Seasonalia

I'm sure everybody who is anybody was at the opening of the national tour of "Jersey Boys" Sunday at the Ahmanson Theatre.

Three of the Four Seasons were there, which was kinda cool. They brought Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio and Tommy DeVito on stage during the curtain call to give the obligatory hugs all around to the actors who played them. Which meant, alas, that they had to walk through the aisles during the finale, "Who Loves You" in order to be able to get back stage. (Original Four Seasons bassist Nick Massi died in 2000). Actor Joe Pesci, who introduced Gaudio to DeVito, was there as well. He also came on stage wearing a slightly "What am I doing here?" look.

Valli and Gaudio are longtime business partners as well as friends and I don't actually know how close they still are to DeVito. If the musical is to believed, there was a rift.

You tend to see plenty of celebs on opening night/day performances. Which made it kind of cool to watch Valli having a chat with Eddie Murphy who was seated one row behind him. I somehow suspect Mr Murphy isn't usually found at theaters or Four Seasons events.

Here's the other thing about opening nights...the audiences _ which include the critics _ are largely built to appreciate. There are ALWAYS standing ovations, and thunderous applause, and cameras, and late seating. Really, it's glitzy but kind of a pain. And if you rag on an opening night performance, you invariably get some yo-yo writing back saying, "Didn't you see how much everybody loved it?"

"Jersey Boys" took the first night buzz to new heights. They went nuts from the first bars of "Oh, What a Night" pretty much straight through. They even gave Christopher Kale Jones _ who plays Valli in the musical _ a mid performance standing O after his rendition of "Can't Take my Eyes Off You."

Tix sales will be brisk for "JB." Still, I suspect the company's next performance Tuesday may be a bit of a letdown.