A Florida Studio Theater ad announcing a return of The Jersey Tenors after their successful 2017 debut mentions my TotalTheater review of their performance as “Terrific!” There’s no reason to alter that assessment because it also applies to “The Jersey Tenors— Part II.” They simply wowed their opening night audience with their blend of operatic and mod, rock, and pop classics.
Along with their creator-director and general program narrator Brian Noonan, Vaden Thurgood is the one returning to FST. Maybe that’s why he seems so at home performing. He’s also nearer to Noonan in age that the two younger FST newcomers.
Brandon Lambert plays a role of seriously trying to seem at ease (an end he achieves nicely) and Michael Pilato scores with his apparent happiness to be able to justify audience enthusiasm.
After opening Act I with Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” most of the Tenors’s selections highlight places to which they’ve traveled to perform. They do a funny “Come Back to Sorrento” and use Italian songs for a rock/opera medley. They cleverly mash together styles into partnerships with such favorites as “Funiculì, funiculà,” “La donna e mobile,” and “O Sole Mio.”
The end of Act I brings the group onto home territory with the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” illustrated patriotically. (After their performances, the group sells albums of which a major part of sales profits go to Wounded Warriors Project.)
Act II consists of offerings of music from star actors’ films. A Sylvester Stallone Medley uses a song from “Rocky” but not as importantly as the one expected. Tom Cruise film songs include the title one from the original “Top Gun.” Both John Travolta hits are from his “Saturday Night Fever” movie, again not the expected “Grease” songs.
As if a throwback to Act I, the choices of most Act II songs come from films featuring Italians. Examples: an Al Pacino “Scent of a Woman” number, a group of three songs from Robert DeNiro films (including an operatic one from “The Untouchables”), and the selection from “That’s Life” that was sung by Frank Sinatra.
After romantic, comic, robust, and dramatic acting in their musical presentations and set-ups for them, The Jersey Tenors bow out with “One Day More” from Les Miserables. So the French aren’t forgotten, and neither will The Tenors be in their signature blend of offerings.
Like the group, FST’s technical crew make the most of the Goldstein Cabaret’s relatively small stage. A clever opening has Bruce Price’s red-and-black curtain design (against purple) of the background duplicate the red formal jackets with black ties, formal trousers, and shoes that costume The Jersey Tenors. Andrew Gray nicely provides changing colors and positions of lighting throughout. Thom Korp’s sound design, as well, is handled by Passion Shaffer operating both sound and lights board effectively.
It is always great to have Jim Prosser on piano for any musical.
