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Broadway show Jersey Boys comes to the Wharton Center

October 9, 2015
<p>Courtesy of WhartonCenterMedia.com&nbsp;</p>

Courtesy of WhartonCenterMedia.com 

Broadway and New Jersey are coming to East Lansing next week, and they’ll be making some noise. 

The touring cast of Jersey Boys will be performing at the Wharton Center for Performing Arts Oct. 13 to Oct. 18 for eight shows.

Tickets start at $38. Student discount tickets have sold out, but students can still purchase tickets at the regular price.

The show is a jukebox musical retelling of the 1960s rock n’ roll group The Four Seasons. Their top hits included in the show, from “Sherry” to “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

Keith Hines, who plays Nick Massi in the show, said the musical captures a classic American story while staying interesting for the audience.

“You’ve got the great all-American story of these blue-collar boys who wanted to achieve something, make something of themselves,” Hines said. “They decided not to join the military, they decided not to become gangsters and they started making music. They ended up becoming some of the greatest pop sensations of their time. It does have gambling bets and broken marriages—all of these really cool rockstar elements that make for an exciting story.”

Hines said what sets Jersey Boys apart from other shows is the energy that comes from performing familiar music for the audience.

“It’s the only musical I’ve ever been involved in where people step out of their seat and dance and clap and sing,” he said. “For a lot of these people in the audience, they are hearing music they associate their youth with and that excites them. You see an old couple embrace each other when some of these songs start being performed on stage because they remember dancing in the kitchen when ‘Sherry’ was a Top 40 hit. You see these people go back in time and that’s a really special kind of energy to have circulating in the house. It’s certainly different than your typical musical in that way.”

Because of that, Hines said he loves performing in this show. He said he has been with this tour for about 400 shows and still enjoys going onstage and performing the music and story each time.

“I’ve never loved performing a show as much as I love this one,” Hines said. “It’s a really great world to play make-believe inside of. I still get giddy about stepping into that world after 400 performances.”

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