Jersey Boys Live: All We Know About the 2022 Filmed Production

Jersey Boys Live: All We Know About the 2022 Filmed Production

The Broadway and West End hit Jersey Boys was filmed on stage and will be released for streaming later this year.

Here's all we know about "Jersey Boys LIVE!", the new 2022 filmed production of the hit Broadway show:

 

 

Jersey Boys is a jukebox musical written in a unique documentary-style format that follows the 1960s rock 'n' roll group The Four Seasons. The musical is structured in four different parts, with each part being narrated by a different member of the band.

Included in the show's score are the band's most memorable songs: "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Sherry", "December 1963 (Oh, What A Night)", "My Eyes Adored You", "Stay", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", "Walk Like A Man", "Who Loves You", "Working My Way Back to You" and "Rag Doll".

The musical originally premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse (home to Memphis the Musical and Diana the Musical) before transferring to Broadway in 2005, playing for 12 successful years.

The show was a huge critical success, winning 4 Tony Awards in total for Best Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for John Lloyd Young, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for Christian Hoff, and Best Lighting Design of a Musical for Howell Binkley. The show went on to tour the US the following year, with a big West End production opening at London's Prince Edward Theatre in February 2008.

Jersey Boys has been produced extensively since, with productions all over the world including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, The Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, Turkey, Malaysia, and Dubai.



A movie adaptation of the Broadway musical, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring John Lloyd Young reprising his Tony Award-winning role, was released in 2014. The film was not considered a success, generating a domestic box office of $47 million against a budget of $40 million. The critical reception for the film was also pretty lackluster, with a 51% critics approval rate on Rotten Tomatoes.

Ever since the disappointing film adaptation, the Jersey Boys creatives planned to "make it right" and have another go at filming the musical at some point in the future. Now, nearly 10 years after the film adaptation, the original Broadway creatives are ready to take another shot at capturing the musical for posterity. Unlike the 2014 film, this time the Jersey Boys creative team decided to film the show as-is, on stage in front of a live audience.



 

Des McAnuff, who directed the original Broadway production, is returning to the director's seat for this filming together with Graham King, the original lead producer for the Broadway show. King's production company, GK Films, is responsible for such works as Bohemian Rhapsody and Tomb Raider in 2018 and the 2014 Jersey Boys film and will now finance and produce the new 2022 capture.

While Jersey Boys is currently enjoying a new West End revival in London's Trafalgar Theatre, it was decided by the creative team to keep the production in the US and hire local talent. Starring in the production is Nick Joans in the role of Frankie Valli, together with Broadway star Andy Karl as Tommy Devito, Michael Urie as Bob Crewe, Matt Bogart as Nick Massi, CJ Pawlikowski as Bob Gaudio, Sydney Morton as Lorraine, Jon Hacker as Joey, and Joe Barbara as Gyp DeCarlo.

The performance was filmed in August of last year at the Playhouse Square theatre in Cleveland, Ohio. The filming week included several runs without an audience and concluded with one live performance with a full theater to capture audience reactions in the 1001-seat theatre.

 


 

With nearly every streaming service nowadays fighting for musical content following Disney Plus' success with Hamilton in 2020, there are definitely several possibilities as to where the filmed production will ultimately land. Netflix recently tried their luck with Diana the Musical, Apple TV+ launched Come From Away on September 11th, and Paramount Plus has SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical. NBC's Peacock is one of the few streaming services that have yet to feature a filmed stage production and has been on the lookout for such content in recent months.

As the 2014 Jersey Boys film was a Universal Production both on Broadway and on-screen (in partnership with GK Films), it could mean that this new filmed production will be handed over to NBC’s streaming service. 

The film has finished post-production in recent months and an announcement about its future home is expected later this year. In recent interviews, the production team mentioned Jersey Boys will go directly to streaming, with producers hoping to follow the Hamilton, Come From Away, and Girl From the North Country model, releasing the film in late 2022 following a rights bidding war.

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