I went to see Jersey Boys at the Prince Edward Theatre last night. My friend Jenny called me in the morning saying she had free tickets and would I like to go, and naturally I said yes! The reason the free tickets were available became apparent just before the show started: the resident director came on stage explaining that the show was to be a recorded that night, hence the presence of various cameras around the auditorium. Of course, lots of bums on seats are a prerequisite for a good audience response, and often also a good cast performance. He explained that there would be a short hiatus in the proceedings during the finale, where cameramen would join the on-stage action to film the audience. This caused a general sense of excitement in the theatre.
The show began and well. From scene one there prevailed an energy and a vitality on stage, created both by the excellent performers and also the music, which was fantastic. Jersey Boys relays the story of Frankie Valli and his group's various incarnations before hitting the jackpot with the "Four Seasons". Comedy was rife throughout, but a sincere and truthful comedy rather that the sort shoe-horned in for cheap laughs (all too often the brand of choice in populist theatre these days). My usual standard for good acting was met, which entails my believing each character on stage to be just that, and not an actor playing that character. This is hard to achieve, I think, because as an actor myself, I am all too aware of the theatrical process, and this often overrides my suspension of disbelief.
Of particular note was Glenn Carter as Tommy DeVito, the leader of the group, with his incredible charisma and, frankly, incredible good looks. I had to persuade my eyes to look elsewhere at times, he was so watchable. There was an excellent combination of dedication to his role and audience awareness in his performance, making him believable, but interactive and enjoyable too. The star of the show, Ryan Molloy as Frankie Valli, was tremendous. A shakey start, in fairness, due to his slight over-playing of a shy and nervous debutant, gave way to a really grounded, subtle portrayal of an enigmatic figure. Valli, by the end of the show, has become wizened and cynical, with the grooves of experience and excess etched onto his once-fresh face. This transition, representing decades, took place seamlessly in the 2 and a half hours we shared. No mean feat. Molloy's voice is a thing of utter and sense-shattering beauty. And I am NEVER easy to please in this respect.
The entire cast, in fact, had great voices, and great performance skills in general. The women in the cast had little air time, and the one number fronted by 3 of them was a little under-energised, but I think this is to do with what felt like lazy choreography more than their performances.
The vibe in the auditorium, however, was testament to the excellence of the show as a whole. It was interesting in fact, because at one point, the 4 members of the group were facing away from the audience, and the stage was flipped so that they were performing to a large crowd opposite us, and we were up-stage of them, as it were. There were flashing lights going of everywhere as though they were being photographed from every angle, and the whole theatrical device worked very well, with the sense of being backstage at Wembley. What I noticed, however, was how important a performer's face is. No great discovery, I know, but so very clearly tangible: the routine the group was doing was similar to the usual, that is, standing in a row and doing fairly small but precise movements, and the music was as uplifting as ever, and yet, at the end of the song, the final ba-ba-bum-with-punch-in-the-air was all directed away from us, and the resultant applause was half as big. The connection wasn't there at all, and it is because we couldn't see their faces. If the routine had differed, I wouldn't have drawn this conclusion so easily, but because it was the same routine turned 180 degrees, the effect was obvious. And yet well worth it because it was great to have a change of perspective like that. It wasn't as though there weren't countless other moments of rapturous and explosive applause.
All in all, it was a first-rate show and one I would heartily recommend seeing. I think a lot of its success rides on the joy that timeless classics evokes in us all. Good music can really be medicine for the soul.
