Musical 'Jersey Boys' comes to Van Wezel in Sarasota

He feels a little silly about it now, but Marshall Brickman said he kept turning down offers to be involved with "Jersey Boys."

"They handed it to me three times," he said, "and three times I handed it back."

To be fair, Brickman didn't need the work. He had long before co-written some of Woody Allen's best films, including "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan," and he wrote the book for the hit musical "The Addams Family."

And besides, he said, at the point he turned down the gig, the show didn't seem like a sure hit.

"My writing partner, Rick Elice, had acquired the rights to use the Four Seasons catalog," Brickman said in a phone interview from his Manhattan home. "The original idea was to do something like 'Mamma Mia!' and back-fit the songs into a story, and that didn't appeal to me."

The show began to take shape, he said, when he, Elice and two of the Four Seasons -- Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio -- spent an evening over some adult beverages at Sardi's, the legendary restaurant in New York's theater district.

It turned out the story of the Four Seasons was fascinating, and everyone involved decided to use the Four Seasons' hits as a backdrop to tell the band's story.

The result is one of the biggest Broadway hits of the 21st century, still running in New York after more than 10 years.

Audiences around the country love it just as much as New Yorkers. Its national tour sells out all over. It's coming to Sarasota for an five-day run at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall starting March 11.

Brickman allows that he didn't know much about the Four Seasons when he started out. He was more of a bluegrass fan than a pop music fan. He was surprised when he started listening to the songs and discovered that "Walk Like a Man," "December '63," "Working My Way Back to You" and so many others were all by the same band.

"Those songs," he said, "have become part of our national conscience."

Developing the concept was the beginning of a long negotiating process. Gaudio and Valli insisted that they retain the right to strike from the show anything about their lives that they didn't want made public, which was a bit scary for the writers. And despite their polished image, the Four Seasons had not lived staid lives. They had served jail time, they had cheated on their wives, they had been involved with mobsters. Frankie Valli's daughter died of a drug overdose. It was all there on stage. Valli and Gaudio watched rehearsals and were visibly uncomfortable, Brickman said.

In the end, they allowed enough of their misdeeds to remain in the show and "Jersey Boys" became one of the most acclaimed musicals of its era.

"There were a few scenes that they vetoed that I wish we could have left in the show," Brickman said. "But I'm kind of amazed by what they let us keep in. It was very courageous."

Details: March 11-15, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Show times: 8 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, 1:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $65-$120. Information: 941-953-3368, vanwezel.org.

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published March 8, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Musical 'Jersey Boys' comes to Van Wezel in Sarasota ."