These Girls Don’t Cry

Lauren Tartaglia was on the monorail at McCarran International Airport when a lady stared at her, then proclaimed, "You’re in that show ‘Jersey Girls.’ "

"And I’m like, ‘Yes. Yes I am.’ I didn’t correct her or anything," Tartaglia says with a laugh.

The Palazzo musical is still named "Jersey Boys," and most repeat customers of the Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons biography are there to swoon at the four male leads. But sit through the show a second or third time, and you might notice the women in the cast starting to look familiar.

Fact is, three women in each show play all of the female characters, about 50 if you count every little walk-on. Audience members slow to pick up on this shouldn’t feel bad. It took one crew member three months.

"I’ve heard people say in the lobby, ‘I don’t believe they only let three girls bow.’ So mad — like truly upset," Tartaglia says.

Tartaglia, Carly Thomas and Leslie Goddard say they can walk out right into the casino after a performance, still in stage makeup, wig caps and "Jersey Boys" jackets, and not be noticed. "Whenever people do recognize us, I say, ‘You must have really had a good seat,’ " Tartaglia says.

It’s not just the women who are part of this illusion. Almost all of the dozen players surrounding the four leads play multiple parts in every production of the Broadway hit.

"From the beginning, the idea was to have the Four Seasons surrounded by a small chorus … a ‘supporting ensemble’ in the truest sense," producer Michael David says by e-mail.

"It was always the conceit, much before we ever talked about how much this ‘Jersey Boys’ idea would cost," David adds. Though it is "considerably less expensive than a cast of thousands," the approach "also continues to enhance the casting process, as everyone is auditioning for a multitude of roles, no matter their place in the ensemble."

The three women in the Las Vegas cast voiced several of the small roles in their auditions, but were cast for their most notable character. For Tartaglia, it’s Valli’s first wife, Mary Delgado, whom he marries before the group becomes famous and then is rarely home.

Thomas is most effective as Lorraine, Valli’s second-act love interest who also realizes she can’t free him from his grueling commitment to the road. And Goddard is Valli’s college-age daughter Francine, who died of a drug overdose.

But the three of them sing "My Boyfriend’s Back" as the Seasons’ opening act, the Angels. And each delivers laugh lines in bit parts.

And there’s no getting out of it. All three play hookers. "Our parents have all seen that," Goddard says with a laugh.

Because they do eight shows per week, Sarah Lowe is one of the swings who has subbed for all three, thereby playing every female part in the show. A couple of times, someone fell ill during the show and she took on still more parts.

By playing so many roles, "You feel a part of it, and you feel like you’re actually getting to exercise those (acting) muscles," Lowe says.

"In the real world, I would not get to play a 50- to 60-year-old woman," Thomas says of her brief turn as Valli’s mother. She figures she changes wigs almost 20 times in each show, sometimes just to go out and remove a chair from the stage.

Plus, "It’s a lot more fun," Tartaglia says. "If we had only done our main roles, then we would be sitting around for an hour."

"The show goes so quickly because you’re backstage doing more than onstage," Goddard agrees. "If you were watching it backstage, you would probably be pressed up against the wall so you didn’t get hit by a piece of scenery, a running actor or clothing or shoes flying somewhere."

"It is organized chaos," Tartaglia agrees.

Each woman is shadowed by her own hairdresser, and wardrobe crew members pass over shoes and props for changes that sometimes happen in less than 30 seconds. During one scene in a car, Erich Bergen (Bob Gaudio) unzips Tartaglia’s dress, unseen by the audience, to facilitate her change back to Mary in the next scene.

So when they get to those scenes where they actually spend a few minutes acting onstage in their main character? "They’re actually kind of relaxing," Thomas says.

"It’s interesting that our most relaxing time is our onstage time," Goddard agrees. "It’s so hectic backstage."

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.