‘‘No, not songs, hits,’’ he said.

And that’s pretty much how it was for this fab four. Between 1962 and 1965 they had 11 number one hits.

Jersey Boys at the Theatre Royal tells the story of the band’s rags-to-riches-to wreckage rollercoaster ride.

Some might say in itself it is not an unusual scenario, but Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s fast-paced and funny book brings about a certain freshness.

This is a tight production (even though the night I went it started 12 minutes late). One scene moves very quickly into another and the dialogue is punchy.

The staging is minimal, yet effective. A backcloth illustrates New Jersey’s factory skyline, a gantry, chain-link fencing, benches, tables and chairs.

A video link showing the band’s appearance on the popular the Ed sullivan Show was a nice touch.

But more than anything this was about the music. Irish actor Bobby Fox did justice to Frankie Valli’s wonderful falsetto voice.

Fox, Scott Johnson, Stephen Mahy and Glaston Toft were note-perfect on such classics as Walk Like A Man, Dawn (Go Away), My Eyes Adored You, December, 1963 (Oh What A Night), Stay, Rag Doll and Who Loves You.

Audiences will find they warm to one of the characters. Either Frankie (the three and a half octave voice and warm personality); Tommy De Vitto (the lovable rogue, the founding member who gets the band into deep financial troubles); Toft (the bassist with the wonderful musical ears and grounding influence on the band) or Gaudio (a sheer musical genius — a true craftsman).

Musically there was only one low for me in this show. Vocally the Angels singing My Boyfriend’s Back was a bit thin.

A poignant moment of the show was Valli (Fox) singing Fallen Angel, a song about his daughter who died of a drug overdose.

A nice finish to the show was the Jersey Boys Orchestra doing an instrumental version of December, 1963 (Oh what A night). Instumentalists got the chance to do cameo spots.

An obvious indication of the show’s success were the number of people singing the songs as they left the theatre, albeit the falsettos were not quite on pitch.

Bookings: 1300 723 038.