THE GOOD KIND OF JERSEY |
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) Written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe, choreography by Sergio Trujillo Directed by two-time Tony Award winner Des McAnuff at Civic Theatre, Auckland From 14 Apr 2012 to 24 May 2012 Reviewed by James Wenley, 16 Apr 2012 originally published in Theatre Scenes - Auckland Theatre Blog |
As I take my seat in the Civic, the Jersey Boys stage looks surprisingly non-descript. It's a grey and drab industrial looking set, complete with walkways and chain mesh. A pretty ordinary set for an international musical, but then, the origins of the real Jersey blue collar Four Season members were rather ordinary too. Is this to be the stage for the multi-award winning Broadway Smash that has finally wound its way to little young Auckland?
As soon as local boy Vince Harder appears as a modern day French rapper, singing Ces Soirees-La (a hit in France in 2000, we know it better as Oh what a night…), the stage transforms as only mega-budget musicals do, lighting up in brilliant colour and moving all over the place. It's a spectacle rich experience – microphone stands rise up from the floor, and attractive pop-art graphics on appear screens to accompany the storytelling, but all that is blown away by the blended and distinctive sound of the show's four leads as The Four Seasons, giving us their all with hit after hit. [More]
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