Give it up for the Garden State. Call it what you will—Smokestack Central, America’s Tollbooth Capital, even “A Turnpike Runs Through It”—but it also gifted us with Sinatra, Springsteen, The Sopranos and the Boys—as in Jersey Boys.
Regarding the latter, we gather here to celebrate the jukebox musical journey of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, now in the final act of its triumphant, eight-year-plus Las Vegas run that climaxes in September. Hey Travis—that’s Travis Cloer, who plays Frankie here—care to reminisce (and sing) along with us?
“Who loves you pretty baby?/Who’s gonna help you through the night?”
Travis: “In all, I’ve been with Jersey Boys for nine and a half years (Las Vegas and Broadway) and it’s been the best thing professionally for me, and one of the best things in my entire life.”
Did you know: Broadway’s original Jersey Boys began when co-writers Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman (Annie Hall) shared a bottle of Italian wine with Valli and Four Seasons singer/songwriter Bob Gaudio in a dark corner of a restaurant on West 46th Street in Manhattan.
“Move it nice and easy/Girl, you make me lose my my-yind!/Shee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ry ba-yay-by!”
Travis: “I look back now at some of the video footage of me when I was first doing the show. Seeing the choices I made or even the timbre of my voice was completely different than it sounds now. I’ve been studying with our voice coach via Skype out of New York, so I’ve grown immeasurably.”
Did you know: Upon hearing all the stories of the career of the Four Seasons, Elice said they’d discovered the mother lode of good theater fodder.
“I felt a rush like a rolling ball of thunder/Spinning my head around and taking my body under.”
Travis: “This story wasn’t public knowledge back when (the Four Seasons were at their apex) because that’s not how things operated. It’s not like it is today. If a lot of these things got out back then (mob ties, internal strife, jail time), these guys wouldn’t have been anywhere near the success they were. People get to see the struggles they went through to get where they got. Then you add in the way it’s directed, the staging, the lighting, it’s this perfect storm that came together to create this piece of work that’s loved by so many people.”
Did you know: After interviewing all surviving original Four Seasons members—Valli, Gaudio and Tommy DeVito (the fourth, Nick Massi, died in 2000)—and getting differing perspectives on their careers, Elice and Brickman settled on a story style inspired by Rashomon, in which each member would narrate from their own point of view. They called it the “four seasons” of their story: spring, summer, fall and winter.
“I’ll be blue/And I’ll be cryin’ too/But girl you know I only want what’s best for you/What good is all my pride if our true love has died?”
Travis: “The part of Frankie Valli’s voice that’s the hardest isn’t the falsetto. He has such a high regular voice. Most of the time it just sits up in this register. My voice isn’t as high as Frankie’s. Doing the stuff in his regular voice is a lot harder. ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ and ‘Working My Way Back to You’ don’t have much falsetto in them, but it’s still really high.”
Did you know: When the show was first shopped around to New York producers, none were interested, as “jukebox musicals”—shows built around the song catalogs of iconic performers—were failing, including those based on the Beatles, Elvis and the Beach Boys.
“He said, ‘Walk like a man/Talk like a Man/Walk like a man my so-oo-oo-on.’”
Travis: “Frankie has been very kind, he’s had some very nice words to say to me every time he’s seen me perform. It’s pretty crazy to do this show in front of him and Bob (Gaudio) and to talk to them afterward. It’s so surreal.”
Did you know: Finally, the producing group The Dodgers signed on after a pitch that included Brickman humming “Sherry” to the company chief.
“How can I save a fallen angel in the dark?/Never thought you’d fall so far/Fallen angel, close your eyes.”
Travis: “I can’t imagine how Frankie feels watching (the scene of his daughter’s death) every time he sees the show and reliving that pain. When I’m on stage portraying it, there are times now—especially being a dad now with a 4-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son—when those moments hit me hard.”
