Jersey Boys in London

The taxi driver found it funny.
He thought two Americans coming all the way to London to see a musical about singers from New Jersey was like the busman taking his holiday on a bus.
He didn't understand that for us, seeing "Jersey Boys" in London was the ultimate treat.
Shows on the stage in London always surprise and enthrall us. We always try to fit one in when we come to town.
It's — in some ways — better than Broadway.
And Jersey Boys is our era.

Our ticket to the past

The music is familiar. We listened to it in high school. We bought 45s with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons singing "Walk Like a Man," "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," and "Working My Way Back to You."
We were and are, in a sense, groupies.
So when we heard the show was playing at the Prince Edward Theatre in London we snapped up some tickets.
And it was everything we had hoped.
We learned the back story, about how the "four blue-collar kids became on of the greatest successes in pop music history" and how the mob played its part. Who knew we Idaho spuds were listening to mob money music?
The guys in the band were cool and real and funny. (They talked a little roughly in places.)
Frankie was a great singer.
Their renditions of the classic hits were spot on. No wonder this show has won the Best Musical Tony Award on Broadway, in London and in Australia, was named the #1 show in Las Vegas and keeps breaking records across America.
I've found myself listening to my CD of their favorites every day since we've been home.
We even voted to help make them the winner of this year's BBC Radio 2 Olivier Audience Award.
They didn't win but they should have.
So when we came out of the theater to find London subject to a downpour with everybody running into the nearest pub for cover, we were smiling and quite proud of ourselves.
It was really brilliant.