iTunes Exclusive Episode Jersey Boys

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If you are hearing the sound of my voice, it means the following conditions have been met.
At least once in your lifetime, you have checked out the Clubhouse podcast live every Sunday
night, 7 Eastern 4 Pacific.
You are one stop shop for all things pop culture.
It also means at least once in your life, you check this out in your favorite podcast app,
because it's time for another.
Number 382 for those of you playing the home game.
Welcome.
My name is Rob.
I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast.
And yeah, that was my real voice.
Don't hate.
But I'm not alone for this particular episode.
Joining me across is sitting in the co-chair.
Co-host chair this evening is a man that those notes left him a long time ago.
He is Alex.
Welcome, sir.
How long have you had that intro set up?
About 30 seconds.
Liar.
No, it's true.
I don't ever plan these.
Running out the days is the official fact checker of this show, and a man that can actually name all four seasons.
You may know him as fond Don Go, but his mom and name him Don Ford.
I'm going to call him Don Ford.
Welcome, sir.
Toronto, New York, Beverly Hills, Dallas at Los Kalinas in Irving, Texas.
Saudi Arabia did bar.
Told you.
He used to work for the four seasons.
I know he knows where they all are.
When we keep going.
No, no.
That's okay.
See?
I set him up.
He knocks him down.
Whatever we do, one of these things, it is to review something, and this is no exception.
For the second time, we're going to review a stage production.
We saw it a couple of years ago.
We got the chance to see it again at the, and this is a quick run.
This is at the Winx Beer Opera House through May 27th.
This is like less than a week.
It is Jersey Boys.
So what's that's hoping?
Yes, sir.
We got things sending in everybody at ATT Pack in the Winx Beer Opera House.
Oh, we love those guys so much.
They're so great to us, and they take care of us, and they let us see these things,
and we can talk about them, because this is a nationally touring company.
So even though it's got a short run here in DFW, it could be in a city near you.
You don't know, but you should know, because you should go see this.
I'm going to say right off the bat.
This is the story of Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons.
Being out of the age demographic.
Was it always Frankie Valley, or was it just the Four Seasons?
Originally it was a bunch of other things, but they became the Four Seasons.
Okay.
But they would become Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons down the line.
It's an excellent question.
Gotcha.
I mean, again, we've seen this before.
The first time I saw it, I purposely did not watch the film version directed by Clint Eastwood.
Until after we saw the stage version.
I'm glad I did, because I really prefer the stage version.
The only thing that I think that the film version has over the stage version is the curtain call at the end.
I kind of like that a little bit better.
But there's certain things that I don't think the film goes into well enough,
that I think the stage production does.
Now do you think this is purely for Jersey Boys, or is it like on that hierarchy of don't read the book
until after you've seen the visual, where it starts with movie, then it goes stage,
then maybe book?
I don't know about all that.
Okay.
I really don't.
I mean, I think you've been good either way.
But I think that the stage production goes into certain things,
what the film doesn't, and there's certain subplots that are mentioned in the film
that you don't quite get the understanding of that you get in the stage production.
So Don and I got to see this last night.
Chad was not with us.
Jules has fallen a bit ill and he has taken care of her,
which is why he's not with us recording this, so Jules get well soon.
But you and I were there.
Yeah.
Friend of the show, Sarah Schiller Carter was with me hanging out,
and you had the lovely and talented Mrs. Faithford with you.
No, fantastic Faithford.
The lovely and talented Gerwite.
I know.
It's been a long day.
They can both be lovely and talented and fantastic.
So when we walked into the Winstaker Opera House,
the first thing I said to Don was, does the set look different?
Because we saw this about two years ago?
Yeah.
Does that sound about right?
So two and a half.
And I was like, the set kind of looks different.
A little bit, yeah.
And I guess it was a little bit.
It was basically the same.
It's one tall scaffolding with a spiral staircase to audience right
and a straight staircase to audience left.
And pretty much that's it.
There's a video wall behind it, and the live band is underneath it.
But the cast does play the instruments as well,
because the guys in the band played the instruments.
So the cast members actually played the instruments too,
which is actually kind of cool.
Yeah.
It seemed to me this go round, and Don will just freeform this thing.
Mm-hmm.
It seemed to me that there was a little bit more technology,
or was I just not remembering correctly?
Because you and I talked about this a little bit too.
Yeah.
Well, let the people go on the top half.
The scaffolding is kind of like halfway through the back wall.
Probably about two thirds.
Oh, two thirds now.
Above the scaffolding is the screen.
Right.
And so at the bottom, below the scaffolding between the two staircases,
there's a door that opens, and you can see the drum set in the back
and all that stuff, or the rest of the band will play.
Right.
And sometimes it closes, because they want to show you being in a studio
or something like that, where they go from set to set to set.
I don't really, I think they more upped it just a tad on this one,
on the sets with the lighting and stuff, but not too much.
Okay.
