They call Jersey the armpit of America, but now there’s a reason to get excited about Jersey — or at least some of the boys in it ... Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The Jersey Boys aren’t coming to Charlotte until March 31, 2010, but the Charlotte theater community is already more excited about their arrival than the kids are about Santa’s.
The Blumenthal Performing Arts Center hosted an event to preview the highly requested and praised show, The Jersey Boys — the story about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Some of the members of one of the Boston touring casts came down on their day off to do a Q&A — and in the audience sat the family of Charlottean Jonathan Hadley, who plays Bob Crew. He went from the stage at Myers Park High School to the Broadway stage. He said coming from North Carolina, it was hard for him to get the Jersey accent. I imagine it’s hard to go from elongating every syllable in words to swallowing them. That and dropping F bombs like they’re going to war. Charlotte Squaks' Mike Collins, who played host of the event, said that at the Raleigh show there was signage warning about the “Jersey language.”
Meanwhile, Blumenthal knows how to throw a party; the event was catered with a buffet of hors d'oeuvres — chocolate-covered strawberries and Sherry Baby cocktails made from Stoli-berry flavored vodka.
(And may I just say that hors d'oeuvres might just be the weirdest spelled words, second to rendezvous. I always want to say ren-dez-vous as opposed to ron-day-voo. Let’s just say I never won a spelling bee.)
Anyway ... I have the soundtrack for Jersey Boys and the book of their story up for grabs. Just e-mail me and sing me a Four Seasons song in font. brittney.cason@creativeloafing.com
Other shows coming up at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center …
SHEAR MADNESS – Now until Sunday, Sept. 6 at the Stage Door Theater: Only a few more weeks remain to catch Charlotte’s favorite interactive murder comedy before it closes!
SLAMCHARLOTTE POETRY SLAM – Friday, Aug. 21 at the McGlohon Theatre: Fresh off of their trip to the National Poetry Slam last week in West Palm Beach to defend their back-to-back championships, Charlotte ’s favorite spoken word artists return for their monthly poetry slam. By the way, I went down for a day to check them out, and even though they didn’t win their third consecutive National Championship, I think everyone here would have been proud of how well SlamCharlotte represented us.
THE COLOR PURPLE – Tuesday, Aug. 25 through Sunday, Aug. 30 at the Belk Theater: Following up its successful run in May, The Color Purple makes a quick return for another week in Charlotte . We won’t have Fantasia (she’s only performing in Greensboro ), but that didn’t stop the show from selling out last time, and some performances are already nearly sold out this time (Saturday matinee and evening).
THE DEREK TRUCKS BAND WITH JJ GREY AND MOFRO – Sunday, Sept. 13 at the Belk Theater: Two great bands and two full shows, JJ Grey & Mofro performs first, followed by The Derek Trucks Band, who sold out two shows last November in the McGlohon Theatre.
A CHORUS LINE – Tuesday, Sept. 29 through Sunday, Oct. 4 at the Belk Theater: The 2009-2010 Duke Energy Broadway Lights Series kicks off with this classic show about dancers. Single tickets go on sale Friday, Aug. 14.
STEVE MARTIN and THE STEEP CANYON RANGERS – Saturday, Oct. 10 at the Knight Theater: The very first performance in our new 1,200 seat venue features an evening of bluegrass and banjo, as the one and only Steve Martin performs music from his new album The Crow along with the incredibly hot bluegrass act The Steep Canyon Rangers.
The Jersey Boys arrive March 31, 2010 and only staying through April 18. And they’re expecting it to sell out within hours. Single tickets will not go on sale until sometime in early November, so there are currently only two ways to get tickets …
a. By purchasing a 6 or 7 show subscriber package
b. By purchasing a group order (20 tickets or more)
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