Atlantis’ jukebox musical Jersey Boys is in town

MANILA, Philippines - The graduation piece of CeeJay Javier at the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music was Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto #1 while for the earlier junior recitation, it was Beethoven’s Piano Concerto # 3. Long hair music, highbrow stuff. You’d think with such a classical background he would apply for a position at the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra or the Manila Symphony Orchestra.

Instead he ended up in musical theater, rock musicals at that. He did not regret the move.

CeeJay is the musical director of Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group’s Jersey Boys, a bioplay about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, a pop-rock band famous during the ’60s, predating even The Beatles. They were known for such hits as Can’t Get My Eyes Off You, Walk Like a Man and Big Girls Don’t Cry.

Jersey Boys is a Broadway play later brought to the screen by director Clint Eastwood, who closely followed the story.

Show director is Bobby Garcia. CeeJay is in charge of the music and the band, and is also third keyboard. First keyboard is none other than concert pianist Mary Anne Espina, who accompanied CeeJay when he played the Beethoven concerto back at the junior recital. Vocal director is Manman Angsico from Cebu, an alumnus of the UP Concert Chorus.

“So we have our specific duties,” says the musical director. Bob Gaudio composed all the songs sung in the play; he was also one of the singers and the best friend of Frankie.

The Four Seasons as played in the Atlantis production are Nyoy Volante as Frankie, Christian Bautista as Bob, Nino Alejandro as Nick Massi, and Markki Stroem as Tommy Devito.

Steve Orich did the orchestration, a huge volume (355 pages) which CeeJay interprets. “When they gave me the material six months ago I listened to the recordings, nag-YouTube ako and studied how they sing,” recounted CeeJay. “Hinimay ko yung material. Not all the songs are sung completely. One song is sung and segues to another song to describe the scene, unlike in other musicals. But the first song by Christian (as Bob) is complete, describing how they met and so on.”

All the songs are lively but at the latter part of the show, Frankie (Nyoy) sings a threnody, Fallen Angel, to his dead son (from his first wife). It is a very quiet piece, with only the keyboard as accompaniment, and it tugged at CeeJay’s heart. The song moved him even more because he and his wife Louise Ybañez are expecting their first child.

Jersey Boys will be staged at the Meralco Theater in Pasig City during weekends starting today until Oct. 16. CeeJay’s recent assignments for Atlantis, where he is resident musical director, include Saturday Night Fever, which toured Manila, Malaysia and Singapore, and The Bridges of Madison County, where the music was very different from the current play.

“Masaya sa musical theater,” he enthuses. “Bawat project na ibinibigay sa iyo fresh.”