Singer, actor and television star Nick Jonas is reportedly in talks to take on the lead role of Frankie Valli in a streaming version of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Jersey Boys .
Deadline reported that sources claimed the event will be produced by Bohemian Rhapsody ‘s Graham King as well as the show’s original Broadway producers the Dodgers, along with Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio.
Jersey Boys tells the origin story of the friends-turned-popular singing group that rose to fame in the 1960s and ’70s.
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons rose up the music charts to become one of the best-selling and most beloved singing groups of their generation. The musical is more than just a tribute to some of the group’s greatest hits, including “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Sherry,” “My Eyes Adored You,” and “December 1963 (Oh What A Night).” It details the personal stories of the friends and focuses on Frankie’s personal gains and losses.
The Broadway version of the show ran for 11 years at the August Wilson Theater in New York City. The last performer to play the role of Frankie Valli was Dancing with the Stars alum Mark Ballas, who closed out the show’s run in 2017. Performances have since moved off Broadway to New World Stages, where the musical played until live performances were halted in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Nick is no stranger to performing on the Great White Way. He began his stage career in A Christmas Carol as Tiny Tim and followed that with a gig in Annie Get Your Gun (Little Jake) and as a part of the cast of Beauty and the Beast (Chip), reported Broadway.com .
Nick then played Marius in the Broadway production of Les Misérables for its 25th anniversary celebration, which was held at the O2 in London in 2010. Prior to that, he performed in the role for an extended run at the Queens Theater. He’d also played the character of Gavroche before landing the part of Marius. In 2012, he played J. Pierrepont Finch in the Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
“Broadway was where I first started finding my voice as an artist and finding my feet as an actor,” he said in a 2010 interview for The New York Times .
Nick Jonas will return to The Voice as a judge for Season 20 of the long-running NBC reality talent competition beginning February 22.