Did you know: In fashioning the show, the scene of the death from a drug overdose originally had his daughter wheeled in on a gurney, but it bothered Valli, so the death was changed to occur off-stage. When Valli sees the show now, he sometimes doesn’t watch and puts his head down. Another Valli family tragedy—the death of his stepdaughter in an accidental fall from an apartment fire escape—was left out, as the cumulative effect of both would have been too sad.
“Think (think!) what a big man he’ll be/Think (think!) of the places you’ll see/Now think what the future would be with a poor boy like me.”
Travis: “I’ve got a couple of favorites. ‘Dawn’ in the first act, such a great song. I’m in love with the melody and the way it’s staged—starting upstage on The Ed Sullivan Show, then transferring downstage for a concert version for the audience, then transferring upstage so the audience is now the backstage crew and they get to see what it looks like from our point of view.”
Did you know: Planning for a San Diego tryout in 2004, producers had trouble casting for the show because of actors’ reluctance about the show and jukebox musicals, but they finally enlisted actor David Norona to play Valli, and the production began to coalesce.
“Pardon the way that I stare/There’s nothing else to compare/The sight of you makes me weak/There are no words left to speak.”
Travis: “And I get to sing ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ in the second act. That was always one of my all-time favorite songs way before I became involved with Jersey Boys, and to see the way that song touches audience members, to hear the ooohs and aaaws when those first notes hit, people know what that song is. To be able to deliver that to them night after night, it’s such a treat.”
Did you know: Valli was sad that several songs—including “Silence is Golden,” “To Give” and the disco-era mega-hit “Swearin’ to God”—could not be fit into the show narrative. Gaudio’s favorite song that he composed, “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore),” was also omitted, to his disappointment.
That little chip of diamond on your hand/Ain’t a fortune babe but you know it stands/For the love/A love to try and bind us.”
Travis: “There are a few mementos I’ve got my eye on—but nothing I can admit to! I’d love to take the big neon Four Seasons sign, how cool would that be? But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Did you know: In an ominous call placed to a parking lot pay phone that Brickman and Elice were told to wait for, it was suggested that they portray New Jersey mob boss Angelo “Gyp” DeCarlo—who aids the Four Seasons—well, nicely. Script pages were faxed and they must have succeeded. Months later, DeCarlo’s son, who owned a restaurant in New York’s Little Italy, treated the entire cast to complimentary dinners.
“When you were so in love with me/I played around like I was free/Thought I could have my cake and eat it too/But how I cried over losing you.”
Travis: “We find ourselves onstage thinking, I’m not gonna be here with these guys much longer, I’m not gonna see this family, at least not every night like we do now, or I’m not gonna be able to sing this song every night. There’s definitely a point in the show where if I let myself go, it gets a little overwhelming.”
Did you know: Critical reaction to the original production was epitomized by this Los Angeles Times review: “It’s unlikely to be embraced by theater critics or rock historians, but nostalgia-hungry audiences will scream for more.” And so they did. Jersey Boys moved to Broadway, where it won the Tony Award for best musical in 2006, then spawned worldwide productions and tours and a 2014 movie adaptation. In 2008 it opened in Las Vegas at the Palazzo, moving to Paris Las Vegas in 2012.
“(Silly boy) Told my girl we had to break up/(Silly boy) Hoped that she would call my bluff/(Silly boy) Then she said to my surprise/Big girls don’t cry.”
Travis: “We’ve had a few more parties lately than we normally have. We’re just trying to soak in each other’s company for as long as we can.”
Did you know: Cloer joined the Vegas version shortly after its opening and is its longest-tenured cast member. As the production heads toward its September 18 finale, it is wrapping up nearly 3,300 performances in Las Vegas—making it this city’s longest-running Broadway-style export, outpacing the popular Phantom—The Las Vegas Spectacular and Mamma Mia.
Oh, What a Whole Lotta Great Nights.
Paris, 7 p.m. Tues.-Sun., $48.44-$164.53 plus tax and fee, VIP seating available, 12+. 702.777.7776
