Four Seasons leader Frankie Valli is “really excited” Nick Jonas is playing him in a streaming special of his hit Broadway musical Jersey Boys.
The Jonas Brothers star signed on to portray the group’s frontman in an upcoming TV event earlier this year, and Valli is thrilled at the way the latest incarnation is coming together, because he wasn’t convinced the original production would be a hit.
“I never thought that Jersey Boys would be the smash hit that it was,” he confessed on U.S. breakfast show Today.
“I remember seeing it for the first time in La Jolla (in San Diego, California), and the response was so incredible, I couldn’t believe it, and when it went to Broadway, I never would have dreamed in a million years that it would last 10 or 11 years the way it did.
“And it’s always exciting because something new is always going on. Jersey Boys has been on cruise ships, has been in almost every country that you can possibly think of, and now it’s being filmed for television and Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers is playing Frankie, so I’m really excited about that.”
Valli reveals he’s been keeping in touch with the Jealous hitmaker to help him prepare for the big gig, and he will soon be flying out to watch the cast and crew in action on set in Ohio.
“We just talked last week for about 15 to 20 minutes, he’s also very excited,” the pop veteran shared of his most recent conversation with Jonas.
“It will be filmed, I think, somewhere in Cleveland and I will be going there to check it out.”
Graham King, the producer behind Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody biopic, is working on the special, which will be similar to the Hamilton streaming event, which premiered on Disney+ last summer.
Jonas is expected to belt out Valli’s back catalogue with The Four Seasons as part of the show, which traces the band’s origins from Newark, New Jersey, to the top of the charts.
Their pop classics include Big Girls Don’t Cry, Sherry, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Walk Like A Man, and Working My Way Back to You.
The Broadway production of Jersey Boys originally ran from 2005 to 2017, winning four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It was also adapted into a movie by Clint Eastwood in 2014.
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