Can’t take my eyes off of Arts Club’s Jersey Boys production 

As the days and weeks slowly evolve into autumn, many of us reluctantly say farewell to outdoor activities and begin to consider what might attract us to something indoors.

Many will settle for home entertainment, but others will be looking for something more social, such as live theatre. They could do no better than to support the Arts Club Theatre company.

Its current production is, in many ways, a reflection of what pleasures the company’s program has already provided – especially in its recent Johnny Cash tribute Ring of Fire.

Now it is again providing a show based on popular music that a multitude of people (even those of younger years!) will be familiar with: the multi-million record sellers and iconic members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Until the production of Jersey Boys hit the stage in 2004, many had no knowledge of the complex and checkered story of how the group rose to fame. Now the Arts Club at the Stanley Theatre is offering the show as part of its new season. 

It is a daring undertaking. While challenging to produce, it is a production that offers much in the form of entertainment – as well, of course, as a nostalgic trip down memory lane for those who remember the famous vocal group from as far back as 1960.

To say that the group’s story was complex is a decided understatement, as Jersey Boys amply indicates. From their early years starting in Newark, New Jersey, their journey of struggling to fame was replete with incident and decidedly challenging.

The narrative that is the framework of the show indicates this in a way which is fascinating, lively, and revelatory.

Inspired by this, the Arts Club team creatively uses set, choreography, costuming, and music, as well as talented singers over the 80 minutes of the performance to provide non-stop entertainment – though prospective audience members are warned that some may find the content and language distasteful in its unfolding. After all, this is a real story of real people who were both talented and flawed.

One sees the group members struggling with failures and successes, with personal conflicts involving friendship and family, and with all the challenges that one might expect of a group of working-class hoodlums attempting to handle fame and fortune – all of it liberally laced with a satisfyingly large assortment of the group’s great hits.

To mount such a show is a challenge indeed, but the Arts Club has risen to the occasion in the way that one has come to expect of this Vancouver theatrical treasure. A talented cast of musicians and actors brings to rewarding life a vehicle which lesser companies might find impossible.

Of course, there have been other touring productions of the show in Vancouver, but those who have seen it in other incarnations will doubtless be more than delighted to revisit it, while those who have not yet been taken on the fascinating Jersey Boys journey (even with anyone unfamiliar with the songs – if such persons exist) will learn of a fascinating story, a kind of morality play with lively music as a bonus.

The Arts Club is not only providing audiences with this memorable show but is offering a tempting range of productions in the months ahead – everything from Waitress and The Three Musketeers to Miracle on 34^th Street and The Mousetrap.

Suddenly autumn and winter seem much brighter.

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