The Jersey Boys are back in Nashville! The Tony-winning Broadway musical is at Tennessee Performing Arts Center this week, bringing the sounds of The Four Seasons to Music City.
The iconic four-man group rose to fame in the 1960s and 70s with hits such as “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Oh What a Night” and many more. The national tour marks the 20th anniversary of “Jersey Boys” and a return to Nashville for the first time in eight years.
The musical is a behind-the-scenes story of the New Jersey singers, led by Frankie Valli. The group included Bob Gaudio, a long-time Nashville resident who also wrote many of the songs for The Four Seasons.
WPLN’s LaTonya Turner spoke with Coby Oram, the actor who performs the role of Valli in the current tour.
Jeremy Daniel Coby Oram as ‘Frankie Valli’ in the 20th Anniversary North American Tour of “Jersey Boys”
Turner: You are portraying a living legend. Also, I’m sure you know that Bob Gaudio is a Nashvillian and is here in in town. So, two living legends — Valli and Gaudio — who can critique or view your performance of their story.
Oram: To play a real person who’s still alive is daunting sometimes because I’d want to do them justice… I have not yet had the opportunity or the chance to meet Frankie Valli in person or to perform for him. I’d like to think that he’d be pleased. With this being a pretty interesting tour, 20 years and everything, I hope that we’re able to see Bob Gaudio … maybe get some feedback. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as scary as it might be!
Turner: Let’s talk a little bit about the show itself because it’s interesting that each member of the group gets their moment in the story. It’s kind of like four acts each centered around each individual member.
Oram: Yeah, I think it is very important to sort of justify each band member’s position in the band, which I think grounds the audience and the show in the reality that this is based on a real story. These are real people. Their band did, in fact, take off and sell millions of copies and top the charts. But it’s important to realize where they came from and what they went through to get there and why they ended up breaking up … it’s not just rags to riches. It’s very much grounded in reality and they come from a dark place that’s very relatable to people.
Turner: Speaking about the realism, dark places — it does not hold back on the less than savory parts of their story. A lot of people may not know much about the mob ties. Why is it important to have that as part of the stage work?
Oram: Because it was so important to them. They had their own set of rules in their neighborhood that they followed, and they did things that maybe in other parts of the country or other parts of world may seem unsavory before they really took off. But they also just did what they had to do to survive. And sometimes it was actually life and death when they were doing those things. I think it’s important to show that these people, who are a lot of people’s heroes, they’re not like virtue signaling and they’re not necessarily trying to come across as infallible celebrities. They’re just people, you know, and I think that that’s what makes the group so meaningful.
Jeremy Daniel (From L) Peyton Schoenhofer, Coby Oram, Harry Sperduto and Owen McCredie in 20th-Anniversary Tour of “Jersey-Boys” now at TPAC
Turner: Earlier, you mentioned singing high, and of course, anyone who knows anything about the group knows about the falsetto that Valli had. His voice is so iconic in that way. What was it like to have to sing in that falsetto voice and sing so many songs?
Oram: I kind of just had to figure it out myself. Ever since I was a kid, I was kind of good at imitating people. So, I just figured out where to put my voice to get the nasality when I want it and to steer clear of that when I wanted for the later stuff. Honestly a lot of it is self-taught.
Turner: Many of the songs performed by the Four Seasons are iconic and most of them are in the show. Harmonies were such an important part of their music. Talk about trying to recreate that harmony that was so critical to their music.
Oram: That’s been a really cool journey. It’s fun to have a blend of people who all want the same thing in the end and who all are connected to one person or another person, but maybe not all each other, until we started rehearsals … and it’s fascinating when we lock in to the actual music and we’re like using that to harmonize. It’s like a magical thing … and the cool thing to me about this play and the way that it was arranged by Ron Melrose for the vocal arrangement, is he kind of keeps that classical four boys sound that the Four Seasons were famous for away from the audience — until the moment that you get all four boys together, which is almost halfway through act one.
And then all of a sudden, Bob Gaudio shows up and you’ve got these widespread, beautiful harmonies. … I think the audiences are going to go crazy because obviously the music for us is a big focus. We really try to get that part right every night.
“Jersey Boys” runs through Sept. 20 at TPAC.
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