The journey for Jersey Boys began at the La Jolla Playhouse before going on to Broadway, where it opened at the August Wilson Theater in November 2005. It is still playing to sold out houses. At the 2006 Tony Awards, Jersey Boys took home four awards, including one for Best Musical (over The Color Purple, The Drowsy Chaperone and The Wedding Singer).

For those who don't know the story here's a quick recap. They have put on stage the lives and careers of Frankie Valli and the 1960s pop singing group The Four Seasons, from their humble beginnings singing under lampposts in Jersey through their meteoric rise to fame in the music industry. Along the way we see the failures, ruined marriages and the affects of booze, egos, gambling, the mob and death—with Joe Pesci thrown into the mix. Everything leads up to the night the group reunited on stage to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice have done a fantastic job of beautifully weaving the group's sensational pop hits into a cohesive, engrossing book. Several of the songs with their original lyrics become character-driven numbers with solid subtext. Some excellent examples are "My Mother's Eyes," "December 1963," "My Eyes Adore You" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You." The book sags a tiny bit at the beginning. The idea of doing a past Four Seasons hits as a rap song and several scenes after that seem lackluster and slightly lifeless. But once it kicks into gear, the show becomes a hypnotic emotional ride you'll never want to get off of.

One of the most original and unique elements in the book is how they do not present the songs in chronological order. Instead, they are put in in relation to the story, its emotions at the time, or character development. Brickman and Elice fashioned a muscular book that gives the emotion organic realism.

Des McAnuff's direction and staging is, in a word, magnificent. I'd like to insist that every musical theater director attend Jersey Boys to see what directing and staging musicals should look and feel like. McAnuff keeps a delicious pace, with scenes moving along seamlessly. He only allows the dramatic, quiet moments to stop and open up organically, resulting in honest truth. The blocking and staging is sublime. Sightlines are never distracting, characters move with their emotions and subtext, and the picture windows are dazzling. For example, in the second act when we see a death happen, having Valli and the priest with their backs toward the audience is a beautiful, haunting choice. Valli even begins to sing with his back toward us, but when he finally turns to the audience, with tears streaming from his eyes, that simple blocking becomes a powerful, kick in the stomach moment.

Another magical staging example is the use of two drummers. Throughout the musical we observe a lot of scene changes, going quickly from a swanky nightclub to "The Ed Sullivan Show" to "American Bandstand." While on the huge center video screen the boys are shown singing on live TV, they are all facing stage left into the cameras (live on the screen) with the drummer behind them. But when the staging changes to have the boys turn to face the audience, the drummer glides off and another drummer appears from upstage, thus never disrupting the "picture windows" and keeping the magic going. I was honestly enthralled with McAnuff's direction.

Klara Zieglerova's scenic design is a metal skeleton that has circular stairs and catwalks. On the floor, a myriad of set pieces quietly glide off and on. Coming down from the fly rails are a dazzling assortment of neon signs, with the centerpiece being a trio of video screen boxes that flash cool animation or graphics.

Howell Binkley's lighting design is flawless. The stage is soaked in gorgeous hues from an array of colors. My personal favorite is in the closing of act one, when the boys are performing a concert in England. They are far upstage center, with their backs toward us. Two massive walls of light beam out, as if in an actual concert, but then we see literally hundreds of "cameras" flash—it is a jaw-dropping technical moment.

Jess Goldstein's costume design completes the trio of magical theatrical elements. Everything is period, clean, slick and elegant—a fashion runway show on the Music Hall stage. There is amazing detail on many of the jackets, ties and cocktail dresses. For example, the costumes that the Angels wear for their big number are in hues of purple but encrusted with jewels, and on their hips are strings of crystals and huge beaded bows in the back. Perfection, pure perfection.

The entire cast is outstanding, from the principals right down to the ensemble. I particularly enjoyed seeing that the ensemble members have wonderful cameos in various roles or solos during the evening. In the large company there is solid, superb work from Jonathan Hadley as the flamboyant record producer Bob Crewe, Buck Hujabre as mobster Nick DeVito, Jamie Karen as Mary Delgado and Sarah Darling as Lorraine. Joseph Siravo portrays an array of characters, including mobster Gyp DeCarlo, and each is unique, fresh and original. As Gyp, he looks, talks and acts like a true mobster (on a side note, I had the wonderful pleasure of seeing Mr. Siravo on Broadway in The LIght in the Piazza).

