Oh what a night! The sentiment was certainly true of the whole, but the song also forms the opening scene of the musical Jersey Boys, which tells the story behind 1960s super group Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

In an unexpected opener, a plastic gangster-style rapper and some B-girls come close to twerking to a French version of the song, Ces Soiree-La, in what is clearly not 1960s New Jersey. 'What's all this?' I thought with some dismay.

All is quickly revealed by suave and energetic Tommy DeVito (played charismatically by Stephen Webb), founder member of the Four Seasons and our first narrator of the night. He tells us that Ces Soiree-La was No. 1 for ten weeks in France in the year 2000, cleverly putting into context the longevity of the Four Seasons' music, whilst behind him the scene is simultaneously changing to take us 'back in the day' to where it all began.

Their classic songs I have absorbed simply through popular culture but, as a child of the eighties, the story of this vintage band was not one I knew. Judging from the images alone I might have expected good, clean, well-brought-up boys, but this story is of a rabble from the wrong side of the tracks in a downtrodden neighbourhood with mob connections.

Two of the gang, Tommy and too-cool-for-school Nick Massi (captured with great humour by Lewis Griffiths), are in and out of jail, and it is only because of the outstanding vocal talent of wet-behind-the-ears protege Frankie (the gifted Tim Driesen) that they really get off the ground.

Another fact lost on me was that a teenage Joe Pesci - as in the Hollywood actor - was a friend of the band who played an integral role in introducing the 'last piece of the puzzle', the fourth vital member of the Four Seasons: genius songwriter Bob Gaudio.

With Bob's arrival, the hits come thick and fast - Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Walk Like A Man - and the group's steep ascent is cleverly conveyed using filmed sequences, played on a giant screen while the cast perform beneath, as though we are watching American Bandstand ourselves. Real footage of the audience of the day's reaction to these early performances adds to the rising sense of success.

While Tim as Frankie delivers the goosebumps with his superb voice, Sam Ferriday as geeky Bob Gaudio delivers much of the ready humour. Explaining his confusion at the overtly camp style of a record producer they encounter along the way, he tells the audience: "This was the sixties, people thought Liberace was just, you know, theatrical."

As the band's success reaches its crescendo, the euphoria is expertly conveyed from cast to audience, until the exhilaration in the theatre is palpable. However, as the cracks between Tommy, portrayed as a feckless money-handler, and the rest of the band start not only to show but to creak and gape under pressure, we also sense the increasing desperation as the band belt out Bye Bye Baby.

When Frankie's own family disintegrates and tragedy strikes, it is a raw emotional moment as he sings Fallen Angel.

The story moves around between narrators and over the course of the show we look out at the differing view from four pairs of eye, but in the end we are thrilled to see the group reunited in a scene that replays their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

When Tim as Frankie sings Can't Take My Eyes Off You, I knew exactly what he meant. This was a mesmerising musical I could watch again and again (you know what's coming...): I'll be working my way back to you.

- Jo Roberts

Jersey Boys is at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury until Saturday, January 31. Tickets are now sold out. Visit www.marlowetheatre.com for news of other upcoming shows.