Clint Eastwood takes jukebox musical Jersey Boys to big screen as stars dodge ‘curse of the Frankie’
STAGE star John Lloyd Young’s biggest fear was that he would not be cast in the film version of Jersey Boys. Now will his luck hold out against “The curse of the Frankie”?
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THE Bee Gees. Chicago. Freddie Mercury and Queen. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. John Lloyd Young used to sing along to them all in his car.
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“I knew that I could sing in falsetto, but ... I never would have put it on my acting resume as a special skill,” says the Californian performer.
“Then it actually turned out to be the key to the most visible role so far in my whole career.”
It was Bob Gaudio — the youthful songwriter whose tunes would catapult New Jersey band the Four Seasons into the charts in the early 1960s — who had the idea to create a musical using the band’s songs.
Kind of like Mamma Mia!, except this musical would tell the true story of the Four Seasons: their beginnings trading harmonies under a street-light, their time behind bars, their mob connections, their money woes, their infighting and family tragedies, their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame reunion.
Jersey Boys first tested the boards in late 2004 in San Diego. John Lloyd Young had tried out for the role of Frankie Valli then, but didn’t get it: “An actor who was older and more experienced got the part.”
But when the show made the step up to Broadway a year later, “I kind of felt they’d be coming back to me,” Young says.
Jersey Boys wasn’t welcomed on to the stage in New York with much enthusiasm. Several other “jukebox musicals” — shows created using songs that were already pop hits — had bombed.
Erich Bergen, who would go on to play Gaudio in the first US touring production, first viewed the play on free tickets — they were being handed out to try to drum up interest.
Afterwards, he told a friend — “a really pretentious theatre lover”, Bergen notes — it was the greatest musical he’d ever seen. “I said, ‘It’s gonna win Tonys. It’s the greatest thing’. He said, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me. What’s wrong with you?’ But lo and behold, I was right.”
Indeed, by the time the musical came to Australia — after London, Melbourne was the second city outside of the US to stage the show — it had a rash of Tony awards and plenty of hype.
However, some cynicism remained. Australia’s Frankie, Irish import Bobby Fox, recalls being asked, “Why would anyone in Australia care about four guys from New Jersey?”
Having seen the show performed overseas, Fox had an inkling of why we would care.
“I said, ‘The same way as you watch West Wing or Breaking Bad, it’s got nothing to do with them being from Jersey; it’s four guys making something of themselves from nothing. That’s what it’s actually about.
“But the thing that Jersey Boys had in its back pocket was the show,” Fox adds. “The show was magnificent. The show was an absolute blinder.”
The film rights were acquired in 2010. By 2012, Iron Man director Jon Favreau was pulling together a cast. But a few months later, Warner Brothers hit the brakes — industry murmurs suggested they were doubtful of its international appeal. It took the signing of a Hollywood legend, Clint Eastwood, as director to revive the movie.
“I had caught wind that Clint was doing this tour, seeing the productions around the country,” recalls Young. “It was Sunday matinee and I heard backstage that he was out in the audience — in fact, we knew because the audience gave him a standing ovation when they saw him.
“I didn’t have to fight to get the role at all — the director just saw me do it on a Broadway stage. I met him briefly after my performance and the next time I saw him was on the film set.”
It’s one thing to perform on stage every night. It must be another thing entirely to perform for Eastwood.
“I knew that he knew I had a command of the role from Broadway — I’ve done it more than a thousand times. And I knew that he’s got decades of film experience. I just intuitively decided it was going to be a joy for him to usher someone from stage through his first filmmaking process.”
Eastwood’s approach to the movie was to keep much of what made the stage show a hit, from the characters talking directly to the audience to the live singing and the men playing the parts.
Valli (Young), Gaudio (Erich Bergen) and bassist Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda) had played those same roles on stage in the US. Much of the supporting cast was also theatre talent.
Young admits he would not have been happy if any other Frankie had nabbed the film.
“I gotta tell ya, the prospect of that happening caused a little anxiety in me because I had originated the role on Broadway, I won a Tony award for it, I did the original cast recording that’s now all over the world ... So it was a little bit uncomfortable thinking that the role on film, which would be sort of the permanent record, might be someone else.
