Michael Watson is impressive as Frankie Valli, covering almost thirty numbers of the singer’s back catalogue with ceaseless energy and style. Jersey Boys tracks Valli’s career and that of his fellow band members from the Four Seasons including from their early days as the Variety Trio in which Valli forges a musical career with guitarist/singer Tony DeVito and bass player/singer Nick Massi, before cutting their first single My Mother’s Eyes in 1953.

The plot follows the trajectory of the musicians as they form/dissolve one group after another – The Varietones, The Four Lovers – before they eventually, with the addition of the extremely talented songwriter/keyboardist, Bob Gaudio, adopt the name of the bowling alley they fail an audition in. In this rags to riches story, the band ascends from obscurity while battling debt, loss and personal demons on their way to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

Last night it was Tommy Nash playing the irascible dodgy geezer Tony DeVito, a man struggling to remain top dog while struggling privately with money, but who encourages Valli to start singing publicly in the small bars and clubs of Newark, New Jersey. But it is with the talented coupling of songwriter/composer Bob Gaudio (Declan Egan) and producer/lyricist Bob Crewe (Joel Elferink) that Valli is finally given the perfect platform for his style and range. Watson utterly convinces with his Valli-like nasally pitch and we can pretend that it is the old master himself onstage. What also impresses, as well as the vocal pyrotechnics, is the quality of the harmonies and the role of the bass guitar in the band’s overall craft.

Chances are Valli could have easily fallen into a life of crime, surrounded as he was by mobsters who he knew as ordinary guys he’d sit down and have a coffee with. Early band members are in and out of jail, Valli (real name Francesco Stephen Castelluccio) is lifted by his one natural talent – an extraordinary voice, with a high falsetto, which despite its eccentricity would give him and his group its signature sound.

Despite being atypical of the west coast flower-power culture of the time, Gaudio’s and Crewe’s songs were highly crafted masterpieces of everyday experience, often about the pain in relationships such as in Rag Doll, Bye Bye Baby or Walk Like A Man, all of which resonated with a wide audience that still, clearly, has not had enough, if the packed house at the Hippodrome last night was anything to go by.

Staged simply with a metallic walkway connected by spiral stairs at each side, with a big city vista as backdrop, director Des McAnuff ensures the story is pushed along at pace, albeit with too little time to dwell on character in the interest of getting the next hit on the road. Stage movement seemed to build up around a magically-powered drum dais that glided into position seemingly unassisted. But why the dreadful projected graphics? The low-grade vector illustration for Big Girls Don’t Cry being a prime example.

Dividing the story into four sections, each a season heralded with clunky backlit typography, Jersey Boys takes a while to get into its stride, being too bogged down in building context at the start, with a rap in French seeming curiously out of place. The show’s depiction of Valli’s divorce to his first wife and the death of his daughter Francine demanded Watson reveal more of the singer’s vulnerability. There were certainly some damp eyes during Fallen Angel.

But no one was going to go home unhappy after this double album’s worth of hits. Let’s Hang On (To What We’ve Got), Working My Way back to You Babe and the ballad Can’t take My Eyes Off You were all instant crowd-pleasers fuelled by a brilliant 6-piece band.

As Valli (Watson), DeVito (Nash), Gaudio (Egan) and Massi (Lewis Griffiths) stepped forward at the end to give their account of their journey with the Four Seasons, the crowd took to its feet to cheer not only a performance but also, possibly, an era.

★★★★☆      Simon Bishop    1^st November 2018