New York Daily News

Nick Jonas looks to play Valli in stream of ‘Jersey Boys’

- BY KARU F. DANIELS

Nick Jonas may be ready to walk like a man.

The Grammy Award-nominated pop music crooner is in talks to play Frankie Valli in a streaming event performanc­e of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical “Jersey Boys.”

According to a Deadline report, sources say the event will be produced by Graham King, of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and the original Broadway producers, the Dodgers, with Valli and Bob Gaudio, the other surviving member of the original group and the songwriter of most of their big hits.

“Jersey Boys” chronicles Valli’s origins from Newark, N.J., to the top of the pop charts in the ’60s with the Four Seasons. The Broadway jukebox musical ran for 12 years and was one of the biggest juggernaut­s on The Great White Way. In 2014, Clint Eastwood directed and produced a film adaptation, which featured members of the original awardwinni­ng Broadway cast.

In the lead role, Jonas is expected to belt out a plethora of the group’s most famous songs, including “Walk Like a Man,” “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

Valli (above r.), born Francesco Stephen Castellucc­io, went on to sing the theme song to the “Grease” soundtrack in 1978, which garnered a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.

As an actor, the youngest member of the hit-making Jonas Brothers trio, turned in a gritty performanc­e in the 2016 Sundance Film Festival hazing drama “Goat” and also co-starred with Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan in “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” and its sequel, “Jumanji: The Next Level.”

The doo-wop quartet — the progenitor­s of what would evolve into blue-eyed soul — Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

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