Jersey Boys
The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
Princess Theatre, Melbourne
July 4

Until recently most people probably couldn’t have placed the name of the band but they would have know the words to “Oh What A Night”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man”. But with the international success of the musical success of Jersey Boys Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, including Bob Gaudio who wrtote the songs have been given their place in the Rock hall of Fame.

Back in the 1960’s Bob Gaudio wrote them a string of songs which went into the top ten slots for weeks on end. His songs were bitter sweet reflections on life and love and they expressed many of the feeling of society’s youth of the day.

One of the problems with many musicals is that songs even that are great often don’t really relate to the story. The disconnection between the two means that there is a lack of drama with the songs not enhancing the story. With Jersey Boys the songs are an integral part of the musical. The narrative follows the lives of the members of the band and so the highpoints of their careers are their major hits.

While the songs were not written about the lives of the band members in this carefully constructed musical they become reflections on their lives, their personal and professional problems.

While the story is centered on Frankie Valli each of the band members introduces their own take on the success of the band. There is the slightly mad Tommy de Vito (Scott Johnson) always in trouble with the mob and the bass player, Nick Massi always keen to leave and set up his own group.

But it’s the extraordinary voice of Frankie Valli (Bobby Fox) and the songs of Bob Gaudio (Stephen Mahy) along with their personal and financial arrangements which keep the band together.

The whole story is threaded through with their personal problems, marriages, divorces internal wrangles, the run in with the mob and the band’s breakup.

The show at times feels like a documentary showing how the band evolved. We get a sense of how bands get to be successful with the various components of song writer, singer, manager and musicians all having to contribute and fame comes when all those people with their skills line up to create a hit.

It's a fast paced show with multiple mini set changes and a string of crowd pleasing numbers. The singing is fabulous and their act is quite possibly slicker than the original band.

From the Melbourne advertising hoardings one would think that Jersey Boys was the only show in town. The skyline is dotted with huge billboards, every street corner has a poster and there are banners lining the streets.

This is Tourism Victoria making sure people know that Jersey Boys is on in town. It is just the latest in a string of big shows which have been on in Melbourne in the last few years and they have become part of Tourism Victoria’s marketing campaigns to present the city as the cultural capital of Australia.

The show follows on from the very successful musical Wicked and joins the recently opened Salvador Dali show at the National Gallery of Victoria, A Day in Pompeii at the Melbourne Museum and the Stars Wars exhibition of costumes and models to help make Melbourne a culturally rich place to visit.

It’s all part of their Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series which provides marketing and promotion funding. A Day in Pompeii managed $250,000 through their various sponsorship networks.

These big shows attract big ticket sales. The Impressionism show of a few years ago attracted nearly 400,000 visitors and the Dali exhibition is expected to attract over 200,000. Around 20% of the audiences however come from interstate tourism and that is why the tourism board puts in a big effort as they are competing with Sydney and more recently Brisbane which has embarked on an ambitious programme of cultural events.

Qantas which is one of the sponsors of Jersey Boys has had a long association with sponsoring shows in Melbourne as well as Sydney and Brisbane. They have exclusive rights for the sale of Jersey Boy packages until the end of August and wholesalers can only access the show tickets with Qantas flights.

“The take up of the packages in Australia is huge and we also get a big numbers of New Zealanders flying across to take in the shows” says Grant Lilly the Regional General Manager for NZ & Pacific Islands

“We do it for most of the key shows, ones which are going to attract large numbers of New Zealanders. We have done it for Phantom, Wicked and Billy Elliot. Any opf the shows which Qantas sponsors in Australia we have an arrangement so that we are the official airline of the show in the New Zealand market.”

John Daly-Peoples attended Jerset Boys with assistance from Tourism Victoria and Qantas