I don't remember a huge difference which blew my mind away on this one.
No, I'm not saying it blew my mind.
It just seemed there was a little bit more technology,
especially with the video wall.
There was a little bit more than there was before.
You think so?
I think?
I mean, I think so.
Because I've never seen that thing.
I thought it was about the same on the video wall.
But I just like this one just seemed just a little bit different,
a little bit less for some reason.
Maybe because it's already seen it before.
I don't know.
I just thought it was missing that kind of something special.
It's just kind of hard to explain on this go around.
My biggest gripe about this whole thing is the production is two and a half hours,
not counting them for intermission.
See, you said that in your review currently located at www.theclubhousepractice.com.
That's our website.
That's our website.
It's going to be real close.
I don't know if it hits that two and a half, but it's pretty close.
It started at 7.30.
There was a 15 minutes intermission.
Right.
We walked out and they were still doing like the final take in the bows.
It was about 10, 13 when I looked up my watch.
So you take the 15 minutes away of the intermission.
You got 10 to 7.30.
That's two and a half hours.
So this is a long production.
Let's just get out of the way.
I like how the story got in depth.
It kind of tells the story of what happened with the group.
And it doesn't, it's all not just peaches and cream.
It shows how there's stuff going on in their lives and how this success can hurt other people.
But the way I put it in my written review also currently located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
That's our website.
It's kind of like a VH1 behind the music if VH1 existed in the 60s and 70s.
In a way but more personal.
But this production I thought is rushed.
And what I mean is they'll go from one scene, boom to the next scene, to the next scene, to the next scene.
There's definitely a quick pace to it in certain sections.
Yeah, there was a very quick place in the pace where certain events they want to talk about so they bring it in.
But they bring, they are so enamored with wanting to have all these events in that they have to rush it all.
I thought.
You see, I didn't really feel that way.
I was kind of cool with it.
But you and I kind of saw it differently.
I guess because I'd seen it before and I had a pretty good memory of it.
There were certain things that I was looking forward to seeing the people that were with us as a reaction because they weren't with us the first time.
Especially when they tell the story of, you know, what a night, December 63.
There's a story behind that.
And they tell that story in a really cool way that if you don't realize that's what's going on, like halfway through.
Oh my goodness, they're talking, this is the story of the song.
And I thought that I always have been a big fan of that.
But I don't know.
I mean, I agree with you.
There are some moments where it does go a little fast.
But I don't know.
I don't know that it really.
Yeah, you want to take a drink there, buddy.
I don't know that it took me out of it.
I mean, it didn't really bother me.
No, there's just one point where I thought, okay, they did a scene.
Went through it real fast, told the story in about 30 seconds.
Went to another scene, talked about a life event for about a minute.
Went to another scene fast.
It was transition after transition after transition.
It did go all the way through.
But there was a couple of scenes where I thought it was rushed just to get the point in.
And maybe too much is too much, you know, sometimes.
Well, do you think it's more on lines that there's too much information for the timing?
Or do you think they should have removed things?
Maybe...
I don't know if I would have stretched this any further.
Because it...
No, don't make a vonger.
It fell longer.
Yeah, it was two and a half hours.
So you're thinking maybe a scene or two could get, you know, elongated.
Or maybe cut some of that extra scene.
Because there are some songs where they don't do the whole song.
There's a lot of songs through this where they play the first half or something like that.
There are scenes where they play the whole song.
But not every song.
And maybe they could have cut a few of the songs where they did the whole thing from start to finish.
But maybe shorten them down to the halfway.
Yeah.
Give it the American Idol 90 seconds a move along.
The scene was still good. Don't get me going.
One of my people that I was still kind of impressed with is the guy who plays like the original founder of the group.
Tommy DeVito.
Tommy DeVito.
Played by Cory Green.
Cory Green.
And if you see his headshot in the program, you're like, that's the same dude.
What?
Yeah.
No, he...
He had that good Jersey accent that wasn't...
Seemed so fake and annoying.
Which I'll give on that.
That kind of impressed me.
Like, is this guy really from New Jersey?
Did he really, you know?
I mean, he kind of ran me to the accent of my step uncle.
You know, who lived in Philly the whole time, which is right now.
No, you say step uncle.
Do you put that like, in quote, in air quotes?
No, my real step uncle.
Yeah.
It's actually my actual step uncle.
But no, I mean...
The one that worked at the pizza room.
Allegedly.
It's still...
Don't get me wrong.
It's still a fun time.
But it was just long.
It seemed a little rushed and...
It just didn't...
It had that pizzazzamy because it's the second time I've seen it.
But still, it's enjoyable.
The Fantastic Faith fourth loved it.
She walked out going, yeesh!
She was just smiling and happening with the big ol' smile on her face.
She loved it.
We're rocking out to the garage and parking garage and she goes,
I love this tonight.
I love you though.
Yeah, but she had a good time.
No, she really enjoyed it.
For me.
My only criticism of this is going to be...
