Canadian actor Jeff Madden is to play Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys. (Gary Goddard Agency)

A Canadian production of the hit show Jersey Boys opens Friday, Dec. 12 in Toronto, with a new, mainly Canadian cast.

Jersey Boys has been a hit for Dancap Productions, filling the huge Toronto Centre for the Arts in north Toronto night after night.

But the show that opened last August, with veterans of the New York production in many of the lead roles, ends this weekend, and the show goes dark for four nights until Friday, Dec. 12.

That down time allows a new cast, still directed by Stratford's Des McAnuff and with dance direction by Sergio Trujillo, to complete technical rehearsals.

When the show reopens, all but two cast members will be new, and three of the four lead roles will be played by Canadians.

Jersey Boys is the story of the Four Seasons, the musical group comprised of four guys from New Jersey that created hits such as Sherry, Walk Like a Man and Can't Take My Eyes Off You.

The main cast members are:

• Jeff Madden, who spent eight seasons with the Shaw Festival, playing Frankie Valli.
• Jeremy Kushnier, a singer-songwriter who was part of the original Toronto show, plays Tommy DeVito.
• Michael Lomenda, originally of Red Deer and a veteran of theatre in Toronto and New Brunswick, plays Nick Massi.
• Derek Krantz, of New York, plays Bob Gaudio.

Madden had to pass auditions in front of Gaudio, who wrote the show and has a role in the creation of all the touring productions, and Valli himself.

"The process for casting Frankie is different from the other roles I guess because both Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli are very involved in this show," Madden told CBC News. "They are fans of the show, and they want to be in the loop on casting of the Frankie Valli.

"That was the most nerve-wracking — doing the audition with the actual guy sitting six feet in front of you."

Madden, a tenor who in the past year has done shows such as Wonderful Town and A Little Light Music, is on stage most of the time in Jersey Boys.

"I've had some very demanding roles before. I've had to play piano, play trumpet, sing and dance all in the same show. I've had large roles in dramas where I had to shout a lot, but nothing quite this demanding," he said.

Most demanding is the vocal range he has to master as Valli, who goes from very high notes to very low — often in the same song.

Madden said Valli is "uniquely gifted" to have such a wide range, while he himself is able to sing these songs because of years of vocal training and practice.

Show full of songs audience will recognize

The strength of Jersey Boys is the familiarity of the songs, which Madden, 34, remembers hearing when he was young.

"I think everyone's heard Big Girls Don't Cry or Walk Like a Man or Sherry Baby or Oh What a Night. Songs like that, they're everywhere. There'll be a romantic scene in some movie, and someone will break into Can't Take My Eyes Off You," he said.

"That's part of the fun for the audience. They come to the show, and they don't know that they know so many of these songs — they [say] 'Oh, I didn't know they did that!'"

Krantz, 22, graduated from the University of Michigan's musical theatre program just five months before being whisked off to Toronto to play Bob Gaudio, the songwriter and creative genius behind the Four Seasons.

Krantz has appeared in a New York Fringe production of The Johnny and had TV roles on As the World Turns and Guiding Light.

He recalls walking around singing Four Seasons hits such as Sherry as a child, because his father was a fan.

"You're a huge part of this show, but also you have to embody history …There's an obligation and a responsibility that comes with that," Krantz said. "The show is bigger than any character in it. It's a huge undertaking for me.

"I did a lot of research into the time period — what New Jersey was like, what touring was like, what was going on in the U.S. and how the British invasion affected American music."

Unlike Madden, Krantz didn't have to pass muster with Gaudio and Valli before he got his part.

He said he admires the honesty of the show, which doesn't hold back on the singers' stints in jail, connections to the mob and poor decisions in their personal lives.

"It's not happy-go-lucky," Krantz said. "It's a musical biography, rather than just a string of their songs cobbled together with a story. This stage show was revolutionary for a reason."

This week, the new cast is in rehearsal 12 hours a day. Dan says he bought the set to the original Toronto show, so he's going into the Canadian production with all the technical details in place.

Jersey Boys is scheduled to run Dec. 12, 2008–Feb. 1, 2009.