This is my last Vegas post, I promise. (Well, until I go there again. Or until something interesting happens there. Or until I frickin' feel like it.)
So, I had one final show slot to fill on my Las Vegas trip, and decided to take in the Vegas production of Jersey Boys. My only other options in that time slot were Criss Angel Believe and Mamma Mia. But I was a bit Cirqued out after KÀ and The Beatles: Love (see my reviews below), and I'm probably going to be seeing Mamma Mia next month in New York. After I see Shrek at the Broadway, the Winter Garden will be the only remaining Broadway theater that I've never been in. (I saw Mamma Mia on tour.) To reach that milestone, I'm willing to sit through Mamma Mia again. If I can get a discount ticket.
As for Jersey Boys, Vegas seems a much more fitting setting for the show than New York, because it's basically a very slickly produced tribute show. It's really not that far removed from the all-star revues that populate the less tony casinos along the strip, featuring recreations of the Rat Pack, or mythical encounters between Elvis and Marilyn Monroe impersonators.
I was thinking that the Vegas version of Jersey Boys would be abbreviated, as they've done with Phantom, but the Jersey Boys folk actually do the entire show, with a "short break" between acts (eight minutes, which they count down on an on-stage screen). It's an interesting, and potentially brave, choice on the part of the producers. The thinking has always been that Vegas crowds won't sit through shows that are much longer than 90 minutes, and the casinos want those people back on the gambling floors.
I did notice, though, that while Phantom is advertised at 95 minutes, it ran a bit closer to 110 minutes. And that's without an intermission, which had even me squirming, and I generally prefer intermission-less shows.(As The Drowsy Chaperone's Man in Chair puts it, intermissions ruin the magic, break the mood, and leave you surrounded by tourists.)
Although tickets to the Broadway version of Jersey Boys can be hard to come by, in Vegas I got a great center orchestra seat day of show, and I noticed that there were lots of empty seats at the performance I attended. Of course, this was 9:30 PM on a Tuesday night, and even the Jersey Boys Vegas Web site says that's your best chance to get good seats. But, if you're dying to see Jersey Boys, and don't want to wait until 2009 for a good seat, you might want to take a trip to Nevada. (Or not.)
As for the show, it's still slick as hell and thoroughly efficient. (See my review of the original Broadway cast.) The book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice is a marvel of focus and economy, and manages to wrench genuine drama out of a thoroughly pedestrian story. But, as was true the first time I saw it, I found it to be a tale of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The show is entertaining but forgettable. I think of it as theatrical junk food: it's enjoyable while it lasts, but afterward it leaves you craving something more substantial.
The Vegas cast is professional, but for the most part pale next to the Broadway originals. (Yeah, comparisons are odious, but nonetheless inevitable.) Travis Cloer (Frankie Valli alternate) and Erik Bates (Tommy Devito) in particular suffer in comparison with Tony winners John Lloyd Young and Christian Hoff, respectively. Cloer and Bates do respectable jobs, to be sure, but they always seem as though they're performing, whereas Young and Hoff felt more natural in the roles.
Jeff Leibow overdoes the Jersey accent big time in an apparent attempt to make the part of Nick Massi more than it really is. Only Erich Bergen as Bob Gaudio seems successfully to make the part his own, bringing both strength and vulnerability to the role.
But the stars of the show remain Des McAnuff's slick direction and Sergio Trujillo's sharp staging. And then, of course, there are those wonderful Bob Gaudio songs, an admittedly rich songbook from which to draw. Somehow it all comes together to create a rousing good time of a show, even if it doesn't stretch the form, challenge the mind, or make a lasting impression. Jersey Boys is very good for what it is, but for me, it's the ultimate triumph of showmanship over content.
