Jersey Boys — Who Wants it or Needs it?

By Nancy M. Czerwiec, a senior American and former library board trustee

We’ve all felt that familiar tug on the heartstrings when we hear those old tunes from younger days. Whether they’re playing on the radio or in a “special TV offer” infomercial, those songs have the power to awaken the emotions of a simpler, easier time.

So when the play, Jersey Boys– with it’s catchy, nostalgia-inducing melodies– gets rave reviews, it’s no surprise that bus load after bus load of seniors line up at the LaSalle Theater to once again hear hits like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” and “My Eyes Adore You.”

But as the lights dim and the show begins, it’s not the great music that catches one’s attention; rather, it’s the script teeming with the “F” word , a**, and a couple of phases using God’s name in vain.

The crass script, though, slowly begins to take a back seat as the enthralled audience is wowed with incredibly accurate renditions of hit tunes from Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. As the play ends, the gray-haired audience is on its feet cheering and clapping to the music of their youth.

But wait… what about the script? What about the senseless gutter language repeated over and over? What about the assault on the decent human senses and the crass offensive script no one would accept but for the nostalgic tunes attached to it?

It seems to me that this attack on our decency cannot be left without a voice of objection and a call to the producers to clean up their act. How dare they take our good money and batter us with garbage language? How clever and insidious to tell us that this is the way it was; this is how they talked and this is the real story. Well, seniors, that may be the case, but I not buying it.

This is nothing more than the continued assault by those in America who want to destroy all that is wholesome and good in our society. It’s time we draw the line, and I hope many of you will join me in saying “We ain’t going to take it any more.” We want good reading, good TV, good music, and everything else good that the media is trying to destroy.

Please, if you have seen this play and agree with me, go to the Jersey Boys website and register a loud and clear complaint. For the sake of your children, grandchildren, and our nation, speak up.

If you don’t, then just remember that we have no one to blame but ourselves for this insane downward spiral.