A Band For All Seasons

TAMPA New York City native Rick Elice first heard rock 'n' roll from the counselors at summer camp in the mid-'60s.

"They brought records and played them a lot," Elice says. "The Beatles and The Four Seasons are the ones I remember the most."

Elice remembers a big difference between fans of the two groups.

"Unlike Beatles fans, who were primarily girls, the Four Seasons fans were guys," Elice says.
"They wrote songs about girls, about walking tall, about getting respect. They were written for guys," Elice says. "That set them apart. And they looked like the guys in front of the bandstand."

Fast-forward 40 years and those guy songs are the bedrock of the Broadway smash "Jersey Boys," which touring cast member Erik Bates calls "a musical show that guys will like." The show won the Tony award for best musical in 2006.

The group, instantly recognizable thanks to Frankie Valli's stratospheric falsetto, placed 27 songs in the Top 40 - including four No. 1s - between 1962 and 1968. Many, such as "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Walk Like a Man," are staples of oldies radio.

But unlike the stories of such well-documented contemporaries as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the Seasons' went untold until "Jersey Boys."

"You hear 'based on a true story' all the time," says Elice, who wrote the musical's book with Marshall Brickman. "What appealed to me and Marshall was we would honestly be able to say, 'Based on a good story.'"

The story focuses on the Seasons lineup of 1961-65: Jersey boys Valli, Bob Gaudio, Nick Massi and Tommy DeVito. Each member tells his own version of the group's story.

"The audience is left to decide whose slant is most accurate," Gaudio says.

Gaudio co-wrote the band's material with producer Bob Crewe. It was director Michael Cimino's use of Valli's solo hit "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (written by Crewe and Gaudio) in the 1978 movie "The Deer Hunter" that lit the spark that became "Jersey Boys."

"That was an epiphany for me, that our music might have interest in venues other than the radio," Gaudio says. "The use of the song in the film is stunning. I thought if it works for films it might work in the theater someday."

Gaudio quit performing with the Seasons in 1972, although he continued to write for the group, including their mid-'70s comeback hits "Who Loves You" and "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)." He also produced artists such as Neil Diamond and began composing music for theater productions, including "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Peggy Sue Got Married."

He began talking to his contacts in the theater world about a production using the Four Seasons' music.
"I ran into people, and I was just somewhat surprised at the interest in our music," Gaudio says. Des McAnuff, artistic director at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, "in particular said, 'If you decide you want to do something, find me.' So, long story short, we did."

McAnuff, Elice and Brickman came up with the show's concept, interviewing Valli and Gaudio, as well as producer Crewe and ex-Season DeVito. Massi died in 2000, and his story was pieced together from interviews with the others.

Gaudio says he and Valli were "hands off" when it came to the writing.

"We hired a talented team to do what they do best," Gaudio says. "I didn't meddle. I didn't want this to be any kind of dishonest portrayal. I wanted it to be as hard-hitting as they felt comfortable with."
Elice felt he'd struck theater gold.

"The minute they started telling us their story, we knew we had stumbled onto something really special," Elice says. "It was a great gift we were given."

"It was brave of Bob and Frankie and Tommy to say, 'Go ahead and put that up there,' " Elice says. "There were limitations put on us, but they were few and far between.

"The sort of things that make up the story of this show, 40 years ago they never would have been allowed to be written about or portrayed on stage," Elice says. "They would have been career enders."
The story's grit gives it appeal to an audience that might not normally be attracted to musicals.

Bates, who plays DeVito, says his character in particular has "a bit of darkness around him. He was a bit of a gambler."

The story "has a 'Sopranos'-ish feel to it," Bates says. (Valli, incidentally, had a role for several episodes on the popular HBO gangster series.)

"These guys grew up around the Mafia," Bates says. "They were blue-collar guys with not many options."

In other words, a story guys can dig.

"A lot of guys come to this show brought by their wives and end up liking it as much as them or even more," Bates says.

Reporter Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568 or cross@tampatrib.com.

ON STAGE
Jersey Boys

WHEN: Wednesday through March 15; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (there also will be a 2 p.m. performance this Thursday and March 12; also a 7:30 performance on March 10)

WHERE: Tampa Bay Performing Art Center, 1010 MacInnes Place, Tampa; (813) 229-7827

HOW MUCH: $24.50 to $158.50