jersey boys

Sometimes it's really nice when two casts swap tickets with each other.

Because then I get to see Jersey Boys.

Okay, so maybe that doesn't happen every time, per se, but it did happen today.

A whole group of us from ACL went to the matinee and were psyched to be sitting in the audience, cheering, screaming, laughing, clapping, and all around acting like fools.

Very very entertained fools.

I mean, who doesn't like to see four guys singing like angels all the while never missing a step?
Seriously, I saw first hand why the show won the Tony for Best New Musical in 2006 and has been running on Broadway with ease since then. Not to mention the company in Chicago and Las Vegas--as well as the National Tour.

This story grabs your heart because it chronicles a real group of four men from Newark, NJ who buck the trends and actually make it in the music business. Actually write and perform hits and put Jersey on the map as more than just a turnpike that takes you to New York City.

It was also hilarious. Jersey-style, gritty humor that had me laughing out loud. And the music! I mean I heard all these song that I didn't know I really knew, didn't know I really loved, and didn't even know was the Four Seasons, necessarily--songs like Earth Angel, Sunday Kind of Love, Big Girls Don't Cry, December, 1963 (Oh What a Night), My Boyfriend's Back, Walk Like a Man, Stay, Who Loves You and maybe my favorite of all of these, Can't Take My Eyes Off You.

It was part rock concert and part gripping play and every part of me loved it.

It was so nice to see a show that is totally different from what I have been doing for the past year, too. So nice to see an actual set on the stage, with levels and everything. These actors changed costumes like champs with the girls in different wigs throughout the show and changed the sets seamlessly. It made our show look almost easy.

Almost.

The actor who played Frankie Valli (John Michael Dias) was phenomenal with an amazing voice. Really, it was such a fantastic show and if you have the opportunity to see it, you should.

However...For the more sensitive among us, be warned that it is no children's show. It does deal with some mature themes as well as use the vernacular of the blue-collar working class of New Jersey. So if you do go and hear the f-bomb don't say I didn't warn you.

Also, the audience here in Chicago continues to be fantastic and I am having a blast performing for them...;-)