Who knew that the Four Seasons, or Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, were responsible for so many hits! To be fair the Four Seasons were one of the most successful rock ‘n roll groups from the 1960s so I shouldn’t really have been surprised to hear all their hits in tonight’s musical. It is, however, no surprise to me that this musical, or the Broadway version from which it sprung at least, has been the recipient of numerous awards because it is a pretty awesome show (though it wasn’t always perfect.)

Starting with the pretty awesome: let’s face it one of the major pluses to doing a musical based on a musical group is going to be the song list. Hits such as Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like a Man, My Eyes Adored You and Oh What a Night were just a few of the hits that are in the production and every single one of them was a blockbuster.

The cast were stellar in their delivery of all the musical numbers and not one person in the crowd could stay still when they really hit their stride. The core cast was very strong vocally, with great moderation on volume, and clearly the four male leads had great stamina and great chemistry. They were pretty fine actors as well with the characterisations just as I’d imagine them to be. They were also well supported by the minor cast – which was surprisingly small with a number of them taking on multiple roles – and a darn good orchestra.

The staging was fantastic and took great advantage of the available technology (including large LCD screens and use of Andy Warhol type comics.) The production was slick with quick set and scene changes.

And now to the less awesome. The story-line, especially in the first half, seemed to drag quite a bit. It was a bit ho-hum so thankfully the musical pieces came in to save the day and bring it to life. It was kind of like the writers thought – here are all the songs we want to perform so now we need to write in a filler around them to bring them together.

Other than that, Jersey Boys was definitely a great show to see, and is a fab night out. I know Rehana agrees!

Off to buy the soundtrack!