Jersey Boys: A Shout-Out to the Boomers

by Pa Rock
Theatre Critic

I want to talk about Jersey Boys, the Las Vegas version, but before going there please permit me a few housekeeping (I wish!) chores: First, I am safely back in the Valley of Hell, driving six-hours and two-hundred and seventy-seven miles today pretty much nonstop, but with a brief car-exit to take pictures at Hoover Dam, and a couple of desert-pullovers to snap some shots of Joshua Trees and assorted cacti.

The highlight of yesterday's activities was getting to meet Reed's new lady friend, Miss Jamie Carey, a native of Montana who teaches second grade in Nevada. She's a sweetie, Reed!

I managed to set a couple of records in Vegas last night with regard to money. I needed cash (welcome to Las Vegas!), and Reed warned me that the ATM would hit me for a $3.00 fee. I didn't like that, but I've paid that much before in such exotic locales as Phoenix and Neosho, so I manned-up and fed the machine my ATM card. The actual fee was $4.25 - my new record! But the evening soon got better when I won $150 at a penny slot machine - and managed to walk away with $140 of it! "Penny slots" are a misnomer. Yes, you can spin the wheel for one cent, but the winnings on that are minute. There are two rows of buttons where the player can select the number of lines he wants to play - 1-9 - and the magnitude of the prize - 1 through 20. I won the $150 on a nine-line bet that payed out at a force of twenty - or a $1.80 bet. Penny, indeed! Anyway, that was my record for most profit gambling. My Sis also made $55 on the slots, so we were in a good mood to see Jersey Boys!

I was somewhat hesitant about going to see Jersey Boys in Las Vegas because I knew it couldn't live up to Broadway standards, and I didn't want to detract from the experience that I had seeing the show for the first time in New York a few short weeks ago. As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about in that regard.

The production was in the sparkling new Palazzo Theatre at the Venetian. The theatre is immense, accommodating at least twice the numbers as the older theatre in New York had seated. And the acoustics were extraordinary, with every note coming through crystal clear and pure to the farthest corners of the venue.

I am troubled to admit this, but this production was at least as good as its Broadway counterpart. The young man who played Frankie Valli, in particular, was mesmerizing, both in acting ability and singing talent. As we were leaving the theatre people around us were making comparisons with other Jersey Boys productions that they had seen. One man was raving that it was so much better than the version that played recently in Chicago, and a lady was going on-and-on telling everyone within earshot that it was so much better than the Minneapolis version. Minneapolis? (I wonder if it starred Garrison Keillor?)

Listening to the audience react during the show by clapping to the music, tapping their feet, and even singing along, I realized that Jersey Boys is fast becoming the musical of the baby boomer generation. Yes, we had Hair, and Jesus Christ Superstar, and iconic concerts like Woodstock - and we had anthems like Me and Bobby McGee, Aquarius, and the Jimi Hendrix version of The Star Spangled Banner. But none of those efforts touched young America with the same intensity and pervasiveness as the Four Seasons.

There is a line in the show that I didn't write down - so this is a rough re-statement. Frankie Valli tells the audience that while the fans of the British groups were trying to "levitate the Pentagon," fans of the Four Seasons were waiting America's tables, driving her trucks, and going off to fight in Vietnam.

Those are the people who are going to see this musical - many, like me - for multiple performances. The boomers have found their voice - and its a Jersey falsetto!

Coldest Damned Day in Four Years!

by Pa Rock
Weatherman

Manhattan held a sick call this morning and I fell out for it. I knew last night that I had come down with a New York City flu bug, and by this morning I couldn't even get out of bed. So while the rest of our merry group rushed downtown to see Ground Zero, I stayed in bed.

A graduate of Baker University who lives here and works for the Port Authority, the organization that apparently controls Ground Zero, saw our group on the Today Show on Tuesday and got in touch. He arranged for a special tour this morning. I am certain that I missed a really good outing.

It is bitter cold today, supposedly the coldest day that this city has experienced in four years. When I finally did get up, I ambled across the street and had a wonderful lunch at a local greasy-spoon diner. For a good meal in the Midwest, look for the truckers - for a good meal in New York, look for the working people. It's as simple as that.

Our evening meal last night was at Tavern on the Green in Central Park. It sparkled, with stained glass, mirrors, and Christmas lights everywhere. And the food wasn't too shabby, either! But they didn't have a blue collar special!

Last night's play was Into the Heights, the winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2008. It was a high energy depiction of everyday life in the Jackson Heights area of New York City. We weren't fifteen minutes into the show when I realized that what we were really watching was the grandchild of West Side Story. It was an amazing display of singing, dancing, and drama - almost as good as the Jersey Boys and head-and-shoulders above Wicked!

