Hit songs are the main attraction in 'Jersey Boys'

Oh, what a hype.

The Tony Award-winning "Jersey Boys" opened loudly and with a blinding flash of lights Thursday at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. After all the buildup and ballyhooing of this musical based on the life and songs of the Four Seasons, I half expected it to help reverse the real-estate decline and solve the crisis in the credit markets.

Don't get me wrong. I smiled a lot as I sang along to the hits, from "Silhouette" and "Big Girls Don't Cry" to "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)." It was an entertaining jaunt down memory lane.

My happiness as I left the Orpheum was due in no small part to an impressive and engaging "Jersey Boys" cast that includes Christopher Kale Jones as soulful squealer Frankie Valli and Andrew Rannells as tunesmith Bob Gaudio. These singing actors, along with Steve Gouveia as Nick Massi and Erik Bates as cocksure gambler Tommy DeVito, delivered with strength, poise and stamina. (Some secondary characters also play in the show's nimble orchestra, led by Andrew Wilder, which is onstage during much of the show.)

Although I enjoyed it, the whole thing is a bit formulaic, both in the up-from-very-little arc of its narrative and in the use of a chart-topping songbook cherished by Baby Boomers (see "Mamma Mia!" and "Moving Out," among others).

But "Jersey Boys" is a music biography more akin to those that VH1 aired from 1997 to 2006 on such artists as Bob Marley, Elton John and Madonna.

As the Four Seasons rise in the early 1960s from a quartet harmonizing under a Newark streetlight, things threaten to derail the hitmakers, including entanglements with the mob, the breakdown of intra-group and familial relationships and the clueless record company executives.

While book writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice cleverly use the Four Seasons songs as a gloss on the lives of the characters, the story itself is not at all surprising. And director Des McAnuff wants to lapse into an episode of "The Sopranos" as he telescopes the story of these Italian-American boys done good. Also, his use of projected "Dick Tracy"-style cartoons seems a bit cheap.

The best part of "Jersey Boys" is the music. Every time the singers left the narrative and launched into song, I was lifted. The producers know this as well, which partly explains why this show is amplified like a concert.

And why not? The songs, sweet and warm, are the indelible draw in "Jersey Boys."

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390