Jersey Boys hit Royal & Derngate stage

Jersey Boys opened in London in 2008 and has been seen by nearly 23 million people worldwide. Now celebrating its eighth year in London, it is firmly established as one of the West End’s longest-running and most popular shows.

Jersey Boys is the remarkable true story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and their rise to stardom from the wrong side of the tracks. These four boys from New Jersey became one of the most successful bands in pop history, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and sold 100 million records worldwide, all before they turned 30.

The show is packed with their hits, including Beggin’, Sherry, Walk Like A Man, December, 1963 (Oh What a Night), Big Girls Don’t Cry, My Eyes Adored You, Let’s Hang On (To What We’ve Got), Bye Bye Baby, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Working My Way Back to You, Fallen Angel, Rag Doll and Who Loves You.

Winner of Broadway’s Tony, London’s Olivier and Australia’s Helpmann Awards for Best New Musical, Jersey Boys is the winner of 57 major awards worldwide. As well as still running on Broadway and in the West End, and on tour in the UK and Ireland, Jersey Boys can be seen in Las Vegas and across the United States.

Matt Corner plays the role of Frankie Valli in the ongoing UK and Ireland tour of the Tony, Olivier and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical, with Sam Ferriday as Bob Gaudio, Lewis Griffiths as Nick Massi and Stephen Webb as Tommy DeVito. Michael Pickering plays the role of Frankie Valli at certain performances.

The smash hit musical takes place at 7.30pm each night except Sunday with matinees at 2.30pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Tickets – priced from £16 to £47 – can be booked by calling Box Office on 01604 624811 or online at www.royalandderngate.co.uk.

FACTS ABOUT THE UK AND IRELAND TOURING PRODUCTION

- It takes ten stage staff, four lighting and four sound staff from the venue three days to get the show in and ready for curtain up.

- A total of eight trailers will transport the set, props and costumes to the theatre 

- There will be 18 backstage staff working away at every performance of JERSEY BOYS.

- Three wig staff will make sure 80 hair pieces look their very best at each performance.

- Three wardrobe staff, 13 wardrobe trundle full of costumes, three washing machines, four tumble dryers, two high power steam irons, two steamers and a hot box ensure the cast sparkle every night.

- Over eight hours of laundry will be done every day. That’s 100 shirts per show and 500 coat hangers.

- One female cast member has 17 pairs of shoes per show.

- One male cast member has nine different ties in Act One alone.

- There are 45.5 sq metres of high resolution video wall in the show.

- There are 22 touring technical staff, 10 musicians, 58 moving lights, 890 lighting and video cues, 57 flying cues and 50 automation cues mean audiences get the most technically spectacular production.

FACTS ABOUT FRANKIE VALLI AND THE FOUR SEASONS

- Frankie Valli was born Francis Stephen Castelluccio in 1937.

- The group were previously known as The Varietones and The Lovers but they had a different line up.

- Frankie Valli played Rusty Millio in The Sopranos.

- In 1964, when ‘Beatlemania’ struck the USA, the group celebrated their strongest year of sales.

- The group enjoyed 16 top 40 hits in the US in just 28 months between 1962 and 1964.

- They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

- ‘December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)’ became the longest charting single in history after it was re-released in 1994 after it featured on the soundtrack to the film Forrest Gump.

- Frankie Valli took his name from country singer Texas Jean Valley. She often referred to herself as Frankie’s sister.

- The first chart single reached number 68 and was called ‘You’re the Apple of my Eye’. This was released when the band were called The Lovers and had a different line-up.

- Frankie and The Four Seasons were going to release the single ‘Don’t be Cruel’ but it was taken away from them at the last moment and became a huge success for Elvis.

- When they were session musicians, they released tracks through Bob Crewe’s record label and gave themselves pseudo names such as Village Voices and Billy Dixon and the Tropics.

- Nick Massi was born Nicholas Macioci.

- The group decided they should at least take something away from an audition they failed at a bowling alley in New Jersey so they renamed the band after the bowling alley.

- Sherry, The Four Seasons first number one hit, was named after Jack Spector’s daughter. Jack was a disc jockey on the radio station WABC.

- They are the only group to have a Top 100 Billboard hit in each decade of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

- Valli continued to drive an old car and live in a housing project until the mid-1960s, when success finally seemed real.