Jersey Boys – Milton Keynes Theatre and Touring

Michael Watson in Jersey Boys at Milton Keynes Theatre and Touring. Picture: Brinkhoff-MÂgenburg

Jersey Boys continues at the Milton Keynes Theatre until 3 February 2018, then tours until 30 March 2019.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

‘Four guys, four stories, one unforgettable musical’, reads the title of Mark Shenton’s programme article. A bold claim to be certain, but hardly unfounded.

Directed by Des McAnuff, the success of Jersey Boys worldwide has been remarkable to say the least, closing early last year in the West End after a staggering nine-year run. And what better way to mark its ten year tenure in the UK than embarking upon a second national tour?

The show tells the story of the rise and fall of Frankie Valli (Michael Watson) and the Four Seasons in typical jukebox musical fashion, lovingly shoehorning in the greatest hits, from ‘Sherry’ and ‘Walk Like a Man’ to ‘Beggin’ and ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’.

However, where Jersey Boys differs from others is through writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s impressive use of multiperspective.

Each of the Four Seasons is well fleshed out through their conflicting accounts of events, beginning with instigator Tommy DeVito (Simon Bailey,) narrating the band’s spring inception, through to Frankie Valli, during their winter of discontent.

For anyone remotely aware of the songs featured, there is no question as to the challenge they present even the most accomplished of performers. Fortunately, we are in very capable hands, with Watson soaring effortlessly as Valli, Bailey oozing smarm as fixer DeVito, James Winter putting in an understated but spirited turn as the naïve, incorrigibly peppy Bob Gaudio and Karl James Wilson as Nick Massi.

Of the Four Seasons, Massi is by far the least developed, narrating the events leading to the split of the original line-up before dramatically announcing his own exit, but otherwise left in the background.

This being said, Wilson’s natural stage presence allows Massi to truly come alive, and is sorely missed after his departure. It’s a great shame that the band’s signature dances (choreographed here by Sergio Trujillo), iconic as they are, are so restrictive for performers as gifted as him.

Individual performances aside, however, there are certain niggling problems that plague the production throughout, the most glaring of which being the general treatment of women.

It’s no secret that certain men of the day were renowned and remembered for their chauvinism, it’s ingrained in the culture the show portrays, but the book allows little room for its narratively important female characters to flourish.

Regardless, Tara Young manages to utilise her brief stage time as Mary Delgado expertly, summarising her ill-fated marriage to Frankie in a sum total of around two brief scenes.

“There are two types of women in this world,” Tommy DeVito eagerly sets up, “Type A and Type B..” One can’t help but feel an update may be overdue.

Elsewhere Klara Zieglerova’s otherwise effective steeldeck and evocative neon design is dogged by bizarre pop art projections, sporadically placed throughout with no apparent purpose.

Over a courtroom scene that sees Tommy facing a gavel wielding high court judge, inexplicably projected above the action is a huge cartoon still of a gavel wielding high court judge.

Overall Jersey Boys seems to suffer the syndrome of many similar jukebox musicals, in that it doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be.

It just about manages to straddle the songbook of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons while giving a highly simplified account of events, albeit through a clever format, but overall this reviewer could not shake the feeling that a night on Wikipedia with a Greatest Hits CD may be just as effective.

Alex Chard