Kids today want to be rap stars, but back in the 1960s, it was rock and roll that beat in the hearts of bored teens. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons personify the moment in musical history that changed what it meant to be an American teen from straight-laced and innocent to wildly in love and bad-to-the-bone. The groups angsty rise to pimple-faced glory is charted in the 2006 Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys, featuring the groups fabulous tunes, such as Earth Angel, Big Girls Dont Cry and Walk Like a Man. And though Marshall Brickman (who worked with Woody Allen on Annie Hall) and Rick Elices script is not all that different from the others in a long line of money-making music history lessons marching from Broadway into the heartland these days, Ben Brantley from The New York Times reports that the songs in Jersey Boys remain exasperatingly infectious. 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, 800 Bagby. Through January 31. For information, call 713-629-3700 or visit www.broadwayacrossamerica.com/Houston. $25 to $70.
Tuesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 & 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 & 7:30 p.m. Starts: Jan. 16. Continues through Feb. 9, 2008