By Pauline Joy M. Gutierrez
ONE quick YouTube search using the keyword “Jersey Boys” will bring up a plethora of musical clips of the biggest hits by one of most iconic bands to emerge in the 1960s, The Four Seasons. Scroll some more and you’ll come upon one video titled “Jersey Boys Official Trailer.” Click on the entry and you’ll see the actors playing the original four band members in the 2014 Clint Eastwood movie talking up the history of The Four Seasons.
Notice the man sauntering down the street at the beginning of the clip? With a crooked grin, the man drawls in a thick New Jersey accent, “You want to know the real story? I’m the one you wanna talk to: Tommy DeVito. Wasn’t for me, we would have wound up with a bullet in our head.”
With a statement like that, you know instantly that this guy was brash and up to no good.
Playing this iconic character, according to show experts, is considered a dare, for DeVito was more than the founder of The Four Seasons; he’s also the main conflict in the story of the band. More an antagonist than an antihero, Tommy DeVito’s character is a critical part of the telling of the band, which released three No. 1 chart sensations, as pop music in the 1960s entered an era of “all hits”.
In the Filipino staging of the acclaimed Broadway musical, Jersey Boys: The Story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, actor-singer Markki Stroem brings to life the man whose musical passion started it all. All smiles, Markki, along with the rest of the main cast of Jersey Boys, including Christian Bautista, Nyoy Volante and Nino Alejandro, entered the BusinessMirror newsroom to give a quick preview of the musical. Markki led the mini set with a harmonic run-through of “Beggin,’” a rendition that wooed the women in the room as the Filipino-Norwegian cranked up the charm to back up his vocal chops.
The singer’s laidback demeanor, combined with the boy-next-door good looks, stands in stark contrast to DeVito’s darker persona. Markki admitted that he has to put in the extra effort for his character. “It’s scary because I’m the youngest in the group of this seasoned veterans and, yet, I’m playing the oldest character,” Markki said.
Continuing, he added, “For them [his costars], it’s actually more natural; for me, however, there’s a bit of caricature that comes with it, because my character is a guy that people take seriously. And that caricature needs to come through at least occasionally.”
With that, Nino Alejandro, who plays Nick Massi, coyly interjected that among them, Markki practices the most. “Even during car rides, he works on his New Jersey accent,” Nino said.
On a more serious note, Markki acknowledged Tommy DeVito “doesn’t have a lot of redeemable values,” but confessed he likes the fact that “he’s too forward-thinking and business-minded.” After some deep contemplation, he explained that if “Tommy didn’t force himself into this situation and take all these people in, he surely wouldn’t have put these people together, and it wouldn’t have worked out. And I myself, I’m very enterprising. I like to manage, and he’s also a kind of a take-it-or-leave-it guy. So I’m forward, but not as forward like him, in life and when I work in groups. It’s great because I learn a lot from the character.”
Markki said he shares the same sentiments of the production to showcase the story of The Four Seasons in the Philippines, especially since the band embraced by a global music audience back then. “This band sang songs that were relatable to a larger group, and they succeeded even with the British invasion dominating the music scene at the time,” Markki said.