After umpteenth tours in North Texas over the last decade, what more can you say about Jersey Boys? A doo-wop band of the 1960s does good, but encounters tragedy and discord along the way, leaving a legacy of hits. Of its band-bio jukeboxer ilk — Beautiful, On Your Feet, Million Dollar Quartet, The Boy from Oz, Motown the Musical — this one, about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, is one of the best. (Beautiful, about Carole King, and On Your Feet, about Gloria Estefan, are equally entertaining, and contain to my ears better music.) Well, here’s what you more you can say: It leaves you with a happy feeling.
A lot of that happiness in this iteration comes from Jonny Wexler, probably the most adorable Frankie in any version I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a lot). His voice, while not always as strong as it needs to be — the show lacks a bit of energy from everyone — has that perfect, angelic falsetto, and he wears than man bouffant like a champ. The worst thing about seeing the show is a constant at every production I’ve attended: A core gang of groupies who apparently think they are at an actual Four Seasons concert, and shout at the stage and stomp like teenagers. (All were easily born in the Kennedy Era.) That’s the kind of show Jersey Boys is, though — heartfelt and foot-tapping.
— Arnold Wayne Jones
At the Winspear Opera House thorough Sunday. ATTPAC.org.
