Jersey Boys (NYC) NYC Reviews and Tickets

"That 'Jersey Boys' still delivers some Pavlovian thrills is a testament to the solid foundation laid by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s book, and by Des McAnuff’s deceptively straightforward production...Perhaps it was the bigger theater that allowed the book to breathe; at the subterranean New World Stages, there is whiplash in the air...In its current state, 'Jersey Boys' is like a cover band covering a cover band — your enjoyment will be in direct proportion to your love for the songs."
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"With Jersey Boys, the Broadway musical has finally done right by the jukebox, presenting the Four Seasons' infectiously energetic 1960s tunes as they were intended to be performed. True, the script adheres closely to the dramatic beats of a VH1 biopic. But under Des McAnuff's sleek direction, the result feels canny instead of canned."
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"Jersey Boys may aim only to be a shallow, big-budget, crowd-pleasing jukebox musical, but it’s a model of the genre. The real source of the show’s power—obvious as it sounds—is the songs. McAnuff shows a rare, laudable willingness to stick his finger in the electrical socket of pop music, to take full advantage of the band’s potent catalogue."
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"Jersey Boys, which tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, looks to be a winner. The splendid actors take turns narrating the group’s rise from lower-class Jersey doo-woppers to Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, and they’re as tight musically as they are persuasive dramatically. The audience is tickled to death."
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"O.K, so the book is clunky, the backstory is emotionally skeletal and the structure sticks to a generic “VH1 Behind the Music” model, but glance around during the songs in “Jersey Boys” at the middle-age women dancing in their seats while their husbands’ heads bop to the music and it’s clear something is connecting."
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"Jersey Boys is nothing more than 32 songs performed on a cheap-looking set by a high-priced lounge band, strung together like dimestore pearls on the most vapid of all-tell-no-show books. All I can say is that it would be a lot simpler for everyone involved if they'd just move the whole thing to Newark."
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"Jersey Boys wears its jukebox-musical credentials without apology, and it really rocks. The energy is unstoppable, particularly from the four lead performers. The physical production is impressive with pop-art projections. Jersey Boys shows there still is theatrical life in mining pop hits from the past."
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"“Jersey Boys” is no nostalgic stroll down rock’s Memory Lane. It’s a show still dynamically alive in music while, as a drama, it catches the very texture, almost the actual smell, of its time. "
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"Maybe I should start by listing all the "jukebox musicals" I've panned - starting with the dreadful pacesetter, "Mamma Mia!" - just so you don't think I'm a pushover. But there's no point in beating around the bush - I had a great time at "Jersey Boys," the new musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons."
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"Yeah, sure. Go see Jersey Boys, subtitled "The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons." So what if the production is so slick that you could slip on it and slide to an untimely end? Fuhgeddaboudit! It's got the Four Seasons songs, an astonishing string of melodic and melodramatic celebrations of adolescent emotion that make this show a highly appealing oldies concert."
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"Jersey Boys is an exceedingly fun and electrifyingly staged tale of the rise and fall of The Four Seasons. The jukebox musical has found its Pal Joey; a bit flawed, but ambitious, gritty, clever and professional."
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"Jersey Boys is an energizing experience, and a welcome one in a year that's been illuminated by too few outstanding Broadway musicals. And it's all happening at a jukebox show. If it's a shame that there are any at all on Broadway, the best we can hope for from now on is that as many possible will provide the same kind of fun and thrills that Jersey Boys so effortlessly exudes."
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"I've simply never before seen an audience so intensely connected with what was happening on stage...It's a musical with very little dialogue, performed by what is essentially a really great Four Seasons cover band...It was as if my fellow audience members were connected to the stage by a rope that was pulling them closer and closer until their happiness became audible, until they were literally singing along. I could see the flashbacks behind their eyes."
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"This authentic jukebox musical doesn’t compromise or insult your intelligence; its engrossing, carefully constructed plot with sharp dialogue is actually given heft by the interruptions of hit tunes."
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"What distinguishes it from other, less fully realized jukebox musicals is that it has not only charm but also characters and a story with some depth...Although at times the first act progresses at a dizzying pace, and some jokes are more likely to elicit groans than chuckles, director Des McAnuff minimizes these flaws by letting the music and his youthful cast take charge…This spirited show has an engaging balance of street smarts and showmanship savvy."
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"A flawed but unexpectedly winning homage to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons...Jersey Boys offers a familiar blend of self-conscious populism and knee-jerk sentimentality. Luckily, the co-librettists manage to mitigate the muck with flashes of easygoing wit. Director Des McAnuff also helps keep the proceedings brisk and breezy. But Boys' real secret weapon is its stars."
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"Why does "Jersey Boys" succeed - and it does, exuberantly - when most jukebox musicals have been a pain in the Broadway butt? For starters, the creators of the show about Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons understand why they love these dopey romantic lyrics with the simple song structures, the gorgeous harmonic blends and the immaculate yet easygoing doo-wop beat."
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"Jersey Boys is fun, a bit educational, and offers a very good time, with one major caveat. If you were not big on the music of The Four Seasons originally, chances are this may not be something for you. But if you did enjoy hearing them on the radio, or seeing them in person, this is definitely one show to check out."
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"Jersey Boys is just another biopic immortalizing a minor celeb's quick rise and a bumpy fall, only in flesh-and-blood 3-D. But we've seen it all before. For those who crave a wallow in the nostalgia at the end of the tunnel, Jersey Boys does no harm; it's a painless, if low-octane, evening."
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"Jersey Boys is quite simply the best jukebox or song-catalog musical so far. It rousingly recreates the catchy songs, convoluted lives and roller-coaster careers of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The story is full of emotional impact from moving to overwhelming. "
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"The Broadway season so far has proved unpredictable, with just one bona fide (and artistically deserving) hit opening since August, the La Jolla Playhouse-spawned “Jersey Boys” ... The burnished show evokes its late 1950s/early 1960s ambience so authentically (the clothes, the haircuts, the attitudes), it now goes beyond nostalgia to something like resurrection."
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"The songs are all flawlessly delivered, without sounding canned. The scenic elements are first-rate. You may emerge a little fuzzy about the family narratives that unfold in this 40-year-story of a singing group. But no matter, it's the music that counts, and it's sheer joy."
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"Jersey Boys is a hybrid, a jukebox musical in motivation but also the musical version of a bio-pic of a singing group. The Four Seasons' story is pretty predictable. It's the music that makes us care, and for this, as with pop music in general, it matters whether pre-Beatles 1960s pop still reverberates in your emotional memory."
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"It’s a fabulous show even if one is not familiar with the songs. The evening that I experienced Jersey Boys it was obvious that the audience consisted totally of Four Season fans and New Jersey residents. I highly suggest that you purchase the CD as you’ll have the opportunity to not only recall the great music, but some of the dialogue is injected as well."
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"Jersey Boys features 33 songs, nearly all of them guaranteed to have you dancing in your seat. A first-rate piece of Americana as well as a backstage musical that shines with intelligence and wit.The stage is alive at all times."
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"Sometimes a commercial artistic impulse and demography seem to merge in a way that guarantees success. I think we’ll be seeing an example of this phenomenon when the new musical Jersey Boys, about the lives and career of the pre-boomer pop group The Four Seasons, becomes the smash hit it deserves to be."
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"Jersey Boys, a crowd-pleasing hit about the singing group the Four Seasons, hews to a familiar formula: the Hollywood performer biopic. This well-crafted, emotional musical, infuses these boys' lives with all the pain and glory they experienced. All the Four Seasons' hits are delivered with the full force of a concert performance."
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