“I have to tell you, I’m so relieved it wasn’t.”
Though none of the stage graduates had performed Jersey Boys together before, Young says they had “instant chemistry”. Bergen reckons there is a bond between all Jersey Boys, all over the world.
“Once you’re in Jersey Boys, it’s like a fraternity. The show, it gets to a point where it’s so, for lack of a better term, machine-made. Any of the major shows all over the world — Wicked, The Book Of Mormon — they get that way just to preserve the product.
“Almost in a Disney way, they make it the same show across the board. So we really understood each other.”
Even half a world away from Broadway, Fox agrees: “Jersey Boys is such a brother thing. We weren’t really castmates; there’s a real bond there.”
Fox caught up with a couple of his “brothers” at the Australian premiere of the movie in Melbourne last week. Their group reaction to seeing the film: “Weird.”
Fox explains: “It was very surreal. Some of the scenes are verbatim, they’re literally word for word (from the stage version). Even the cues — I could hear the line which was the moment for the music to kick in. Things you got to know so intimately. It was a real trip.”
The “screen” actors drafted in by Eastwood to give the movie version that little something else were Christopher Walken as Valli’s mob boss protector, Gyp DeCarlo, and Vincent Piazza (Boardwalk Empire) as the Four Seasons’ founder, guitarist and troublemaker Tommy DeVito.
Someone else turned up on the film set, too: Frankie Valli. Along with Gaudio, he is the movie’s executive producer.
Fox recalls having to win Valli’s approval to fill the singer’s shoes on stage: “It was one of the most intense auditions I’ve ever done.”
It was no different for Young when the film came around. If you ask him whether he got the nod from Valli, he points to the credits: “I think the fact that I got to do the movie when he’s a producer is the answer to that question.”
Out of 40 shooting days, Young estimates 80-year-old Valli was on set for a week.
“The last day,” he says, “we shot outside Frankie’s actual childhood home in New Jersey. I’ve never seen him so happy as he was seeing his life come full circle.
“We were both just over the moon.”
LIFE AFTER JERSEY BOYS
What’s a theatrical show without a good curse? In the case of Jersey Boys, it’s “The curse of the Frankie”.
As Australia’s “Frankie”, Bobby Fox, explains: “Guys who are cast as Frankie have high squeaky voices and are the size of munchkins. So that’s like their only moment.”
Luckily for Fox and the two Americans Hit spoke to for the movie, there is life after Jersey Boys.
John Lloyd Young
Young recently completed a stint in the West End’s Jersey Boys. When not smashing out Sherry, exhibiting his art or singing ’60s R&B on his album, My Turn, he’s hanging out at the White House.
“President Obama appointed me to a committee. Our main initiative is rekindling the arts in the lowest-performing schools to improve academic performance and school culture.”
Erich Bergen
While Bergen has had one-off TV guest roles in series such as Gossip Girls and Person of Interest, he’s about to spend a lot more time on screen.
He’ll play “charming assistant” to the US Secretary of State (Tea Leoni) in the new West Wing-style drama Madam Secretary, which debuts on US network CBS in September. An Aussie home for the series is yet to be confirmed.
Bobby Fox
Fox is living the life of the solo singer: playing gigs behind his swingin’ album The Fantastic Mr Fox and cannily causing a fuss by duetting with model Miranda Kerr on You’re the Boss.
“It’s great to figure out the setlist, what tunes work, what needs adaptation, what songs to use from my past ... it’s a constantly evolving thing,” he says of his live show.
He’s planning a more extensive tour, but only after he finishes the 10-show run of Guys and Dolls at Melbourne’s State Theatre (July 19-27, book at Ticketmaster). He’s also filmed an episode of Peter Helliar’s ABC TV comedy It’s a Date, which will air later this year. “It was really cool; it’s been ages since I’ve been on a screen set.”
Originally published as Clint Eastwood takes jukebox musical Jersey Boys to big screen as stars dodge ‘curse of the Frankie’
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