"Oh, What A Night!"
The 2006 Tony Award-Winning Best Musical JERSEY BOYS
Makes its Northwest Premiere at The 5th Avenue Theatre
Performances: December 5, 2007 - Janurary 12, 2008
Production Photos
SEATTLE - Broadway's smash hit JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, makes its exclusive Northwest premiere at The 5th Avenue Theatre December 5, 2007 - January 12, 2008. Directed by two-time Tony Award-winner Des McAnuff, JERSEY BOYS won four 2006 Tony Awards including Best Musical and remains one of the top-grossing shows in New York since opening in November 2005. Now playing to sold-out houses in Chicago, JERSEY BOYS completed a sold-out, record-breaking four month engagement in Los Angeles last summer. Productions have been announced for Las Vegas, London and Toronto. On October 1, when tickets went on sale for the Seattle premiere, all 5th Avenue Theatre box office records were broken.
JERSEY BOYS is the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons: Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi. This is the story of how a group of blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks became one of the biggest American pop music sensations of all time. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide - all before they were thirty. It features their hit songs including "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Rag Doll," "Oh, What a Night" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You."
JERSEY BOYS is written by Academy Award-winner Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and choreography by Sergio Trujillo.
The cast for the Seattle engagement is lead by Erich Bergen (Bob Gaudio), Steve Gouveia (Nick Massi), Christopher Kale Jones (Frankie Valli) and Deven May (Tommy DeVito) as The Four Seasons, with John Altieri and Joseph Siravo. The ensemble includes Miles Aubrey, Erik Bates, Holly Ann Butler, Sarah Darling, Christopher DeAngelis, Jennifer Evans, Eric Gutman, Jamie Karen, Nathan Klau, Brandon Matthieus, Michael Pearce, Zachary Prince, Courter Simmons, Taylor Sternberg and Josh Weinstein.
The JERSEY BOYS design and production team comprises Klara Zieglerova (Scenic Design), Jess Goldstein (Costume Design), Howell Binkley (winner of the 2006 Tony® Award for his Lighting Design of JERSEY BOYS), Steve Canyon Kennedy (Sound Design), Michael Clark (Projections Design), Charles LaPointe (Wig and Hair Design), Steve Orich (Orchestrations) and Ron Melrose (Music Direction, Vocal Arrangements & Incidental Music). JERSEY BOYS is produced by Dodger Theatricals, Joseph J. Grano, Tamara and Kevin Kinsella, Pelican Group, with Latitude Link and Rick Steiner.
The Original Broadway Cast Recording of JERSEY BOYS, produced by Bob Gaudio, won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. The cast recording is now available on Rhino Records. JERSEY BOYS: The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (Broadway Books) is the official handbook to the smash Broadway hit. For more information on JERSEY BOYS, go to www.JerseyBoysInfo.com.
MARSHALL BRICKMAN (Book). Films (author or co-author): Sleeper, Annie Hall (A. Award), Manhattan, Manhattan Murder Mystery, For the Boys, Intersection; (as writer/director): Simon, Lovesick, The Manhattan Project, Sister Mary Explains it All. Television: "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" (head writer); the ABC "Dick Cavett Show," (head writer/co-producer; 2 Emmy Awards). Mr. Brickman entered show business as a musician with the folk group The Tarriers; then, with John and Michelle Phillips, formed the pre-Mamas and Papas group The New Journeymen. Brickman's recording (with Eric Weissberg) of the soundtrack of Deliverance earned gold status twice. He has published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Playboy and other periodicals and was the 2006 recipient of the Writers' Guild of America's Ian McClellan Hunter Award for Lifetime Achievement. Jersey Boys is his first venture into musical theater.
