrial set that serves as a concert stage, a recording studio, nightclubs, a jail cell and hotel rooms. This set, designed by Klara Zieglerova, offers a sharp theatrical contrast to the realistic backdrops of the recent film version directed by Clint Eastwood and starring John Lloyd Young, who picked up a Tony Award when he launched the Valli role eight years ago.

“Pretty much everyone who’s ever been in the [Broadway] production auditioned for the movie,” says Bwarie, who was stocking shelves at a cosmetics store in Los Angeles and was playing Chachi in a musical version of Happy Days when a woman approached him afterwards in the lobby and told him about a show he ought to be in. The woman, as it happens, was Carole King. “Friends had mentioned [Jersey Boys] to me before, and I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ But when someone as epic as Carole King said it, I took notice.”

The cast of Jersey Boys on Broadway
The cast of Jersey Boys on Broadway. Photo: Joan Marcus

Playing Valli means an onstage transformation from uncertain kid on his way to a career as a hair stylist to confident front man with that signature falsetto.

“The Frankie voice is more of an acting persona, putting an affectation on my real voice,” says Bwarie, who is a baritone. “But high notes and falsettos have been part of my calling card since I was a boy soprano singing for television and film in Los Angeles.”

Jersey Boys has expanded beyond Broadway since its opening; it has been touring the U.S., is playing in Las Vegas, England and the Netherlands, and will soon start a United Kingdom tour. (Bwarie alone has logged over 1,700 shows when you add in his Vegas and 1st National tour performances.)  And then, of course, there’s the film, which sparked an even greater international interest in seeing the stage original.        

Interestingly, the California native’s main conduit to the Four Seasons’ past turned out to be Gaudio, not Valli. “He told me not to chase a sound that’s an imitation of Frankie,” says Bwarie adding, “He said we’re not doing a cover band, we’re telling the story of what we did in a new way.”


Jersey Boys is playing at the August Wilson Theatre, 245 W. 52nd St. For tickets, call 212-239-6200 or click here.

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