This afternoon we are lining up for half-price tickets for a play tonight. (That's how Broadway ensures that every seat is filled.) Most of what's playing this season looks to be really good, so I am certain that we will come up with a great evening's entertainment.

Hey Barack, Let's Pay Those U.N. Dues!

by Pa Rock
Peace Activist

This morning we rode a city bus across town for a tour of the United Nations, a sovereign entity completely within the city of New York and the nation of the United States. Our guide, a young lady from Madrid,Spain, showed us through the facility and provided information on many programs and initiatives of the United Nations. We saw displays on the amount of money that the world spends on arms compared to what is spent on life's necessities like food, shelter, and medicine - with the last three being minuscule compared to the first one! We also viewed large photos of children carrying automatic weapons, and pictorials dealing with our fragile environment, as well as disease, education, and nutrition.

We learned about the United Nations' goals for the new millennium. There are eight goals and they follow:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

2. Achieve universal primary education.

3. Promote gender equality and empower women.

4. Reduce child mortality.

5. Improve maternal health.

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.

7. Ensure environmental sustainability.

8. Develop a global partnership for development.

I listed the Millennium Goals for several reasons: First of all, they make sense and they are important. Ever since the Reagans lived in the White House, Americans have been focused on "What's in it for me?" If our grandchildren and their children are going to inherit a livable world, that attitude has to change and we have to start thinking and acting globally.

Second, the United Nations is the appropriate forum for addressing global issues. When the United States tries to go it alone in creating change, we have mucked it up almost beyond repair: witness Iraq and Afghanistan, Mexico and Central America, and the whole global warming issue. The world does not belong to us alone.

And while the goals are important, extremely important in my view, and the U.N. is the correct place from which to do the work, the United States is setting a piss poor example in helping to meet these challenges. There are currently 192 member nations in the U.N. Dues are assigned to each country based on its ability to pay. Those dues are what funds the organization and gives it the ability to work on and meet its lofty goals. Without that stream of income they couldn't even maintain their facilities or keep the lights on. Only thirty-one nations are paid up on their dues, and the United States, the richest nation on earth, is not one of them. That is shameful!

Hear this: Our guide discussed the website www.freerice.com which is a vocabulary building site that gives grains of rice to poor countries based on players' correct answers. I have hit that site before and enjoyed it, but I assumed the free rice thing was just some sort of scam. She assured us that it was legitimate and that the organization was helping to feed the world's poor. First, check out the site yourself, and then please take a few moments and promote this very good cause to your email list. It's free and it's fun - and it's educational! That's a three-fer!

We came back to the hotel at noon, and upon checking my email I found a mass communication from Valerie Jarrett, an advisor to the President-Elect, describing a new feature at www.change.gov in which citizens are encouraged to submit their suggestions and ideas to President Obama through The Citizen's Briefing Book. People may submit ideas, and rate or comment on the ideas of others. Those that do well in that process will be placed in a regular briefing book and given to the President. My first suggestion will be to do our share in funding the United Nations and to enthusiastically support its Millennium Goals. My second suggestion will be to implement a long range plan to provide passenger rail service to and through every city of over 50,000 in America. And then there's true universal healthcare, national service, wind power, and...

The rest of the day went like this: We went to the Museum of Natural History in the afternoon. The highlight of that jaunt was a viewing of a film, Cosmic Collision, overhead on a domed ceiling, that showed the creation of the Earth and the moon and explained graphically where we are headed. It was stunning, but my neck is still sore from all of that looking up! The dinosaur skeletons were also impressive, but the rest of the museum was a big bore. I can't get too excited about stuffed elephants and gazelles. It was like I had died and gone to Bass Pro! (And Ben Stiller wasn't even on duty!)

Carla and I left the museum and walked a couple of blocks to the Dakota, the old ornate apartment building where John Lennon was killed. I stepped past the signs on the sidewalk and was shooed away by a guard who said that the tenants did not want the shoe soles of commoners scuffing their sidewalk. He was, however, courteous enough to show me the spot on the pavement where Lennon died. Across the street from the Dakota in Central Park is Strawberry Fields and the Imagine Memorial set into a sidewalk. There was a peace sign made of flowers on the memorial. Carla said that Yoko Ono still lives on the top floor of the Dakota - but she missed her chance to see us!

