If anyone from Jersey Boys really knows what it was like to be on the road with Frankie Valli, it’s Jason Martinez. The actor has spent the past seven years performing in Jersey Boys, the jukebox musical at Paris Las Vegas that tells the story behind Valli, The Four Seasons and their rise to fame and 29 top 40 hits. But his performance is well-informed; he toured with Valli for five years as one of the Seasons.
“I didn’t even play an instrument. I just sang and danced,” says Martinez, looking back at his career of singing those big hits such as “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” and “Rag Doll” that combined doo-wop vocals and Valli’s falsetto with a contemporary beat.
Martinez recalls waking up early while he was on the road with Valli and his friend comedian Stewie Stone, who opened for the band and would tell stories about “the old days” during those early-morning hours.
“Frankie was on the tour bus with us,” Martinez says, recalling how some of those stories ended up being in the musical. “That’s pretty much his life. He would sleep in the luggage racks when he was younger. He was touring and playing his entire life. It’s all he knows.”
Little did Martinez know that he would end up playing Nick Massi, the bass singer and bass guitarist for The Four Seasons in the musical at Paris Las Vegas. Those five years on the road with Valli gave Martinez an interesting perspective on the show. “I completely identify with the struggles these guys have,” says Martinez, who has his own band called Livin’ Out Loud. He’s taken that band, which now has five albums to its credit, out on the road as well.
It’s that firsthand experience with Valli that helped Martinez learn that not only is the show authentic, but the story and every note of the show can’t be faked, and many of those stories Stone shared on the road are now played out onstage every night.
Another interesting angle for Martinez came when he initially started performing, playing a variety of characters performing works based on real events and winning over even the hardest hearts in the audience. “I think there’s something for everyone in the show,” Martinez says. “When I was doing the Norm (Waxman) track, I would have the opportunity to see the reaction of everyone in the show. You would see these guys who were dragged to the show, these retired construction workers. I would see grown men crying and standing up and clapping … You’d have three generations watching the show all there in the front row because the music is timeless. It was such an amazing era.
I don’t know if we’ll experience that again.”
Paris, 7 p.m. Sun. & Wed.-Fri., 6:30 & 9:30 p.m. Tues., 5 & 8:15 p.m. Sat., $52.80-$184.50 plus tax and fee, VIP seating available, 12+. 702.777.7776
