“Punchy, playful, passionate […] a hit of nostalgia”
Telling the story of The Four Seasons, “Jersey Boys” takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the rock ‘n’ roll band, charting their early success, backstage fall outs and ultimate breakup. The story, written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, is presented in four parts, each part named after a different season and narrated by a different one of the band members. This means that some sections recount the same time period but in a different way, as the band members remember things slightly differently. The story is accompanied by a whole host of songs from the Four Seasons, as well as some solo tracks for Frankie Valli. This is a fascinating peak behind the curtain of superstardom, as well as a tense foray into the world of the Jersey mafia, but at times the story can become a little too crowded, too many plot lines making it difficult to properly invest in some aspects of the show.
The show opens with Carlo Boumouglbay’s Tommy DeVito trying to make it big in a band with friend Nick Massi (Lewis Kennedy), but they keep running in to trouble, with Tommy being sent to prison for six months for breaking and entering. Upon his release, Tommy and Nick team up with Frankie Valli (Luke Baker) and Hank Majewski (Jarryd Nurden), but despite everyone agreeing that Frankie provides some excellent and unique vocals, they struggle to be taken seriously thanks to some of Hank’s more questionable lyrics (particularly the song ‘I Go Ape’ which sees Hank don a monkey mask). So Hank is out of the band, and young lyricist Bob Gaudio (Toby Miles) is brought in instead, completing the famous Four Seasons lineup.
Boumouglbay is perhaps the most likeable of the four – it helps that, as an audience, we get an insight into Tommy’s backstory first, with Boumouglbay narrating the opening ‘Spring’ section. We are immediately drawn into his world of shady deals and underhand scams – this dark underworld is fascinatingly juxtaposed by some light-hearted tunes courtesy of Tommy and his pals. In spite of Tommy’s nastier side, he acts as an older brother to Frankie, saving him from being scammed himself, which helps endear us to Tommy. Boumouglbay gives one of the most naturalistic performances of the night, and his Jersey accent is by far the strongest.
In terms of vocals, Miles’ Bob Gaudio gives some of the best performances of the opening act, particularly in number “Cry For Me”, when Tommy first spots Gaudio’s talent. Whilst many of the songs are written into the show as performances for the band, others are performed in a more traditional musical sense, actors bursting into song midway through a scene. Gaudio again takes centre stage for “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” during a scene in which he loses his virginity at a Christmas party. It’s a fun number and another stellar performance for Miles, but it adds very little to the plot – the woman that Gaudio sleeps with is never seen again after this scene – which makes the song feel a little shoehorned and performed for the sake of it, rather than helping to advance the story in any meaningful way.
As the Four Seasons start to achieve success in the charts, we are treated to a medley of three of their best hits – “Sherry”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man”, all complete with Sergio Trujillo’s frenetic choreography and some quick costume changes for the boys, Jess Goldstein’s costume design seeing them don their famous red suits. At times, Baker seems to struggle a little with hitting the falsetto notes that Valli is known for – it can occasionally feel a bit strained. Baker performs better in later numbers that don’t require him to reach such high notes. His performance of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” is one of the strongest of the evening and earns him a lengthy round of applause from the audience.
The second half of the show sees things start to crumble for the Four Seasons, as Tommy racks up debt and is forced out of the band by Frankie. Nick Massi takes centre stage after being side-lined for most of the opening act, but the narration gives Kennedy very little to work with, and we struggle to get a true sense of who Nick is. He talks about having a family but we never see them, and when Nick makes the decision to leave the band, it is treated as a quick gag and his reasons are never properly explored. Elsewhere, we get a better look at Frankie’s personal life, with scenes focusing on his relationship with first wife Mary Delgado (Sydnie Hocknell) and daughter Francine (Artemis Chrisoulakis), but these aspects are introduced too late in the show for them to have much impact. It doesn’t help that Baker seems to lack charisma which makes it hard to care about Frankie’s predicament.
Klara Zieglerova’s set design is simple and sparse, with scaffolding around the edges of the stage allowing for different levels, used to great effect when Frankie finds himself performing solo, watched forebodingly from above by Gaudio, which adds an extra level of tension to the scene. The show also uses projected backdrops from designer Michael Clark, which allows for some excellent imagery of the Jersey skyline, but at other points displays cartoons of the type found in 60s newspapers, which feel a bit thematically disconnected at times.
The show ends with the Four Seasons reuniting for a performance in 1990, but again there is very little exploration of this reunion besides a performance of the song “Rag Doll”. We never get to understand how the reunion came about, or how the characters felt about it – were they excited to be sharing a stage again? Apprehensive? It’s impossible to tell. The show clearly thrives in its performances that are reminiscent of a rock concert rather than a piece of musical theatre, but many of the songs are not performed in full – we are treated to a single verse and chorus, and then the song is interrupted with more narration. It leaves the audience wanting more – which can be a good thing at times, but is not that satisfying when “more” is never delivered. There is also an odd choice to have main characters pretending to play instruments rather than actually playing them. Maurice Cambridge’s band do an excellent job behind-the-scenes but it can be a little disconcerting watching people strumming guitars that clearly are not producing the sounds we are hearing.
This musical strives to be cool and edgy, and in that it mostly succeeds – the musical performances are lively and bold, and the costumes and songs will prove to be a hit of nostalgia for older theatre goers. Where the musical struggles is in its story and characters, which feels a confusing mix of too complicated and too threadbare, mainly owing to the fact that the show tries to tell four individual stories in just two and a half hours, which means that there is lots going on, but nothing is afforded enough time to be explored properly. Punchy, playful, passionate, but never quite draws you in as you’d hope.
Tom Morley, July 2026
For more information on how I decide on star ratings, see here: Star ratings – Broken Legs Blog
Review Round-up:
The Theatre Flyer: Jersey Boys – 4* from The Theatre Flyer, who call this 20th anniversary tour “a tightly written piece” with “genuine theatrical electricity”
Pink Prince Theatre: Jersey Boys – 5* from Pink Prince Theatre, who say that Luke Baker “is an absolute powerhouse, nailing that iconic, soaring falsetto with effortless precision and zero strain”
Kev Castle Theatre Reviews: Jersey Boys – A stellar write-up from Kev Castle, who concludes by saying “if you love a good factual story with loads of instantly memorable songs, all of which will get your toes tapping, you will adore this musical”
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