Thighs Wide Shut

Frankie Valli & ‘The Four Seasons’
NYCB Theatre at Westbury
April 25th

If you’ve seen the musical Jersey Boys, you know the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.  If you haven’t, you can join the rest of us this summer in theaters when Clint Eastwood gives it cinematic life.  If you can’t bother with either, try Delaware Fellas.  But if you don’t want any of that, I’ll tell you how it goes – four boys from Jersey meet under a streetlamp and then they’re like, hey, talk like a duck, and then one of them is like, NO – WALK LIKE A MAN!!!  Then another one is like, oh Carrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry.  And the rest be like, no, Sherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry!!  And then one is like small girls do cry, and then the others be like, no, BIG GIRLS, THEY DON’T CRY-YYYYYYYYYY.  That’s how all their songs came to be

Frankie Valli still lights the torch that is he and the Four Seasons.  The original seasoners have retired, so Valli hits the road these days with 4 young looking dudes doing all the background singing.  It’s fine, cause they are the background harmonizing to the awesomeness going on in the foreground – Frankie’s unique voice, which apparently can still hit them high notes, and melt ears.  Frankie and the fellas ran thru ALL the hits, and there are a TON.  He opened with his ‘Grease’ theme, and WORD, it was SLICK!!!  He also rocked him some 60s covers, like ‘Spanish Harlem’ and ‘Call Me’ (not the Blondie one).  And it was ALL RAWKIN, in a soft rawkin kinda way.  If you ever have the choice between seeing Jersey Boys or seeing the real thing, see the real thing

But the real star of the show?  The theater itself.  Never had been to NYCB Theatre at Westbury before, and this trip certainly won’t be my last.  It’s not an easy venue to get to from the city without a car, but it was WELL worth the journey.  The stage is in the round, which means every seat is a good one, as the performers on stage slowly rotate on a spinning floor!!!!  I had only seen one other show in the (sorta) round before, and it was Prince and it was glorious (although the shape was a cross, not a circle).  That was at a huge arena, but this Valli show was intimate.  The venue only seats 3,000, and let me tell you, there’s nothing like spending an intimate evening with 2,998 really old Long Islanders, listening to really old music, that still sounds really fcuking great