Of the four actors portraying the Seasons, I feel a little sorry for Steve Gouveia. He portrays Nick Massi, the bass voice of the group. His storyline is the weakest in the book. He has no major solos, and in the first act he practically has no lines or focus in any of the book scenes. He does have more book work in the second act, but again no major solo. Massi even makes a reference to the fact that he is the Ringo of the group. I fear he's right on that one.

Erik Bates layers Tommy DeVito with masculine authority and oozes Jersey attitude, right down to the arm tattoos and thick "bada bing" accent. Sauntering on stage with aggressive machismo, he embodies the role brilliantly. I don't know if you can tell from the back of the Music Hall, but his facial expressions and demeanor are so intense, Bates' brooding subtext shines through. Also, his comedic timing and delivery fit like a glove within his characterization. To cap off an already terrific performance, the actor has a gorgeous singing voice to boot.

Andrew Rannells portrays Bob Gaudio, who composed all the block-busting pop tunes that made the boys into superstars. Rannells is a tall, pretty-boy actor who happens to provide the best comedic skills of the company. He has the innate gift of taking simple lines and turning them into comic zingers that hit payola time after time. Rannells has a great smile and a soothing, robust baritone voice, providing top notch vocal work in his solos. He also shows an impressive attention to detail in both the dramatic and the comedy scenes. Watch his intensity in the arrest scene and at the fallout of the band with the mobsters—he is riveting, at times out-shining the other three actors portraying da boys from Jersey.

This leads to Joseph Leo Bwarie, who has the most difficult role in the musical, that of Frankie Valli. It must be a friggin' nightmare for the casting agency to find small, Italian-looking actors with a five-octave tenor voice who can belt out in falsetto. Bwarie is splendid as Valli. First the voice, my god that voice! It must take a toll on his vocal cords to sustain his voice for those high, high notes night after night. From the second he hits the stage, Bwarie goes time after time into impossibly high, soaring notes, belting in falsetto or gliding down the lower register of his voice within a lyric. It is surreal how much he sounds like Valli. For his acting, his best scene work comes in the second act. This is logical as Valli becomes a man who takes control of his career, losing his wife, then a close and loving girlfriend, and ending his long relationship with Tommy DeVito. Then there's the aforementioned dramatic scene of Valli dealing with death, where Bwarie shows the devastation clearly on his face and in his intense blue eyes as they fill with tears. He gives a star-in-the-making performance in this production.

Jersey Boys is in the very elite group within the canon of jukebox musicals that can be called a solid, qualified box office and critical hit, having broken many box office records, not only on Broadway, but in practically every touring house in the nation.

So I end my review with a prediction. I have a feeling that Jersey Boys is going to smash box office records here at the Dallas Summer Musicals. In fact, going by the audience's ear-splitting screams, shouts and thunderous standing ovation, I'll go even further to predict they will break all box office records at the Music Hall.

Jersey Boys National Tour, Dallas Summer Musicals at Music Hall at Fair Park through August 16, 2008. Ticket Prices: $18.00-$84.00. Purchase Individual tickets at The Box Office, 542 Preston Royal Shopping Center (no service charge), Any Ticketmaster Outlet including Macy's, Fiesta, or The Majestic Theatre, online at ticketmaster.com or Charge-By-Phone 214.631.ARTS. Service Charges Apply.) Groups of 10 or more call 214.426.GROUP

Jersey Boys
Book by Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice
Music by Bob Gaudio, Lyrics by Bob Crewe
National Tour-Dallas Summer Musicals
Directed by Des McAnuff
Musical Direction by Ron Melrose
Choreographed by Sergio Trujillo
Scenic Design by Klara Zieglerova
Costume Design by Jess Goldstein
Lighting Design by Howell Binkley

Photo: Joan Marcus

--John Garcia