Dec 15, 2006 9:21 pm US/Pacific
Frankie Valli Comes To S.F. With Jersey Boys Tour
by Bill Schechner
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―
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Franki Valli during the late 60s at the height of his career.
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Members of the group Jersey Boys: J. Robert Spencer, John Lloyd Young, Christian Hoff and Daniel Reichard at the Tony Awards.
Evan Agostini/Getty Images
Editor's note: "Jersey Boys" runs through March 25 at the Curran Theatre at 445 Geary St. in San Francisco. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Tues.-Sat., with 2 p.m. matinees Wed., Sat., Sun. Ticket prices range from $30-90. For ticket and show information, call (415) 512-7770."Jersey Boys" — this year's best musical Tony Award winner — the story of the careers of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons — began its national tour this week in San Francisco, its first road show stop.
Frankie Valli is a major player in the play's success, not just a character in the script. He's been making a round of personal appearances in the Bay Area to promote the show.
Perhaps it's the hit it is because it speaks of a time that if you lived it, you remember fondly. And if you are too young, you sense you missed a great American moment.
Born Francis Castelluccio, the 69-year old Valli was raised in a working class Italian neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. He spent much of his high school days downtown in the city's movie palaces now long gone.
"As a kid I cut classes at least once a week to see a stage show in the Adams Theatre. And I stayed and saw at least three of them until it was time to leave school and go home," he recalled in an interview with CBS 5.
And when Valli brought home his report card to his parents? "They were not very thrilled," he said.
He started singing with his childhood friends, first as the Four Lovers - two of whom went to jail on robbery charges - then later as the Four Seasons.
Along the way, he picked up the name Valli from a female singer who helped him get his first recording contract in 1953, he explained.
Valli still fondly recalls those early musical days as one of the high points of his life.
"Four guys under a street lamp, when it was all ahead of us. When we made that sound, our sound, when all there was was the music," he said.
Valli and his friends made their way, against mighty odds and achieved mighty hits. It's all in the show.
"I knew I wasn't gonna be a doctor, or a lawyer, or an accountant," he explained. "I wanted to be the guy that hired a doctor and a lawyer and an accountant."
So, what is a Jersey Boy, you ask? It all goes back to Valli's New Jersey roots as a child.
"A Jersey Boy is a guy who grew up the way I did," Valli said. "The streets were your playground. Walk out of the house there were 400 kids to play ball with, to hide behind a building and smoke cigarettes with -- all of those things."
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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