“Songs for Life”
Jersey Boys at The Lexington Theatre Company
As remembered by Kevin Lane Dearinger
The Lexington Theatre Company is preparing its August production of the hit-filled musical Jersey Boys, the story and the songs of the incomparable Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Their songs are burrowed into American DNA. Once heard, never forgotten.
Later would come the Beatles and the Supremes and the Stones and even Iron Butterfly, but the quartet from New Jersey provided the sound of being young in the Sixties. Each song arrived, thrilling with experiences not yet experienced by most of its listeners. The Four Seasons seemed like nice boys, but their lyrics, hinting at love gone wrong and insecurity in the social world, had an appealing vulnerability. And yet their music also throbbed with streetwise confidence, even swagger.
Not all of us could manage “swagger.” We were young.
The Four Seasons
The first hearing of each hit song was Proustian, for memory clings stubbornly to music. A few notes, a long falsetto line, a surprising lyric, or an irresistible harmony can harbor the experience of entire days in the long-ago past.
“Sherry” might recall lingering over a cheeseburger and fries at a brightly-lit dime store lunch-counter while the jukebox wails with longing. “Sher-er-er-er-er-ery, ba-a-by.”
“Walk Like a Man” could be a plastic 45-rpm disk spinning on the tinny record player in your bedroom as you hope that puberty will be kind. And arrive soon.
“Dawn! (Go Away)” might be a sock-hop in the school gym, pretending you could dance, hoping you look cool enough for those who always notice who’s cool, and wondering what it would take to be “no good for you.”
“Who Loves You (pretty baby)” might resurface as an old half-dream, drifting off to sleep in your single bed in the dim glow of your up-to-date clock-radio. “Who’s gonna help you through the night.”
The Four Seasons
“Let’s Hang On (To What We’ve Got)” might bring back memories of a tiny transistor radio on your towel by the pool in that last hot summer before high school; being alone in a crowd with your music.
“Rag Doll” might make you wince at memories of Junior High snobbery that would dissipate with age and conscience but linger as an old wound.
“Big Girls Don’t Cry” could be a memory of cruising down a country road, windows rolled down and the AM radio turned up full blast, with a first driver’s license in your pocket and no adults around.
“Can’t Take my Eyes off of You” might remember first love in all its sublime longing and bittersweet glory. “I want to hold you so much.”
“Oh, What a Night!” might be that night you thought would never come, but The Four Seasons made you think it could happen, actually happen. Someday.
The Four Seasons
So, what if you were born too late to have known these songs when they were new?
They retain a bit of their time, but they also explode with a still-immediate energy that remains “now,” driving and insistent, whenever and wherever you hear them.
Knit up in the strong story and memorable characters of Jersey Boys, the songs relive their own youth.
Whether the songs are long-established in your bones or are new to you, they will find a way into your heart, and from there into your memory.
You will be on your feet!
And you will feel so “cool.” Deep down.
Tyler Okunski, Joey Lavarco, Nick Bernardi, and Caleb Albert in rehearsals for Jersey Boys at The Lex
The Lexington Theatre Company’s production of Jersey Boys plays the Lexington Opera House for six performances, August 1-4.
Kevin Lane Dearinger is a retired actor, singer, and teacher. His published works include four theatre histories, six volumes of poetry, six plays, and two memoirs, Bad Sex in Kentucky and On Stage with Bette Davis: Inside the Fabulous Flop of Miss Moffat. For many years, he sang to the back row, acted from the bottom of his heart, and danced, as one astute critic put it, “with athletic grace.” In his soul, he still does all three. He counts among his blessings the privilege of sitting in on rehearsals with The Lexington Theatre Company.