RICK ELICE (Book). Jersey Boys, Rick's first Broadway credit, won the 2006 Tony Award for Best Musical. How cool is that? From 1982-2000, as creative director at Serino Coyne Inc., he produced ad campaigns for some 300 Broadway shows, from A Chorus Line to The Lion King. Since 2000, he has served as creative consultant for the Walt Disney Studio. BA, Cornell University; MFA, Yale Drama School; Teaching Fellow, Harvard University; charter member, American Repertory Theatre. In 2003, he appeared Off-Broadway in Elaine May's comedy, Adult Entertainment. With Marshall Brickman and Andrew Lippa, he is currently writing a musical based on The Addams Family. End of credits. Rick saw his first Broadway show when he was three. His mother said he was very well-behaved. From that day, he dreamed of working in the theater. From the age of 19, he has. Heartfelt thanks to those he's been lucky enough to know, whose work makes him grateful for the day he was born: Sondheim, Stoppard, Bennett, Prince, Fosse, Robbins, Nichols, Tune, Nunn, Laurents, Stone, Kushner, Taymor, Papp, Schumacher, Schneider, Coyne, Brickman and Rees. Rick thinks about them a lot. He never thought about Jersey much. He does now.
BOB GAUDIO (Composer) wrote his first hit, "Who Wears Short Shorts," at 15, for the Royal Teens, and then went on to become a founding member of the Four Seasons and the band's principal songwriter. He also produced the hit "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" for Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand (Grammy nomination, Record of the Year) as well as six albums for Diamond, including The Jazz Singer. Other producing credits include albums for Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and the soundtrack for the film of Little Shop of Horrors. Several songs co-written with Bob Crewe have been cover hits for such artists as the Tremeloes ("Silence Is Golden"), the Walker Brothers ("The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore") and Lauryn Hill ("Can't Take My Eyes Off You"). With his wife, Judy Parker, Gaudio produced and co-wrote the Who Loves You album for the Four Seasons and one of Billboard's longestcharted singles (54 weeks), "Oh, What a Night." A high point in his career came in 1990 when, as a member of the original Four Seasons, Gaudio was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1995, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, which hailed him as "a quintessential musicmaker." To this day, Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli still maintain their partnership...on a handshake.
BOB CREWE (Lyricist). "New York was pregnant in the fifties," says Bob Crewe, "gestating with possibilities." Crewe and music partner Frank Slay became independent writer-producers when the category hadn't yet been invented. In 1957 they wrote and produced "Silhouettes" for The Rays, skyrocketing to #1. Suddenly, producers in demand, they launched Freddie Cannon's "Tallahassee Lassie" and Billy & Lillie's "Lah Dee Da." Crewe's 1960's solo unprecedented producing success with The Four Seasons birthed a new sound, striking a major chord in American Pop. "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," "Candy Girl," "Ronnie" - all smashes! When lead Frankie Valli demanded a solo turn, Crewe & Bob Gaudio wrote and Crewe produced "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You," which eventually became the century's fifth most-played song. Crewe ran hot with artists from Vicki Carr, Oliver, Lesley Gore to Mitch Ryder, cowriting with Charles Fox the soundtrack for Jane Fonda's film, Barbarella. Then his own Bob Crewe Generation exploded with Music To Watch Girls By. In 1972 Bob was in L.A., where he revived Frankie Valli with "My Eyes Adored You" by Crewe & Kenny Nolan. They also co-wrote Patti LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade" (#1, July '75) - to re-hit again from the soundtrack of Moulin Rouge (#1, June '01)...David Ritz.
DES MCANUFF (Director) is a two-time Tony Award-winning director and was recently named Co-Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival of Canada. He is Director Emeritus of La Jolla Playhouse, which he has headed for much of the past 25 years. Under his leadership, La Jolla Playhouse garnered over 300 theatre awards, including the 1993 Outstanding Regional Theatre Tony Award. Recent productions directed at the Playhouse: The Wiz (2006); Zhivago (2005); Palm Beach (2005); Private Fittings (2005); Tom Donaghy's Eden Lane (2003); Tartuffe (2002); Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (2001). Playhouse to Broadway credits: Jersey Boys, Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays (Broadway 2004, Tony Award); Dracula: The Musical (2004); How to Succeed... (1995); The Who's Tommy (director/co-author with Pete Townshend, 1993 Tony Award Best Director of a Musical; 1997 London Olivier Awards Best Director/Best Musical); A Walk in the Woods (1988); and Big River (1985, seven Tonys including Best Director of a Musical and Best Musical). Film credits: Cousin Bette and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (director), Iron Giant (producer), Quills (executive producer). Upcoming: Aaron Sorkin's The Farnsworth Invention.
