A hundred million records sold, the Four Seasons' run of number ones from "Sherry" to "Oh What a Night", and the revival that the Jersey Boys musical brought to a generation that missed the 1960s originals: Big Girls Don't Cry at Shanklin Theatre on 13 June covers all of this. The internationally acclaimed tribute has been touring long enough to have refined what makes the Four Seasons's catalogue work live.
The falsetto register that Frankie Valli's lead vocal requires is one of the harder technical asks in pop music. Productions that get the casting right on that front tend to make everything else work. Shanklin Theatre seats the show in a room where the balance between the full-band sound and the vocal is properly managed. "Walk Like a Man", "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Rag Doll": the set runs across the decade and the quality of the original material is evident in the live performance.
Tickets around £29; book through Shanklin Theatre. Good for adults and families. More music events on the Isle of Wight through the summer season.