I felt like the cheese factor was a little bit higher on this.
Yeah.
That's the best way to put it.
Then...
And I don't know how I can say...
I don't know how else to say it.
But...
It just seemed a little cheesier.
It didn't seem like it was as dramatic as it was.
And maybe it was because I hadn't seen it before.
But I thought all four of the guys,
Tomaso Antico, who plays Bob Gaudio,
who's a guy that pretty much wrote all their music,
and you talked about Corey Greenin, Chris Stevens,
who plays Nicky, and then Johnny Wexter.
I mean, you got to talk about him.
Yeah, he could say.
I mean, I would be interested to see the paperwork on his lineage
because he really envelops Frankie Valley.
I feel like I know that name from somewhere.
He's been with the production a long time.
And he just rejoined it as Frankie Valley,
where he played a different role.
And we don't want to give any spoilers for people
that don't know the story.
But there's a moment in the musical,
where you realize that there's somebody else
that's connected to them.
And it's a really cool little moment.
But he was playing that role for a while.
Yeah.
But I mean, from the vocals to the mannerisms.
Yeah.
I mean, he delivers on every level.
There's also three very strong females in this cast
that we got to see a lot.
Tristan Butyl, or Butyl, I can't tell what that is.
Caitlin Leary and Michelle Rambola.
All three very strong.
And it really just a solid cast.
Like I said, the cheese factor was up a little bit.
There was a couple of technical problems here and there.
But I really, really enjoyed this.
And it's a great story.
It's a great musical.
And I'm a big fan of what they call these jukebox musicals,
where there's no original songs written for it.
It's all songs that you know.
And the audience was into it.
It was really great.
Oh, I don't get Jenna Nicole Shone.
Yes.
Caitlin was a swing on this one.
But Jenna played Angel and Francine.
Yes.
I mean, it's a small cast.
Besides the big four, you got to look at that cast list.
There's people that play eight, nine parts in this film.
Oh, yes.
It's not a big cast.
Oh, no.
And they do good on changing the appearance to be someone else,
or have that different look, which I kind of pressed me on this too.
I mean, don't give it up.
It's a good time.
I'd still recommend it.
It's a good showing, but keep in mind, it is long.
But if you love that music, oh.
Oh, absolutely.
Because there was a couple ladies and just to the right of us,
a couple rose up that were just going, Gonzo.
Yeah.
Especially in that second act.
Yeah.
I mean, so it's so good.
I'd still recommend it.
Alex, any questions that you might have that we haven't already answered?
I feel like you've covered everything for me.
If I come up with anything real quick, I'll try to interrupt.
But I do know that, you know, with both my folks coming from Jersey.
I know they have seen it every time it went through Palm Beach.
So I'll be curious to see what text they get after this hits the internet.
It was, I mean, it's so much fun.
It's a great, great musical.
It's definitely, there's some adult themes and adult language in it.
So be prepared for that.
Hey, it's Jersey.
You know what I mean?
Don, anything else so we get to the final analysis?
No.
All right, so the way we do the final analysis on this show,
we're not going to give you thumbs up, thumbs down.
We're not going to give you letter grades, numbers,
sherry babies, anything like that.
Two questions.
Question number one is, would we see this film again?
If the answers know, then we're done here.
The answer is yes.
Then it's going to be where you want to sit to see it again.
Because this is a stage production, the closer you sit,
the higher the ticket price.
Don, would you see Jersey Boys again?
Yes.
Where you want to sit?
I do the second row, the second level.
Now does that mean like right off the floor or the first balcony?
Yeah, right off the floor.
I like the first balcony, basically.
Like in Winsford, there's four levels.
I'd say the second level.
Right.
Okay, fair enough.
I think there's actually five if you could.
No, there's four balconies.
Well, there's, no, there's three.
No, there's four.
No, there's four floors too.
What do you want?
You don't want to talk to me.
Because I can't at last night.
Okay.
But second one.
Yeah, I mean, I'd go a little bit higher than you.
I'd say back of the center section on the floor.
I mean, this is a really great musical.
These guys nail the music on every level.
It works.
It tells a great story.
You do have the cautionary tale of fame and fortune
and what it can do to you.
It's just really well done and I'm a huge fan.
It's here in Dallas through May 27th, but you need to check it out
if it comes to a senior you because it's Jersey boys.
Before we end this whole thing.
Yes, sir.
We got to think city and everybody getting an ATT back
and a whisper opera house.
We love our vendors.
They take care of us and let us get to see things
so we can talk to you guys about them.
Go see this musical.
Let's do the plugs.
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find out everything you need to know
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Jules Womack probably hanging out with her husband
because that's what they do.
We hope she gets better soon.
Faith Ford waiting on her husband to get home.
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So until next time, for Don, for Alex, for the Empire.
I'm Rob.
Clubhouse is closed.
I'm telling you, Brittany Palmer would just cheat, cheat, dance into your heart
and as I'm just saying.