The Milwaukee Post

June 27, 2014 • Milwaukee County Post • 17 Post Staff MILWAUKEE — World-class beach vol- leyball is returning to Bradford Beach for the Association of Volleyball Professionals Milwaukee Open that runs from July 3 through July 6. AVP is the pre- miere professional beach volleyball tour in the U.S., and Milwaukee is one of only seven stops on its tour. It's the first time the tour has come to Milwaukee since 1998. Athletes competing include Olympic gold medalists Kerri Walsh Jennings (2004, 2008, 2012), Todd Rogers (2008) and Phil Dalhausser (2008); Olympic silver medalists April Ross (2012) and Jen Kessy (2012); two-time Olympians Jake Gibb (2008, 2012) and Sean Rosenthal (2008, 2012); and Olympian Nicole Branagh (2008). The tour also features up-and-coming stars Casey Patterson, Theo Brunner, Summer Ross, Emily Day and 2013 AVP rookies of the year Tri Bour ne and Lane Carico. "We are honored and humbled to host the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour at Bradford Beach," said local volleyball pro- moter Todd Gawronski of G1, Inc. "We are excited to showcase the world's best beach volleyball teams and provide a great week- end of sports and entertainment to those who will be visiting Milwaukee." The event offers free general admission to go with music, food and interactive activities. Limited VIP seating is available for a fee. Seating is on a first-come, first- served basis in the stadium court, as well as seating surrounding the three outer courts. VIP tickets for Club AVP offer access to a shaded hospitality lounge, light snacks and beverage, a cash bar, access to player meet-and-greets and after parties, and a VIP gift bag. "The 2014 AVP schedule is our strongest and most exciting to date," AVP Managing Partner Donald Sun said. "The continued growth of the tour is a testa- ment to the strength of our sport. We're also thrilled to be adding Milwaukee as a tour stop for the first time in many years. We know that Milwaukee has a large and vibrant base of people who are passionate about volleyball, and we're looking for- ward to bringing the excitement of an AVP tournament to them." AVP pro beach volleyball returns to Milwaukee Olympic stars to compete at Bradford Beach over Fourth of July Submitted photos Top photo: Kerri Walsh Jennings dives in the sand to dig the volleyball out during a recent match. Jennings is a three-time Olympic gold medalist. Right: Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson are also scheduled to compete in the AVP Milwaukee Open. At a glance To volunteer for this event, email volunteer@avp.com. For VIP tickets or more information, visit www.avp.com. Question of the week This week's question Do you think Wisconsin should adopt sobriety checkpoints with alarming DUI cases in the state? Editor's note: When responding to the Question of the Week, please include your full name with spelling, phone number and city where you live. Phone numbers will not be published. Anonymous responses are no longer accepted by the publication. Call 744-6370, Ext. 15 and leave a brief answer. Readers may also send an email with a brief answer to: dbutler@conleynet.com. By Tom Jozwik Special to The Post It probably comes down to this: If you enjoy the music of the Four Seasons (and literally millions do), you're likely to enjoy "Jersey Boys," the Clint Eastwood-directed film version of the hit Broadway musical about the group. What's not to like, after all, about listen- ing to very reasonable facsimiles of "Sherry," "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)," "Walk Like a Man," "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and other selections from the canon of Frankie Valli and company? The movie has Valli (John Lloyd Young, who won a Tony for playing the role on Broadway) and the rest of the Seasons singing their songs in various settings. Young croons "My Eyes Adored You" as a lullaby to his daughter and the boys belt out "Dawn" at the Ohio State Fair. Other ven- ues include night clubs, sound studios, and "The Ed Sullivan Show," in connection with which the dour host is seen first on a TV screen (as is Eastwood, in a 50-year-old clip from his "Rawhide" series), then from behind in the guise of a shuffling actor. An unusual but welcome device in "Jersey Boys" is the use of not just one nar- rator but four. Each member of the famed band — played by Vincent Piazza, Erich Bergen and Michael Lomenda, in addition to Young — breaks the dramatic fourth wall to provide background information. The gambit would've been even better had each character put a more definite personal spin on things, which the several narrators in "Citizen Kane" did. As Piazza, playing orig- inal Jersey Boy Tommy DeVito, puts it in what has become the film's tagline, "Everybody remembers it how they need to." "Jersey Boys" (as you might've guessed, given its stage musical basis) is meant to be more a showcase for Four Seasons songs, truncated or in their entirety, than a painstaking biopic. Thus main character Valli's growing-up years, marital and famil- ial woes and unwillingness for the longest time to move out of his modest Newark neighborhood because of an irrational fear his fame and fortune would be fleeting are painted with broad strokes — condensed into representative scenes or referred to offhandedly, but hardly spelled out. If "Jersey Boys" is Frankie Valli's pic- ture (and, by extension, John Lloyd Young's), the best acting job is Christopher Walken's as non-singing, large-living gang- ster Gyp DeCarlo, who's as sentimental as he is practical. Captivated early on by Valli and his "gift from God" pipes, Walken's wiseguy befriends Valli's bandmates also and smooths out Seasons' troubles as the years go by. Walken's turn in front of the camera could certainly be remembered when Golden Globe and Oscar nominees are next selected. As for Young, he's in the movie more for his singing than his acting (and he is quite a singer). Young seems too old to play Frankie the teenager, too young to portray Valli the middle-ager. Rating: 3 stars 'Jersey Boys' offers great music to listen to The movie has four narrators, not just one

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