"Jersey Boys"

Nottingham Royal Concert Hall.

Finally, I get to see this on-stage musical journey of one of the most iconic and vocally instantly recognisable groups of the 1960's and 1970's. I missed it the last time it was in the area several years ago, but tonight Matthew, I got to tick another one off of the musical theatre bucket list. Oh What A Night!

"Jersey Boys" is a musical biography of the Four Seasons—the rise, the tough times and personal clashes, and the ultimate triumph of a group of friends whose music became symbolic of a generation. This is no tribute concert, "Jersey Boys" gets to the heart of the relationships at the centre of the group—with a special focus on frontman Frankie Valli, the small kid with the big falsetto. In addition to following the quartet’s coming of age as performers, the core of the show is about their code of honour learned in the streets of their native New Jersey which got them through a multitude of challenges: gambling debts, Mafia threats and family disasters. "Jersey Boys" is a glimpse at the people behind a sound that has managed to last over four decades in the hearts of the public.

Mike Pickering plays Frankie Valli, and Mike gets within a gnat's breath of sounding exactly like Frankie Valli. His falsetto his spectacular, and when he sings tracks like "Beggin'", "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" and best of all "Fallen Angel", you feel that you could be in the same room as Frankie Valli himself.

Lewis Griffiths plays Nick Massi, the bass in the Four Seasons. The tidy one in the band and also the man who feels the need to iron his shirts twice before going on stage. There were times when I felt that Lewis' mic needed to be turned up a smidge as, when he was telling his side of the story, I had to strain my ears to hear what he was saying. That's not his fault, it's something that may need to be looked at by the sound man.

Dalton Wood plays Tommy DeVito. What a character Tommy was! Causing most of the upset, and debt within the band, but if it were not for Tommy, maybe we would not have been sat in a theatre enjoying the Jersey Boys at all. Dalton is a worthy addition to the Jersey Boys family and feels like he had been there from the start, the chemistry was that strong.

Blair Gibson plays Bob Gaudio. We get to see and hear everything about Gaudio's life; from his first hit "Short Shorts" for The Royal Teens back in 1957, through to the 1970's hits "December '63 (Oh What A Night)" - which after tonight I understand the background to the song, "Silver Star" and "Who Loves You". For some reason it also featured "My Boyfriend's Back" by The Angels which was not written by Bob Gaudio or seems not to have a connection to Gaudio, as far as I know.

Michael Levi plays Bob Crewe. The musical depicts Crewe as being openly gay, although reports state that he hid his sexuality, especially around The Four Seasons. Crewe wrote so many hit records over the decades, many with Gaudio but also stacks of doo wop hits like "Daddy Cool" and "Silhouettes" and 1970's disco records like "Lady Marmalade" for Labelle and "Get Dancin" for Disco Tex and The Sex O Lettes.

George Salmon plays Joe Pesci. Now here is one thing that I had forgotten that Pesci had had a hand in Bob Gaudio joining the band. This role as Pesci for George marks his professional debut and is fun, and energetic debut for Salmon.

The orchestra, under the musical direction of Ben Atkinson were punchy and powerful with a brilliant brass section.

Choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, the staccato dance moves were all there with an abundance of energy.

Lighting Design by Howard Binkley and Sound Design by Steve Canyon Kennedy.

Loved the set with the lightning scene changes and especially the TV Studio setting and the projection background reliving the style of TV shows like "Ready Steady Go" and the American equivalent.

My eyes, and ears, adored hearing these classic pop songs performed so tightly and faithfully and, as I mentioned earlier, at times it was like holding court with Frankie Valli himself, who is still touring today and still has that amazing multi-octave set of vocals.

I will admit that up to the middle of the first act, it tootled along nicely and didn't grab me as much as the ramp up to the interval and the second act, but that is because I knew the majority of the information given out. Don't get me wrong, this is very educational where some juke box musicals are not, but it seemed like there was a long touch paper until the firework exploded into life.

That said I loved the show, I love the music and I love the energy. What I was not such a fan of, and what surprised me, was the amount of swear words in the show. I'm no prude but the amount of blaspheming could have been toned down, just a bit. That aside the show is an absolute smasher and deserving of the many awards its' received over the years and can see why people return again and again to see these silver stars perform. Who love you? Nottingham does and was shown by a unanimous standing ovation.

"Jersey Boys" is at the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall until Saturday 24 September. There is no performance on Monday 19 September due to Her Majesty's funeral. So go on, walk like a man and get your tickets pretty quick, else you may find yourself beggin' for a ticket and if you miss out you will find that big girls do cry and won't be workin' their way back to you anytime soon! I thank you.