On the night I attended the Rochester Broadway Theatre League's production of "Jersey Boys," the crowd erupted into rapturous applause before the actors even started singing several of the songs. That's really all you need to know about this show. If just the familiar rhythms of The Four Seasons are enough to send you into a nearly religious fervor, you are going to love "Jersey Boys." If, however, you're not intimately familiar with the Four Seasons songbook, or you're not a fan of the band's soulful harmonies, the production has little to offer.

The producers insist that "Jersey Boys" is not a "jukebox musical" - a show based around previously released popular songs. I'd argue that they're splitting hairs. Yes, the show has a story, as it chronicles the formation of The Four Seasons by allowing each of the original band members - Tommy DeVito, Nick Massi, Bob Gaudio, and Frankie Valli - to break the fourth wall to tell their side of the story.

The trouble is, it's not a particularly interesting story. The band starts out singing under streetlamps in the "old neighborhood" (when its members aren't robbing jewelry stores or going to prison), then struggles to get record-company attention, ascends to rock stardom with a string of hits in the 60's, and inevitably implodes. If you know anything about music, it's a story you've heard a hundred times before. And this iteration of the tale isn't even as compelling as your average episode of VH1's documentary series "Behind the Music." If "Jersey Boys" is to be believed, the original Four Seasons split because of some debt, an ill-considered pass at a band mate's girlfriend, and one guy just deciding to walk away. It's hardly the stuff of legend.

So let's be honest: almost nobody is attending "Jersey Boys" for the plot. You go because of the music, and what electrifying music it is. The Four Seasons were responsible for some of the sweetest sounds of the 60's and 70's, from giddy early hits "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," and "Walk Like a Man" to the somewhat darker and more complicated later tunes, like "Beggin,'" "Bye Bye Baby," and Valli's soaring solo hit, "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You." The show even reminded me of a few gems I'd forgotten about, like "Dawn (Go Away)" and "Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'Bout Me)." These are perfect songs, and clearly hit just the right nostalgic note for a majority of the audience.

A huge amount of credit for that goes to the cast, especially the four fantastic performers in the lead roles. Expectations must be high if you're filling in for the voice of Frankie Valli, and Joseph Leo Bwarie totally meets them. He doesn't sound exactly like Valli - a little more nasal, a little less plaintive - but he nails that signature falsetto, and leads the group with a cool, confident charm. The rest of the actors portraying the original band line-up are equally strong, both vocally and in stage presence, with Josh Franklin as songwriting prodigy Bob Gaudio, Steve Gouveia as the odd Nick Massi, and Erik Bates as troublemaking founder Tommy DeVito.

Of the supporting cast, only Jonathan Hadley as the group's flamboyant producer makes any kind of impact (and he's fantastic, stealing scenes left and right). Beyond that, I'm hard pressed to remember any of the other performances. I don't believe any of the replacement band members get so much as a line, and aside from Renee Marino as Valli's spitfire first wife, the women in the show are essentially beautifully outfitted window dressing.

Which brings me back to my main criticism of the show. Besides the original Four Seasons, "Jersey Boys" lacks any real character development, and the "journeys" the four main guys go through are underwhelming. The only character to get anything approximating an emotional arc is Valli, who struggles with personal and professional failures by the middle of the second act. But even the exploration of those issues is fairly truncated in order to get to the next song, and the second act essentially turns into a concert by a really good Four Seasons cover band.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. "Jersey Boys" is a crowd pleaser primarily because of that heavy focus on the music. It still boggles my mind that the show won the 2006 Tony for Best Musical (beating out "The Color Purple" and "The Drowsy Chaperone"; that must have been a bitter night on Broadway), but from a strictly entertainment point of view, it succeeds in what it sets out to do. The way the audience cheered during certain songs had me wondering if they realized that wasn't actually Frankie Valli up there on the stage. I suspect that, for them, it didn't matter. For two-plus hours they were transported to an earlier, happier time in their lives, and if that's what you're looking for, it's a satisfying way to spend a night out.

Jersey Boys

Through March 15

Rochester Broadway Theatre League

Auditorium Theatre, 875 E Main St.

$32-$127.50 | 232-1900, rbtl.org