Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons changed the face of American music in the 1960s. Their tight vocal harmonies led by Valli's soaring falsetto were layered over a mix of rock and Motown, turning the street-corner doo-wop genre from a bland past time to an international movement. Only the Beatles and the Beach Boys rivaled their success in the era and their string of consecutive hits were almost mind boggling: "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," "Rag Doll," "Let's Hang On," "Working My Way Back to You." The list goes on and on.

Along the way, the group went through a string of ups and downs: struggling to get noticed, the pitfalls of sudden fame, massive money mismanagement, substance abuse problems, family drama... it's the makings of every VH1 "Behind the Music" documentary ever produced.

It's an interesting story, I think, but one that is not fully explored in the hit musical "The Jersey Boys," playing at the Paris Las Vegas.

Audiences adore this show and it's easy to see why. It's a veritable walk down musical memory lane, packed full with almost every song the group ever did before, during, and after the peak of their fame. Combine great songs with an amazing cast that almost perfectly matches the original's energy and talent and you have the makings of a great revue.

But this is not a revue it's a full-on musical that attempts to tell the group's stories, both professional and personal. We see how they came together, how they fought to get noticed, and the inspiration for many of their hits. "Big Girls Don't Cry" came from a scene in a John Wayne movie, for instance. We see them getting married, getting divorced, fighting, making up, getting involved with the mob, breaking up, continuing on, recording music, performing music, dreaming up music, touring, fighting some more, and on it goes.

What we don't get, unfortunately, is any kind of true grasp of who these people were. Yes, we get that Tommy was the fast-talking, street wise hustler who essentially created the group. We understand that Frankie was a naive teenager with a talent he didn't know how to fully exploit. We see that Bob was the real genius behind the music, writing most of their hit songs. And we know that Nick was the relatively drama-free one. But we know all this through snippets of dialogue; brief, rushed scenes that seem mostly designed to set up the next song than to delve into an exploration of these characters and their motivations beyond fame and money. Everybody comes off as one-note caricatures instead of multi-layered human beings.

The only reason this is a problem is because in the second act, when the going gets tough as it always does in second acts, they seem to be expecting the audience to connect on some level to their struggles. When a family tragedy strikes Frankie, it is constructed as if it is supposed to be the emotional climax of the show. But the person at the heart of the tragedy is only glimpsed once for about 30 seconds and Frankie's relationship with that person comprises about two minutes of material throughout the entire two hour production.

What happens is heart-breaking but it doesn't actually break your heart because you don't know the players involved well enough to be that emotionally invested in what happens to them.

I'm spending a lot of time talking about this because this is musical theater, not just music. I think it's important to understand that while "The Jersey Boys" is a terrific night of musical entertainment it isn't a terrific piece of legitimate theater, which it clearly aspires to be.

One other word of caution: Jersey boys from the '50s and '60s, were not, as a general rule, genteel creatures. This is not a family friendly show from a language and content perspective.

But who cares, right? You're going for the music and that's where the show shines. The audience I saw the show with was mostly made up of people of an age that meant they probably grew up listening to these songs and their enthusiastic response rattled the rafters. I grew up about a decade behind The Four Seasons' zenith but even I know great music when I hear it. Heck, I still have "She-hare-hare-air-air-air-ree bay-yay-bee" stuck in my head. There are worse things.

If you're a fan of their music, or of music in general, and your primary goal is to walk away (like a man, perhaps) having had a toe-tapping good time then this is the show for you. If, however, you want more theater in your musical theater experience, this one is going to disappoint, I think. I usually want the latter and while I was disappointed, the sheer strength of the songs and how well they were performed are what wound up mattering the most.