With the release of Wicked, the 21st century is fast becoming the modern golden age of stage adaptations. The likes of West Side Story and tick, tick…Boom! prove that Hollywood has remembered how to adapt a Broadway show for the small screen, and even succeed in garnering critical acclaim. However, there is one musical adaptation that stands on its own in terms of style and presentation, Jersey Boys. With Clint Eastwood in the director’s chair, Jersey Boys is devoid of the glamour and spectacle usually associated with musical theater, and in its place is a much more gritty and stylized movie. The creative choices may be jolting to a musical theater fan on first viewing, but it allows Jersey Boys to stand out and be a truly unique and under-appreciated movie musical.
'Jersey Boys' Removes the Spectacle of Broadway
Image via Warner Bros. Jersey Boys is a Tony Award-winning musical that tracks the story of The Four Seasons, one of the most iconic musical groups of all time. Eastwood decided to cast actors who had played the roles on Broadway, telling Variety that “you’ve got people who’ve done 1,200 performances; how much better can you know a character?” John Lloyd Young, who won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Frankie Valli on Broadway, was joined by Erich Bergin, Michael Lomenda and Vincent Piazza to bring the iconic group to Hollywood.
Jersey Boys retains the Broadway sheen, but it is devoid of the usual glitz and glamour of musical theater. The recent release of Wicked recognizes that musical adaptations succeed in their spectacle, that’s how they create escapism. The bigger, the better. This is done through vibrant and vast set designs with bold and intricate ensemble numbers. Jersey Boys doesn’t do this at all, instead, it utilizes muted color palettes to show the unromanticized reality of making it in the music industry. This differs from the stage version of Jersey Boys, which is much brighter and flashier.
The movie adaptation of Jersey Boys doesn’t sit with any of its musical numbers, instead constantly moving between scenes whilst they play. This allows for some interesting transitions that the stage would struggle to replicate, such as “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You," which shifts seamlessly from the rehearsal room to a live performance. Jersey Boys doesn’t confine itself to the conventions of musical theater and that’s what makes it stand out. It acknowledges that it is much harder to get a movie audience to invest in extended musical performances in the same way as a theater audience. The medium demands much more kinetic pacing and the revolving door musical numbers in the movie replicate this.
‘Jersey Boys’ Uses Fourth Wall Breaks To Create Intimacy
Jersey Boys is a documentary-style stage show, and that is replicated in the movie adaptation. The characters break the fourth wall to guide the audience through the story, a technique borrowed from the Broadway production. However, where this approach feels like standard narration in the stage show due to the audience’s distance, in the movie it is much more unnatural and strange for the viewer. The camera is able to get up close to the actors as they directly address the audience, which gives the movie this intense intimacy yet retains the story’s pseudo-biopic feel. Jersey Boys simultaneously shows who The Four Seasons were, immersing the audience in every aspect of their lives. Yet, it is also aware of artificiality and acknowledging to the audience that it is merely a production. Through the fourth wall breaks, Jersey Boys creates this voyeuristic environment and offers the escapism that musical theater provides in an innovative way.
Jersey Boys succeeds in its more serious tone because it allows the darker themes of the true story to feel more earned, such as the tragic death of Frankie’s daughter. The internal struggles within the group are not a fictional story created for entertainment, this is a real story recounting the challenges within the music industry in the 1950s. Therefore, Clint Eastwood’s much darker style brings humility to the source material. It takes time to allow the characters to bare their flaws and gives a personal insight into The Four Seasons. As a movie musical, it is certainly unique, but these strange directorial choices breathe new life into this iconic Broadway show. If you go into Jersey Boys expecting a beat-for-beat adaptation of the stage show, you will be met with disappointment. However, Jersey Boys proves there's more than one day to translate musical theatre onto the small screen, and that is thanks to the genius of Clint Eastwood.
Jersey Boys is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
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