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Jersey Boys

By Matt Windman

January 30, 2006

It's the Impossible Dream: a jukebox musical is worthy of great reviews, famous songs are used well in a dramatic context, and Dodger Theatricals has a hit.

Unlike recent regrets like "Lennon," "Jersey Boys" works due to top notch direction from Des McAnuff, a talented cast, and a script that mixes the show business and Italian crime genres.

Rather than create a half-baked story from scratch by depending on song lyrics, "Jersey Boys" seeks to tell the biographical rise-to-fame story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, using the group's songs like "Sherry," "Walk Like a Man," and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" to supplement thereby to only supplement and shoulder the plot and atmosphere.

Its success proves that if the jukebox musical is to survive, song must be subservient to story. (Note: Do not sit on the extreme right side of the front orchestra, or you will be staring into a staircase.)

But to consider only a merely workable musical based on popular songs would not do justice to "Jersey Boys." Thanks to its talented, likable cast and Des McAnuff's great sense of movement and visual effects, the show ultimately becomes a hypnotically attractive trip to the land of youthful ambition, late twentieth century American song, Italian culture, and the New Jersey skyline.

August Wilson Theatre, 245 West 52nd Street, 212-239-6200, $80-110. Tues 7pm, Wed 2 & 8pm, Thurs-Fri 8pm, Sat 2 & 8pm, Sun 3pm.