SERGIO TRUJILLO (Choreographer). Broadway: Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations), All Shook Up. NYC credits: The Public Theater's Romeo and Juliet (Delacorte Theatre), Kismet and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Encores!), The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Bare, Salome (NYC Opera). Int'l credits: Disney's Tarzan (Holland); Peggy Sue Got Married (London); West Side Story, The Sound of Music (Stratford Festival); Kiss Me, Kate, Twelfth Night (Tokyo). Additional theatre credits: Mambo Kings, The Wiz and Zhivago (La Jolla Playhouse); Kiss of The Spider Woman, Le Nozze di Figaro (L.A. Opera); Hoy Come Ayer (Ballet Hispanico); Chita Rivera's Chita and All That Jazz. TV: Triple Sensation (celebrity judge), "Broadway: The American Musical" and "The 14th American Comedy Awards" starring Nathan Lane. 2003 Ovation Award in L.A., three Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for choreography in Canada and Stiching Musical Award in Europe. Upcoming: Next to Normal (Second Stage), Saved (Playwrights Horizons), Zhivago (West End), The Wiz (Broadway), The Addams Family (Broadway).
Tickets to JERSEY BOYS are priced from $28 - $88. Tickets are available over the phone by calling (206) 625-1900 (toll free 888-5TH-4TIX), online at www.5thavenue.org or in person at the box office in downtown Seattle. There is no service charge when purchasing tickets in person at The 5th Avenue Theatre Box Office.
The 5th Avenue Theatre is Seattle's premier musical theater. In 1980, the non-profit 5th Avenue Theatre began producing and presenting top-quality live musical theater for the cultural enrichment of the Northwest community. The 5th Avenue Theatre maintains a subscription audience of 24,000 and an annual attendance of more than 225,000. It ranks among the nation’s largest and most respected musical theater companies. The theater is committed to encouraging the next generation of theatergoers through its Educational Outreach Program which includes: The Adventure Musical Theatre Touring Company, The 5th Avenue High School Musical Theatre Awards, First Friday Workshops, the Student Matinee Program and Spotlight Nights. Unique in its Chinese-inspired design, the exquisite theater opened in 1926 as a venue for vaudeville and film. Today, under the leadership of Managing Director Marilynn Sheldon and Producing Artistic Director David Armstrong, The 5th Avenue Theatre continues to achieve the highest standards in all aspects of artistic endeavors and facility operations, while preserving its artistic, architectural and historic legacy. Visit www.5thavenue.org.
JERSEY BOYS SHOWTIMES
December 5, 2007 - January 12, 2008
(Previews: Dec. 5 at 7:30pm, Dec. 6 at 2:00pm & 8:00pm)
- Tuesday Evening 7:30 pm*
- Wednesday Evening 7:30 pm
- Thursday Evening 8:00 pm
- Friday Evening 8:00 pm
- Saturday Matinee 2:00 pm
- Saturday Evening 8:00 pm
- Sunday Matinee 1:30 pm
- Sunday Evening 7:00 pm
*No Tuesday evening performance: December 25 or January 1
Added Monday evening performances: December 31 and January 7 at 7:30 pm
Added mid-week matinees: Thursday, December 6 and Wednesday, December 26 at 2:00 pm
Please contact Molly Fortin, Public Relations Manager, at (206) 625-1418 with questions or to schedule individual interviews. Photos for download at 5thavenue.org/press/downloads.aspx.
2007-2008 SEASON SPONSOR: Puget Sound Energy