Jersey Boys
The Four Seasons’ big hits — “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Let’s Hang On,” “Walk Like a Man” and many more — are so familiar that you can probably hum along even if you weren’t around when they topped the charts in the ’60s and ’70s.
But the story behind the music might have been lost to history were it not for “Jersey Boys,” the phenomenally popular musical bio that just celebrated three hit years at the Palazzo.
“Jersey Boys” is the grittily honest and emotionally wrenching story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, four guys from the wrong side of the tracks who overcame incredible odds to become one of the best-selling musical groups of all time.
The quartet was an unstoppable hit machine, selling 175 million records before any of them had even turned 30.
“Jersey Boys” chronicles how things eventually unraveled: Tommy DeVito was exiled to Las Vegas as his gambling drove the group deeper and deeper into debt, while Valli’s daughter died of a drug overdose.
Bassist Nick Massi, played by Santa Monica native Jeff Leibow, quit the group just as its popularity soared, having grown weary of being upstaged by Bob Gaudio’s songwriting genius, frontman Valli’s stratospheric falsetto and DeVito’s oversized personality.
The “musical pulls no punches and really tells it like it is,” said Deven May, who plays DeVito.
Travis Cloer and Rick Faugno share the role of Valli, while Peter Saide portrays Gaudio. The actors — talented singers each one — perform all of the hits during the two-act production.
The Las Vegas production is the exclusive West Coast engagement of “Jersey Boys,” which was named Best Show in Las Vegas by the staff of the Las Vegas Review-Journal in the newspaper’s 28th annual “Best of Las Vegas” poll.
-Anne Burke, Custom Publishing Writer
“JERSEY BOYS”
Palazzo Resort-Hotel-Casino
3325 Las Vegas Blvd. South
866.641.7469 or 702.414.9000
$65 to $135
VIP package available for $235: www.palazzolasvegas.com
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, 7 p.m.
Tuesday and Saturday, 6:30 and 9:30 p.m.
Dark Mondays