Timeless Seasons

The music is familiar, but the rags-to-riches story behind “Jersey Boys” may not be.

The Four Seasons — Frankie Valli, Tommy DeVito, Bob Gaudio and Nick Massi — were working-class guys from the Newark suburb of Bellevue, struggling to survive in a neighborhood where drugs, crime, mob influence and poverty were a way of life.

In the book, “Jersey Boys — The Story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons,” author and theater critic David Cote said music was a way out for kids with talent.

“If you were young, poor and Italian-American in urban New Jersey, you had few options: mob up, punch the clock, or grab a guitar.”

Actor Deven May plays Tommy DeVito in the national tour of “Jersey Boys” opening Tuesday at the Orange County Performing Artscenter.

He believes the show strikes a chord with audiences weary of what seems a cultural tendency to build up and then tear down beloved celebrities.

“Back then, we loved heroes,” May said over the phone from San Diego, where the show is currently being staged. “We liked to watch people rise up from common [circumstance] to stardom.”

Knowing DeVito was in the audience when the show opened last year in San Francisco “freaked me out a little,” May said, but he received the ultimate “Jersey boy” compliment when DeVito came up on stage after the performance.

“He came on during the curtain call — this bulldog of a man — and said ‘I’m so [expletive] proud of you,’” May said.

Audiences are also responding to the music, in a show that May described as a play and a concert.

“When people get into that concert mood, they let loose a little,” he said.

Christopher Kale Jones, the actor playing Frankie Valli, said songs in the first act — the group’s big hits performed back to back — created a response none of the performers were prepared for.

“After ‘Sherry,’ ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ and ‘Walk Like A Man,’ the audience exploded, and we were all truly taken aback.”

The audience is familiar with the music, Jones said from San Diego. “They love to hear their favorites, and the music of the Four Seasons is really turning out to be eternal, exposing new generations to the sound.”

He receives mail from fans of all ages, and “many of them are young kids who write in to tell me the show is the best thing they’ve ever seen.”

Jones had seen “Jersey Boys” on Broadway. When he heard there was a national touring company being formed, he auditioned for the part of Frankie Valli.

Less than a month before rehearsals began, Jones received a call that he had the part, and opened with the show when it premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego.

Jones said Valli often comes to see the shows, and was there along with DeVito on opening night in San Francisco last year.

Every actor is nervous in his or her own way on opening night, Jones said, but knowing Valli was in the audience made that night’s performance one of the most daunting things he ever had to do.

Jones admits while he was familiar with the Four Seasons and knew their “signature sound,” the biggest surprise for him was that even he didn’t realize how many popular songs the group recorded.

His favorite song to sing changes all the time, but “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You,” is one he enjoys particularly because of the way it is placed within the show.

“The writers wrote it in a beautiful way, so the audience is prepared to enjoy it,” he said.

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons wrote songs for the people, said Jones, who calls the group “the voice of the working class.”

“It was music you could tap your feet to and sing to,” he said. “You could forget about life and just let go.”

That’s happening with audiences wherever they play, Jones said. And as an actor, it makes his job really rewarding.

“I love doing a show where people go home happy.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Jersey Boys” The story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons

WHEN: Nov. 13 through Dec. 1;

7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Segerstrom Hall, Orange County Performing Artscenter, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

COST: $28.25 to $83.25

INFO: Call (714) 556-2787 or go to www.ocpac.org

SUE THOENSEN may be reached at (714) 966-4627 or at [email protected].