Zooey Glass gives a little sermon, in the longer sermon that is Franny & Zooey, about "the Fat Lady" -- Seymour once told him to shine his shoes (before a radio show?! as Zooey argued) for this mythic creature, who it's said lives inside every one of us. When we saw Jersey Boys at the 5th Ave on Friday night, though, she was sitting behind us. She clapped as the familiar doo wop songs began, as they ended, she woohoo'd, she sang along, she hummed, she shared reminiscences with her friend. If she flinched at all the authentic fucking Jersey language -- you fucking asshole -- we didn't notice. (We're not sure we've ever been to a musical rated PG-13 for language before.)

Jersey Boys, more than anything, feels like the Tony Award-winning "Behind the Music" musical. This one happens to be about The Four Seasons. When four blue-collar kids dodge prison to form a white doo wop band, meet up with producer Bob Crewe, and sell 175 million records worldwide before they're 30, the announcer in your head automatically intones: "But things were about to go terribly, terribly wrong." It's undeniably satisfying.

Still, the story of Frankie Valli (Christopher Kale Jones), Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), Tommy DeVito (Deven May), and Nick Massi (Steve Gouveia) gets to you because it really is about Jersey boys, they really were an unlikely success, and they lived hard on the way up and on the way out. There's not even a hint of the squeaky-clean -- you'll never hear "Oh, What A Night" the same way again -- but it celebrates all the same an era of American life that's receded, an era of people who couldn't forget where they came from.

We won't be the first to point out that Jones doesn't have Valli's Hydra-Matic shift between registers or as overpowering a falsetto, but he comes into his own with his Willy Loman-esque portrayal of Valli's later years on the road. Because the group's story is told from each member's point of view, Bergen, May, and Gouveia each get a chance to step up and each shines, especially May as the band's founder, father figure, and colossal screw-up.

The solid gold string of Four Seasons hits -- just scratching the surface: "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Dawn (Go Away)," "Rag Doll," "Oh, What a Night," "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," "My Eyes Adored You" -- reflects the bandmates' 4-part rise to stardom and unharmonious disintegration. They're sung in full or in part, as if you're watching the lounge gig, TV show appearance, or even -- from backstage in the blinding glare of the lights -- at the arena concert. Mobile microphone stands shoot onstage and off. The show borrows rock's driving beat for its own tempo, and before you know it, it's the Hall of Fame and the unforgettably catchy harmonies are about to fade out.

Because the Fat Lady really is in everyone, the audience bursts into spontaneous applause when Bergen's Gaudio recalls he and Valli had a 40-year handshake agreement that they never bothered to write down. Because Bergen is not Gaudio, it's a little odd to applaud him for this, but the Fat Lady doesn't care. She's on her feet, hips swiveling, clapping with hands over her head, for the final reprise of "Oh, What A Night."

Credit: Erich Bergen, Christopher Kale Jones, Deven May and Steve Gouveia in Jersey Boys. Photo by: Joan Marcus.