Kurt Loder Says Jersey Boys Was Better on Broadway

Anyone who saw the original Broadway production
of Jersey Boys, or one of its many satellite
offshoots, may have a problem with Clint Eastwood’s attempt to turn
this unusual musical into a movie. The problem is, you can’t un-see
the show. In the theatre, director Des McAnuff supercharged the
story of the Four Seasons – the New York vocal group whose hits
bridged the beginning of the British Invasion era – with
sensational staging. In one scene, with the group performing live
in concert, we saw the four members only from behind, facing the
back of the stage, where spotlights and crowd cheers erupted and
blasted past them out into the audience. It was a spectacular
showbiz effect. Eastwood’s movie contains faint echoes of McAnuff’s
theatrical flourishes, but that’s all they are, writes Kurt Loder.
It’s a picture filled with faint echoes.

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