There are shows you see once and check off the list. Then there are shows that keep pulling you back, year after year, like some sort of particularly catchy musical siren song. For me, Jersey Boys is definitely the latter. Now onstage at TPAC‘s Jackson Hall thru Sunday, September 20 as the 20th Anniversary National Tour continues, attending the show’s second night in Music City marks the sixth time in 20 years I’ve seen it—and my third time seeing it at Tennessee Performing Arts Center. So, yes, I know when the songs are coming, I know where the laughs are, I know where the story is going…and I still found myself completely caught up in the ride.
That may be the greatest compliment I can give Jersey Boys: after six times, it still works. Officially kicking off just last week in Syracuse, this national tour arrives with an interesting distinction. While the 20th Anniversary Tour is a non-Equity production, the creative forces behind the original phenomenon remain very much in charge. Des McAnuff, the show’s original director, is back at the helm, while Sergio Trujillo, whose original choreography helped define the production, returns with his original choreography. I mention the non-equity status because a non-equity tour can, occasionally, be scaled-down considerably from a show’s Broadway run. Perhaps, because this tour has been so hands-on with the full cooperation of the original creative forces, this incarnation doesn’t feel like any expenses were spared, no corners were cut and no holds barred for this landmark anniversary tour. For the show’s two and a half hour runtime, I’m confident that the entire audience at TPAC would tell the cast our eyes and ears adored them!
This isn’t just another jukebox musical. This is a show with some serious hardware in its trophy case: the Tony Award for Best Musical, the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. Twenty years after its Broadway debut, it doesn’t take long to see why.
The genius of Jersey Boys has always been its storytelling structure. The show cheekily divides itself into Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, giving a knowing wink to the name of the group while providing four distinct chapters in the lives of The Four Seasons.
Spring gives us the genesis—the young men, the dreams and the unlikely beginnings. Summer is the rocket ride, as the group discovers fame, fortune and what happens when those little songs they’ve been working on suddenly become enormous hits. Fall brings the cracks in the foundation: personal conflicts, financial problems, uncertainty and the realization that success can be every bit as complicated as failure. Then comes Winter, with its reflection, loss and the ultimate accolade: The Four Seasons’ 1990 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Not bad for some kids from Jersey.
The cleverness of that four-season structure isn’t merely branding. It gives the show a natural dramatic progression while providing one of those delightful little theatrical winks that Jersey Boys is so good at delivering.
Of course, you can’t talk about Jersey Boys without talking about the music. And in the vernacular of the Jersey Boys, holy f’in jukebox, is there a lot of it. The production packs more than 30 songs, and this cast nails the vocal demands with the kind of precision that makes The Four Seasons’ famously distinctive sound seem effortless.
The Four Seasons’ musical catalog is so deep—they had 40 songs land on the Billboard Top 40—that there simply isn’t enough room in one musical to accommodate all those hits. The Playbill acknowledges that problem in particularly delightful fashion, with a footnote titled “The Ones That Got Away,” recognizing more than a dozen additional Four Seasons and Frankie Valli bangers that didn’t make the final cut.
But it’s not simply the quantity of the songs that makes this production sing. It’s the quality of the vocals. Audiences arrive knowing exactly how these songs are supposed to sound, from Valli’s unmistakable falsetto to those intricate Four Seasons harmonies.
This cast understands that assignment.
As Frankie Valli, Coby Oram delivers the vocal precision you’d expect from a performer stepping into one of pop music’s most distinctive voices, but there’s also a strong emotional dimension beneath the falsetto. Valli isn’t simply the guy who sings the really high notes; we’re watching a young man grow into the person who ultimately has to carry the group forward. Oram is equally adept at hitting the high notes as he is knocking it out of the park during the show’s more tense relationship moments whether exploring his fractured family dynamic or the never-ending allegiance to his fellow hitmakers.
Peyton Schoenhofer brings youthful energy and confidence to Bob Gaudio, the songwriter whose creative contributions helped fuel the group’s remarkable run. His Gaudio possesses just the right combination of ambition, talent and youthful uncertainty. Schoenhofer exemplifies a great balance of Gaudio’s seemingly more sheltered upbringing–compared to the a couple of the other boys, who racked up police records before platinum ones–with an unexpected business savvy that would be a key element in his relationship with Valli.
Harry Sperduto makes Tommy DeVito an entertainingly combustible force, bringing plenty of swagger and humor to a character whose ambitions ultimately come with a steep price. Tommy can be charming, funny, infuriating and reckless—and Sperduto keeps all of those qualities in play without reducing DeVito to a cartoon gangster. You know he’s good when, time after time of screwing over his bandmates, the audience still feels for him and cheers both his misdeeds and his achievements.
