Night at the Theater

"You're just too good to be true
Can't take my eyes off of you
You'd be like heaven to touch
I want to hold you so much
At long last love has arrived
And I think God I'm alive
You're just too good to be true
Can't take my eyes off of you ..."

Do you know this song? If you do, like me, you grew up listening to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Maybe you haven't heard one of their songs in years, but listen for two seconds and you'll be humming along.
"C'mon Marianne," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Rag Doll," "Dawn," "My Eyes Adored You," "Sherry," "Opus 17," "Let's Hang On." Those are just a few of the songs I grew up listening to Frankie Valli sing.
So tonight was a true treat. We went to see "Jersey Boys" at the Prince Edward Theatre in London's West End. From start to finish, it was fabulous.
We left the flat mid-afternoon and took the bus over to the Charing Cross Road area. We ate an early dinner at a nifty place on Dean Street called Spaccanapoli. (It means Split Napoli in Italian and is named for the market street that splits Naples in two.) Keith and Cara went for exotic pizzas covered with things like artichokes, black olives, mushrooms, ham ... that may not seem exotic to you but anything beyond cheese, tomato and sausage slides off my radar. Laura and I had chicken with ham and cheese and pasta on the side. It was excellent.
Our plan was to hit the half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square after our dinner. We hoped to score tickets to a show for a discount price.
"Jersey Boys" was my first choice. There's so much to see in the West End - "Spamalot," "Mama Mia," "39 Steps," "Billy Elliott," "Wicked," "The Lion King" and "Dirty Dancing," among many others - but I had heard good things about "Jersey Boys" and wanted to see some fun and peppy.
We really hit the jackpot. We got tickets on the 15th row, center, for 38 pounds each. That's about 25 percent off.
And let me tell you, it was a bargain!
"Jersey Boys" is the story of the Four Seasons - their start as Jersey hoods and their rise to fame and the ups and downs that went with the ride. The sets were exquisite. The cast was wonderful. And the star of the show, Ryan Molloy, was perfect as Frankie Valli. That's a tough task, considering that he had to sing in that Frankie Valli falsetto. And amazing when you realize that this man who sounded just like a "Joisy Boy" is actually an British actor.
We're so happy we had this experience. After the theater, we walked down to Caffe Nero and gushed over the show. All of us loved it.
We now have a theater to-do list. How do we get it all in?