Jersey Boys

★★★☆☆     Nostalgic

Edinburgh Playhouse: Mon 12 – Sat 17 Oct 2026
Review by Rebecca Mahar

The twentieth-anniversary of Jersey Boys hits the Edinburgh Playhouse stage with pizzazz and plenty of nostalgia for fans of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons in this jukebox musical tracing the rise, fall, and reinvention of the legendary group.

Initially conceived by original Four Seasons member Bob Gaudio, Jersey Boys features a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and a score of Four Seasons hits, with arrangements and incidental music composed by Ron Melrose.

A scene from Jersey Boys. Pic: Mark Senior.

While the musical retains an enduring popularity due to the enormous fanbase of its music and its candid look into the personal history of the Four Seasons, Des McAnuff’s direction of this new tour lacks the driving impulsion necessary to carry a piece of such challenging structure to unqualified success.

The structure gives all four members of the group a chance to narrate. Tommy Devito (Scott Goncalves) is given charge of their origin story: from bringing teenager Frankie Valli (Luke Baker) in as lead singer, through the turbulence of stints in jail, scams, and constant rebranding until The Four Seasons is decided on, they team up with Bob Gaudio (Toby Miles) and strike artistic gold.

Gaudio takes over narration for a bit more struggle before the instant sensation Sherry and the ensuing string of hits in collaboration with producer Bob Crewe (Michael Levi). But with the group’s interpersonal troubles continuing to mount, drastic action must be taken, the seeds of disintegration are sewn and Valli moves firmly into the position of frontman.

makes Valli the focal point

The switching of narrators continues into the second act, with Nick Massi (Lewis Kennedy) and finally Valli himself taking their turns. This rotational narrative structure gives each original member of the group a voice but, contrary to Elice’s assertion that this allows each to give his own side of the story and create a quartet of unreliable narrators, it instead makes Valli the focal point, around which all else circulates.

A scene from Jersey Boys. Pic: Mark Senior.

As often happens with productions that attempt to cover vast swathes of its protagonists’ histories, Jersey Boys suffers from a compression of time that results in narration becoming a list of events, and transitions that stutter through time too quickly or too slow.

Some of these problems are inherent in the book and the choice of certain songs which not necessarily used to serve the story. Such issues are exacerbated by direction that allows scenes to linger purposelessly.

That said, this is a Jersey Boys that does full justice to its musical source material. The performances are overall excellent, despite a few over-exaggerated gestures to cue sound, some small moments of violence that lack any real threat, and occasional lapses in diction.

never misses a beat

Baker makes a brilliant Valli, delivering on vocal versatility and power as well as character arc, with a particularly heat-wrenching scene in the second act in response to devastating news. Goncalves (swinging on for press night in place of principal Tommy: Carlo Boumouglbay) never misses a beat and is perhaps the best of the quartet at embodying the progression of time over the course of the production.

Lewis Kennedy’s Nick Massi brings deadpan humour throughout, and Toby Miles is a heartfelt Bob Gaudio.

A scene from Jersey Boys. Pic: Mark Senior.

The rest of the company fill the stage with energy, excellent comedic timing, and a versatility that makes the ensemble seem larger than it is. Aiden Carson as Joe Pesci and Fed Zanni as Gyp DeCarlo are standouts in their featured roles, while Michael Levi brings the right level of camp-meets-cutthroat to Bob Crewe.

This production of Jersey Boys might be flawed, but the pull of the Four Seasons reincarnated is not to be denied. And if the crowd at the Playhouse is anything to judge by, this tour could be kicking off another twenty years of raucous audience applause and opportunities for aspiring tenors to live out their Frankie Valli dreams.

Running time: Two hours and 30 minutes (including one interval).
Edinburgh Playhouse, 18-22 Greenside Place EH1 3AA.
Monday 12 – Saturday 17 October 2026.
Daily: 7.30pm; Thurs, Sat mats: 2.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Access performances: Audio Described 14 Oct; BSL Interpreted 15 Oct (7:30pm); Captioned 16 Oct.

A scene from Jersey Boys. Pic: Mark Senior.

ENDS

Tags: Aiden Carson, Bob Gaudio, Carlo Boumouglbay, Des McAnuff, Edinburgh Playhouse, Fed Zanni, Four Seasons, Jersey Boys, Lewis Kennedy, Luke Baker, Marshall Brickman, Michael Levi, Musicals, Rebecca Mahar, Review, Rick Elice, Ron Melrose, Scott Goncalves, Theatre, Toby Miles