This evening we saw the musical Wicked. The set was elaborate and the technical workings of the set were amazing. Some of the funnier bits of the play, though, were unplanned. In one scene a bed rolled off of its mark and required a stage hand to walk onto the set and put it back. The actress speaking at that moment looked up and ad-libbed, "Oh look. A man moving a bed." Then she waved at him and yelled, "Thank you." All without missing a beat! The audience enjoyed that off-the-cuff humor. In another scene, this one in a classroom, busy stagehands forgot to roll off the beds from the previous scene. The professor sat down with the students until the problem was corrected. Again, the cast and audience had fun with it.

The set of Wicked was much grander than that of Jersey Boys, and Wicked was far superior technically as well. But I didn't hear anyone tonight leaving the theatre humming or whistling one of the tunes from the show. In fact, I would be hard-pressed to even name one. Wicked strolled along nicely, while Jersey Boys rocked!

What Happened in Vegas...

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I am headed to New York City in about a week-and-a-half with my former college girlfriend, Miss Carla (whom I haven't seen in decades!) and a group of faculty and theatre students from Baker University in Kansas City. It will be my first trip to the Big Apple, and I am very excited about getting to renew an old friendship and to get to see all of the sights - especially Broadway!

We are scheduled to see three musicals and have opportunities to schedule other nights at the theatre as well. One of the three that we will be seeing is Jersey Boys, a history of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. That upcoming treat has gotten me to remembering my own personal history with the Four Seasons. It happened in Vegas...

In the early and mid-1990's I was selling real estate, doing Child Protection for the state of Missouri, and dating Miss Susan, a young and vivacious kindergarten teacher. Because of her work schedule and my poor-paying jobs, we were limited in our travels to cheap vacations in the summers. We did New Orleans once (which was a blast!) and Las Vegas twice.

Las Vegas in August is comparable only to Phoenix in August or perhaps the waiting room of Hell on an especially busy day! It's no place for the feint-of-heart. Vegas is somewhat more tolerable than the other two in that it is possible to walk through many air-conditioned casinos on the strip without ever venturing outside. On those occasions when we were forced to go outside for any reason, the heat was unbelievably brutal.

(Anywhere there were trees the shady ground was covered with homeless people who were, in turn, covered in newspapers to protect them from the blistering sun when it broke through the patchy shade. I also remember little birds diving into the swimming pools treating them as if they were elegant birdbaths.)

During our first visit to this desert oasis we stayed at the Palace Station Hotel which was off of the strip and therefore cheaper than the bigger name hotels. The Palace Station recently became somewhat famous for being the scene of an armed robbery committed by O.J. Simpson and some of his buddies. We saw a few of the bargain shows that were advertised on our flight out and with coupons scattered around town. One was an excellent Polynesian review that came with a really good meal. We also took in a drag queen show and saw the famous dancers at the Tropicana. It was during our second visit that we decided to splurge and see a big name production.

The show that we selected was at the Desert Inn (whose famous penthouse had been the home of Howard Hughes during several of his recluse years). We were able to score tickets to the opening night of a combo production that featured Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons followed by a performance of Gladys Knight (sans the Pips). If memory serves, we paid an astounding $35.00 for the pair of tickets!

There is (or was at that time) an added surcharge to the price of the tickets, depending on whether you wanted to be able to see the stage or not. Someone explained to me while we were in line to be seated, that quality of seating depended on the size of the tip that you gave to usher when you presented him with your tickets. We were able to land in decent seats with a good view for a ten dollar gratuity, though there were many better seats right down in front of the stage that undoubtedly went to the high rollers and really big tippers.

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (the original Jersey Boys) were just beginning a reunion tour after a hiatus of several years, so there was a lot of excitement surrounding their opening night at the Desert Inn. They went through most of their song catalogue in a couple of hours on stage. The audience had grown up with their music, and most were unabashedly singing along with every number. At one point I remember Valli pointing his microphone toward that audience and saying, "Ah, hell. You know the words, you sing it." And we did!

A highlight of their show came when Frankie announced that there were some celebrities in the audience. First he introduced Levi Stubbs and one other member of the Four Tops (I can't remember which one) who were sitting down front at the expensive tables. And then he introduced Frankie Avalon. The lights panned the area by the stage, but he wasn't there. Then they swung back in our area and revealed Annette Funicello's former beach bunny honey sitting two tables behind us. He stood and waved to the screaming crowd, and then sat back down and resumed his conversation with his pretty, and very young, date. My pretty, and very young, date watched them for the remainder of the show. When the Four Seasons ended their portion of the evening, Mr. Avalon and his date exited the club.

That was my last trip to Vegas, but I am close enough that I may drive up there one day and see how much things have changed. I wonder if I can still get a pair of tickets to a really good show for thirty-five dollars?

And Miss Carla, don't be too shocked when I start singing along with the Jersey Boys!