"Jersey Boys" at Paper Mill

 Any trip I take to Paper Mill, I'm haunted by three performances (I saw none of them).

One is Alice Ripley--before she achieved stardom--in the LuPone role, in "The Baker's Wife."

Two is Betty Buckley in "Gypsy."

Three is Ann Miller in "Follies," a late-nineties production that was called a "smash hit," something destined for Broadway (except costs were too high).

This last one kills me. Just a few decades ago, Paper Mill tried a difficult Sondheim show, and the result was a "smash hit"; all of New Jersey was fighting to get to see a Millburn version of "Follies." Many, many piles of donor funds were set aside for a weird Sondheim production--and the gamble worked. If you wandered into a Maplewood CVS, in that era, you might overhear two patrons chatting about Donna McKechnie's rendition of "Losing My Mind."

Those days are over. There's no rule that says a major repertory theater needs to remain "major," year after year. But it's disheartening to see what has happened to Paper Mill (perhaps because of Covid). There seems to be a commitment to bad productions of bad shows--"A Disney Christmas," "Sister Act," Gloria Estefan's "On Your Feet!"--as a response to near-bankruptcy.

At least, with the current revival of "Jersey Boys," a few people are having fun. I like "Jersey Boys" because it happened *before* the Cher musical, before "Beautiful," before the Donna Summer story, before "A Beautiful Noise." It's not the freshest idea, but it's certainly fresher than the many, many jukebox knock-offs it helped to "spawn." Also, crazy things really did happen to the members of the Four Seasons. They had loose affiliations with the mafia. One felt that parenthood was burdensome, so he posed as an "uncle" when (rarely) he visited his own children. Finally, the men discovered their name by standing, without purpose, outside a bowling alley, the Four Seasons. (Previously, they had been the "Four Lovers," a name that makes me imagine a gay orgy/porn scenario.) The script is flawed--but the writers did try to dig into the stories of their four subjects. A terrific scene, in which the black sheep Tommy tries to steal Frankie Valli's girlfriend, is just one of several examples of genuine drama; it's easy to care about these troubled people.

Paper Mill found a gifted star-to-be to play Frankie Valli; his name is Daniel Quadrino. He should have a career ahead of him.

I still have bitter memories of "A Disney Christmas"--but, at "Jersey Boys," I had a good time.