Owen McCredie gives Nick Massi the quietest member of the quartet a genuine presence, allowing us to understand the man beneath that reserved exterior. There’s a dry wit and simmering frustration beneath Nick’s reserved exterior, and McCreedie lets those qualities emerge naturally, making Nick’s eventual departure from the group on of the evening’s more effective moments. McCredie doesn’t let get lost amid all those bigger personalities, he crafts a careful, thoughtful presence. While Valli’s falsetto might have made him the bigger star, McCredie’s booming bass voice as Massi is swoon worthy.
Together, the four are a cohesive, convincing unit—and that’s crucial. The Four Seasons weren’t four soloists who happened to stand next to each other. Their magic was in the blend. This cast gets it.
While the primary focus is of course on the aforementioned quartet, one of the strengths of this production is that Jersey Boys doesn’t treat its four principals as the only people worth watching. Andrew Sattler makes an especially memorable impression as Bob Crewe, bringing a larger-than-life theatricality to the eccentric producer and lyricist who becomes such an important part of the group’s story.
Nicholas Dion Reese gets the evening off to an energetic start with an updated, internationally flavored take on “Ces soirées-là,” better known stateside as “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night!),” The Four Seasons’ final No. 1 hit from 1975. It’s an attention-grabbing opening that immediately announces that this isn’t going to be a sleepy trip through an oldies playlist.
Among the female members of the ensemble, Eliza Levy makes an impression as Mary Delgado and others, helping bring the women surrounding these four men into sharper focus rather than allowing them to become mere scenery in the boys’ story. While she’s initially written as a stereotypical Jersey girl, Delgado doesn’t rest on that, bringing dimension to what could easily be a throw-away role. Her vocals on the late Act 1 tune “My Eyes Adored You” in an adroit call and response opposite Oram’s Frankie, reveal a welcomed depth to not only her portrayal, but the classic song itself.
Another highlight in the supporting cast comes in Sarah Coleman‘s turn as Francine Valli particularly as the story begins exploring the one of the show’s more somber elements revealing the personal costs of Frankie Valli’s extraordinary career. It’s a relatively small role with only a couple of minutes on stage, but it’s one of the show’s most impactful. Coleman, like many of the supporting players appears throughout in a multitude of other roles, but it’s her brief time on stage as Valli’s daughter that stays with the audience.
And then there’s Joe Pesci. Yes, THAT Joe Pesci, as the script cheekily reminds us. The real Pesci was friends with the young Four Seasons, and his connection to the group is one of those almost-too-good-to-be-true details from their early history. Here, the role gets an especially fun Nashville twist thanks to Grant Weathington, a 2025 Belmont University graduate. For those in the TPAC audience who know that little bit of local trivia, it’s one more reason to enjoy the character when he pops up.
Speaking of Nashville, the Music City connection doesn’t stop there. One of the original members and creative forces behind The Four Seasons, Bob Gaudio, has been a Nashville resident since the 1990s. So when the show reaches its later “where are they now?” passage and mentions that Gaudio now spends his days on his boat in Nashville, the response from the TPAC audience was noticeably more enthusiastic than your average biographical footnote. There was definitely a little “That’s OUR Bob!” energy in the room. It’s a small moment, but it’s one of those details that makes seeing a touring production in its proper local context so much fun.
The remarkable thing about Jersey Boys after two decades (six decades if you count The Four Seasons’ real-life history) isn’t simply that the songs remain popular. It’s that the story still works. The musical understands that success stories are rarely as simple as the finished record. Behind every No. 1 hit are relationships, egos, debts, bad decisions, sacrifices, arguments and people trying to figure out what comes next.
That’s what keeps Jersey Boys from becoming nothing more than a jukebox with a plot. The music may be the sugar, but the complicated relationships are the substance. And the 20th Anniversary Tour gives audiences the best of both worlds: a production rooted in the staging that originally made the musical a Tony-, Olivier- and Grammy-winning phenomenon, now performed by a fresh cast with its own chemistry and energy.
Twenty years after Jersey Boys first took Broadway by storm, this new generation of Four Seasons proves that the songs still soar, the story still resonates and there are apparently still plenty of audiences willing to sing along. After six trips alongside The Four Seasons myself, I’m apparently still not ready to say goodbye. And really…why would I? Four seasons. More than 30 songs. Forty Top 40 hits. Twenty years. as one of modern theatre’s most beloved musical.Oh, what a night!
Catch the 20th Anniversary National Tour at Nashville’s TPAC September 16-20. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets or for more information. Following Jersey Boys TPAC’s 2026/2027 Season continues with The Sound of Music onstage October 13-18. Follow TPAC on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.
Not in Nashville? It’s likely Jersey Boys will be working their way back to you, so check them out on Facebook, X, Insta, TikTok, YouTube and Threads to see when it rolls into your city and find out why, two decades later, Jersey Boys remains one of Broadway’s most irresistible musical stories.
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