'Jersey Boys' sets box-office record at Forrest

Jersey Boys, which will end its five-week run at the Forrest Theatre on Saturday, set records when the national tour was here last winter - and now it's setting new ones. The musical, still playing 90 miles away on Broadway, has done very well since it crossed over the home of the Jersey boys and into Pennsylvania, with a record gross for the Forrest of $1,617,700 for a week of eight performances that ended Jan. 8.

The Tony-winning musical about the singing group the Four Seasons with Frankie Valli began here Dec. 6 with an all-new national tour cast. During its run, the musical also set a new box-office record at the Forrest for a nine-performance week, the week that ended Jan. 1, with a gross of $1,825,246.

There are two ways of looking at the record. The Forrest - owned by the Shubert Organization, which is presenting Jersey Boys here along with the Kimmel Center - is dark most of the year. So there's not much theater, at current ticket pricing, happening there and Jersey Boys has no competition when it comes to setting records. The other perspective is that of press agents and producers - a record is a record.

In any case, a gross of $1.8 million a week is enviable even on Broadway, where last week only The Lion King and Wicked matched it.