By Max Huibregtse, Standard Correspondent
The New London Barn Playhouse is presenting a production of “Jersey Boys,” the Tony-award winning jukebox musical that tells the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons in their own songs.
The Four Seasons sing the hit “Sherry” in the New London Barn Playhouse production of “Jersey Boys.” Ridgelight Studio Photo
The show puts forth a never-ending supply of brightly colored velvet jackets (from costume designer Emily Kimball) and tangentially story-related charm songs.
And boy, are they charming. Luckily, The Four Seasons’ brand of precision crafted soft pop songs about love and heartbreak never goes out of fashion, and the music is as timeless and pleasant as ever. If anything, it is enhanced by the energy of a live stage show, complete with matching choreography (by Richard J. Hinds). This feel-good charm is the backbone of the whole show, and it holds up, helped along by high-quality, high-energy performances by the show’s four leads.
As founding member, lead guitarist, and early group leader Tommy Devito, Ken Sandberg radiates so much charisma, it’s easy to understand how Devito both made it all happen for the Seasons, and almost brought it all down. Sandberg shines as the audience’s guide through most of Act I, especially the band’s years as a jobbing, hardscrabble bar and bowling alley band. He portrays a well-honed mix of charm and sleaze that seems right at home amidst the implied cigarette smoke, and displays an admirable comedic delivery that makes even his run-ins with the mob seem like charming misadventures. By the end, you’re wondering if the most morally dubious character isn’t also your favorite.
Weston Lecrone plays songwriter and keyboardist Bob Gaudio with a cocky schoolboy charm, at home stumbling from hit to hit in the studio, but out of his depth amidst Devito’s criminal associates. In his role as the likeable kid genius, his warmth and sharp delivery provide a key component in the band’s frat-boy camaraderie, and as his star rises within the group, he adopts a businesslike demeanor well-suited to the more serious material of the later years.
As bassist Nick Massi, Blake Burgess is the down-to-earth counterpoint to the others’ antics, the self-proclaimed “Ringo” and token ‘regular guy’ who worries about the everyday problems of finances and family — and somehow turns a rant about hotel towels into one of the show’s comedic highlights.
Left: The Four Seasons with Gyp Decarlo and Norman Waxman. Right:Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, and two of The Angels in the car.
Ridgelight Studio Photo
At the emotional and musical center of it all is Joshua Kring as Frankie Valli. Sandberg as Devito may own Act I of the show, but Act II is all Kring’s. He does the show’s dramatic heavy lifting admirably, believably portraying a patriarch trying and failing to hold his band and his family together. It’s a shame his genuinely affecting rendition of “Fallen Angel,” used here as a tribute to Valli’s late daughter, is cut short by the show’s need to keep things light. It’s tempting to wonder what he might do in a show that gave him more room to stretch his dramatic chops. Perhaps most importantly, he provides a vocal performance on which you can easily believe these down-on-their-luck Jersey boys would hang all their hopes for future stardom.
Though a show called “Jersey Boys” doesn’t have much time for anyone else, the supporting cast does great work here as well, adding much-needed color and variety. Jared Guerrasio is convincingly menacing as mob fixer Gyp Decarlo, and Jillian Cossetta injects a surprising amount of humor and humanity into the role of Valli’s first wife Mary.
The ensemble provides a remarkably varied cast of characters, pulling triple, quadruple, and quintuple duty as fans, fixers, dealers, DJs, musicians, mobsters, and anyone else the band might encounter on the merry-go-round of fame. These brief, mostly comedic intervals help keep the dizzying speed of the show from ever slowing down, and also provide the color and rough edges that make the world of “Jersey Boys” feel, if not fully realized or realistic, at least lived in.
In the end, “Jersey Boys,” much like the band’s signature song, will leave viewers with a sense of slightly melancholy nostalgia for a time that probably wasn’t as wonderful as we remember it being, but all the same will have you humming as you leave the theater — oh, what a night.
“Jersey Boys” is running at the New London Barn Playhouse in New London, N.H. until Aug. 4, with both matinee and evening performances. Tickets are available at http://nlbarn.org/tickets.