Still, the show ran for 722 performances, winding down only this past New Year’s Eve. Building on that box-office success, the touring production, which will arrive at the Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre on Tuesday for a two-week run, afforded the creative team a welcome opportunity to revamp the book and tighten up the plotline, said producer Stuart Oken.
For Oken, “tweaking’’ is not an apt description of the changes they have made.
“Tweaking is generally not what makes a big difference,’’ he said. “Tweaking moves you 5 percent. You need the ability to step back with perspective and make bold decisions about what a show might be.’’
Oken admits the team - which includes Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, who wrote the book for “Jersey Boys,’’ and co-directors and designers Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott, who helped create the like-minded musical “Shockheaded Peter’’ - knew they were not quite ready when the show opened on Broadway after a Chicago run. For the touring production, he said, they toiled to make a good idea become a reality.
“We really did the work. Somehow, we cracked it,’’ Oken said.
Chris Jones, the Chicago Tribune critic, who found the musical “deeply confused’’ pre-Broadway and liked it with qualifications on Broadway, seemed to agree with Oken when he reviewed the touring production in December. “It’s hard to think of another show that has been revised so heavily and, for the most part, successfully, by its admirably indefatigable original authors and composer,’’ Jones wrote.
Douglas Sills, who has assumed the lead as Gomez, the boundlessly energetic patriarch, said the touring company has already developed a distinct esprit de corps.
“Tour is a hybrid of summer camp, soap opera, and rehab facility,’’ he said. “It’s a great support mechanism. It’s like an extended family, to be sure.’’
