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Everybody feels better after Jersey Boys

L-r: Writer Rick Elice, Four Seasons keyboardist and vocalist Bob Gaudio, writer Marshall Brickman and director Des McAnuff.What is the common draw of reality television, the Super Bowl, rock concerts and live theater?

The answer, according to Rick Elice, one of the writers of the hit musical “Jersey Boys,” is that “we don’t know the outcome, and that provides some sense of vicarious pleasure” for audience members.

These forms of entertainment, Elice told the Intermountain Jewish News, seem even more appealing during difficult economic times. “The more difficult life gets, the more important it is to go the theater,” he says.

And that, he says, is part of the lure of “Jersey Boys,” playing at the DCPA Buell Theater through Aug 11.

It’s a high-energy musical about Frank Valli and The Four Seasons. “Everybody feels better at 10 o’clock than they did at 8 o’clock,” Elice says.

Elice wrote the book for “Jersey Boys” with Marshall Brickman.

“Writing the book” meant that Elice and Brickman pieced together “1,000 disparate anecdotes” shared with them by the three surviving members of The Four Seasons, along with 33 of their songs to create a compelling storyline and dialogue that effectively connects the musical numbers.

Elice’s and Brickman’s result was a play on the group’s name, “The Four Seasons.” Each of the four members of the band narrates and gives his unique take on what was happening in the spring, summer, fall and winter of the band’s career. It’s each guy’s privileged moment with the audience.

Elice likens it to the Talmud, as each first person narration is actually a commentary on how that segment of The Four Seasons’ career unfolded.

The show opened on Broadway in 2005 and has been well received on its North American and international tours since then.

This is its second run in Denver.

GK Films acquired the rights to the “Jersey Boys” feature film, also written by Elice and Brickman.

Rick Elice, New York born and bred, grew up in a Jewish family who loved the theater. Both his parents were from the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, and enjoyed going to the theater ever since they were dating in the late 1940s. They conveyed their loved of theater to their sons; Rick caught the bug by age three.

He says his earliest memory is seeing “My Fair Lady” at that age. He remembers it because he saw a stagehand inadvertently get stuck behind a part of the set.

From that point, Elice seemed destined to a life in show business.

He calls himself a “Ben Franklin” of show business, having held “many, many jobs,” including acting, singing, dancing, set design, stage management, directing, producing and now writing.

Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News



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IJN Associate Editor | [email protected]


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