In keeping with memorable nights with NYE upon us, we thought it would be fitting for our final 2011 blog to pay tribute to Jersey Boys, which had it's final show in Sydney earlier this month - after a record 2 years in Australia!
I attended Jersey Boys with my Mum and step-dad in 2010, during their holiday with me in Sydney. When suggested as an evening event by my Mum, I was at first apprehensive, thinking "great, a juke-box night of golden oldies ... not my thing, but I'll go along for the sake of my family".
I couldn't have been further from the truth. I was sucked into the Jersey Boys show immediately...
By now Australian audiences are as familiar as their American counterparts with the rise-and-fall stories of pop sensations. We have had the colour-by-numbers Dusty, the raucously overweening Shout! And, most recently, the lame jukebox re-tread Buddy.
But truly great musicals - which have their audiences coming back for more and spreading the word - have great storytelling. Jersey Boys brought to life the fascinating and largely unknown story of the 1960s pop group Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and in the process connected with myself and thousands of others. A musical tracing three working-class Italian tough guys from Newark, New Jersey (plus one from the Bronx) who became one of the best-selling groups in pop-music history - full of laughs and tears, love and heartache, triumph and disaster.
Scriptwriters Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice dug deep to make Jersey Boys successful (and arguably bigger than the group it is based on!), finding the heart of the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons journey and crafting a well told underdog narrative - something the other aforementioned productions lacked.
As we approach a new year, owners of meaningful businesses everywhere should know they also an authentic, compelling tale of rise and fall, triumph over adversity and ambition fulfilled. It just needs to be recognized, crafted and told with emotional resonance through every possible channel to connect with their audiences on the same level.
http://www.showbiz.com.au/jerseyboys/
