Oh What a Night! "Jersey Boys"

On Wednesday, June 16, two colleagues and I arrived in London on our way back home from a conference. We planned to spend a day in London doing sightseeing. We decided, if we arrived in London soon enough, we should see a show in the West End on Wednesday night, leaving all of Thursday for seeing the sights.

Which show to see? There are so many? We selected "Jersey Boys" as our top choice, though none of us had seen it or even knew what it was about. We got ourselves down to Leicester Square ("Lester" is how they pronounce it -- don't ask me!) went to the first "Half-Price" window we saw, and procured three tickets for about $50 each. We grabbed some ice cream as we waited for the tickets, then walked to the theater, about three blocks away.

And then it started. Wow. The story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. So that's what it's about! And Wow. They had a lot of music I recognized. Of course, I knew about "Sherry" -- their first big hit -- but I had no idea how it came into existence. And I knew nothing about the other members of the Four Seasons, or how long they worked to become singing sensations, or how much trouble they had in their lives. And then, to find out that they were the originators of "Oh What a Night" -- well, it surprised me.

The actors had to have great voices, of course, but most importantly, the actor playing Frankie Valli has to have the right look and the "voice like an angel." He did.

The house was only about 2/3 full, but it didn't matter. We all had a great time, and I've now seen another musical that I can recommend to everyone.