Promising to “have you humming all the way home,” Jersey Boys at Bancroft’s Village Playhouse received an extended run until Aug. 31 soon after its opening night.
The Tony award-winning musical, originally written for Broadway, is presented by Tweed & Company Theatre.
Jersey Boys tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, following the music group from their rough-around-the-edges origins in New Jersey to their meteoric rise to superstardom, and the inevitable challenges that follow.
The musical deals with some mature themes, which Tweed & Company artistic and co-executive director Tim Porter said had to be handled carefully.
“There’s a lot of swearing in the show. We cut about half of it. That was one of the changes we made, knowing our audience, but that’s the one warning I’ll give people. There is some Jersey language,” Porter said.
He said that adapting the production for the smaller stages in Tweed and Bancroft was relatively easy with the experienced eye of their director.
“We’re lucky, we have an incredibly clever director, Julie Tomaino, who was a big get for us. She did two shows at Stratford [Festival] this year and she’s about to direct the regional premier of Come from Away. She’s a big deal in Canadian theatre, and luckily she has done the show [Jersey Boys] four times before,” Porter said.
He added that one audience member in Tweed had seen Jersey Boys seven times, but that the intimacy of the venue made Tweed & Company’s production his favourite.
“You’re seeing these big musicals, but in these very small spaces where you can actually see the actors’ faces and hear everything so clearly,” he said.
And, boy, did the audience ever hear the vocal powerhouses on stage. Theatre-goers agreed that the music was the standout part of the night for them.
“Very good overall. Strong singers, and they were very talented,” Doreen Goggan said, adding that it kept her wanting to dance in her seat.
“Brought me back to when my mom used to make me listen to the records when I was younger,” Maryanne Cleland laughed.
Steve Tovee said the production hit the mark of what he expected based on past experience.
“I’ve seen Jersey Boys down in the city of Toronto and this matches it one-to-one,” he said.
Porter said that Jersey Boys matches the theme of a lot of Tweed & Company’s recent productions in that it’s an escape.
“It’s a magical experience seeing live theatre, and like I said, in our very intimate spaces. This show in particular, it’s uplifting, it’s beautifully-sung, it’s just a fun time. The music is fun, it’s recognizable,” he said.
“It’s an opportunity to just step out for the night and kind of forget your troubles and live through some magic times with an incredible Canadian cast that’s going to blow you away with their vocals and their choreography.”
