When the touring musical "Jersey Boys" makes its much-anticipated return to San Diego next week, half of the "Joisey" boys will be back on home turf. That's because two of the four actors starring in the bio-musical as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons grew up not in the Garden State, but in North County.

Deven May, who plays shady band founder Tommy DeVito in the La Jolla Playhouse-born musical, spent his teen years in Vista, honed his chops at the Moonlight Amphitheatre and graduated from Rancho Buena Vista High School. And Steve Gouveia, who plays the quiet, neat-obsessed Nick Massi, was born in San Diego, raised in Ramona's Highland Valley, graduated from Poway High and is a veteran of the local music and theater scene.

Returning to their hometown, where their families still live (in Vista and Rancho Bernardo, respectively), is a thrill for the two actors, they said, but it's even more fun to be bringing the hottest musical tour in the country back to the town where it all started.

" 'Jersey Boys' has its own brand of insanity. It brings the audience to its feet every night," May said, in a phone interview from a tour stop in Tempe, Ariz. "It's a wonderful story that hadn't been told about four guys from New Jersey who made it on pure determination, talent and time."

The Jersey Boys saga

The musical -- which premiered three years ago this month at La Jolla Playhouse before heading to Broadway and winning the Tony Award as Best Musical in 2006 -- opened its U.S. tour with extended runs in San Francisco and L.A., and returns to San Diego after a three-week stop in Arizona. Since it opened in New York's August Wilson Theatre in November 2005, "Jersey Boys" has sold $1.1 billion in tickets, been seen by nearly 1 million people and remains, after two years, Broadway's top-selling show (in terms of capacity and ticket prices), according to industry figures.

"Jersey Boys" features a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, a score of the Four Seasons greatest hits -- "Sherry," "Walk Like a Man," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Candy Girl," "Ain't That a Shame," "Rag Doll," etc. -- and direction by former Playhouse artistic director Des McAnuff.

The journey of "Jersey Boys" to the stage began in 2002 when Brickman (co-writer of "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan" with Woody Allen) and Elice (whose theatrical writing credits include the revue "Bad Times Are Just Around the Corner" and the thriller "Double Double") were invited to lunch by Valli and fellow Four Seasons member Bob Gaudio (the band's principal songwriter). Valli and Gaudio envisioned using their song catalog as the basis for a "Mamma Mia"-style jukebox musical (which combined ABBA's music with a fictional plot), but the more Brickman and Elice learned about the Four Seasons, the more they wanted to tell the true story of the band.

"Here was this great story of a bunch of blue-collar guys growing up in a tough New Jersey Italian, Roman Catholic neighborhood with the dream of one day getting out," Elice said, at the Playhouse in 2004. "They could see the 'Emerald City' of New York peering up at them from across the Hudson, and they chose music as the path to get them there."

The Four Seasons had a long and rough road to fame. In the 1950s, Valli (born Francis Castelluccio) and guitarist Tommy DeVito knocked around in several unsuccessful combos, whose members were frequently "in and out of prison for things like money laundering, breaking and entering and other crimes," McAnuff recalled.

Then in 1959, Valli met Gaudio, a pianist and songwriter. "Up to that point, Bob was a songwriter with no particular voice and Frankie was the voice that nobody was writing for," Elice said. "When they finally found each other, it was like a nuclear reaction."

With the addition of bassist Nick Massi and a name change (borrowed from the Four Seasons bowling alley in Union, N.J.), by 1962, the group had a No. 1 hit, "Sherry," highlighted by Valli's signature falsetto vocals. The band went on to sell more than 100 million records and earn a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The original lineup splintered in the late '60s, and Massi died of cancer in 2000, but the other three members remain friends, and Valli still tours with a new incarnation of the Four Seasons.

Brickman said some artistic license was taken in adapting the Four Seasons story -- which is told, appropriately, in four seasonal acts -- but the basic elements were always there from the beginning. "You go to a movie sometimes and you see the words 'based on a true story,' but I never saw one that says 'based on a good story.' This was both."

May's long climb

May, 36, has a lead role in the nation's hottest musical tour, but it was a long climb to the top for this Whittier-born actor, who was 11 when he moved to Vista in 1984. He describes his family's relocation to North County from "behind the Orange curtain" as life-changing. May went from being a chubby outcast to a slimmed-down surfer who starred in every school musical at Vista and RBV high schools and spent all his summers helping his father build their family home on Castlegate Lane ("I love it. It's the home I'll retire to someday").

He discovered the magic of theater at age 8, when he saw his older brother transformed into an old man in a school play. "I turned to my mom and said 'I want to do that.' "

When the family couldn't afford to rent a trombone for his high school music lessons, May took up choir and discovered that he could sing. At 14, he made his Moonlight debut as the preacher in a youth production of "Tom Sawyer." He remembers forgetting his lines at one performance and stammering for 30 seconds before he recovered.

After graduating from RBV in 1989, May went to work at the Welk Resort Theatre, working backstage on the crew and performing in the ensemble. His stay in college at Southern Utah University was brief, because he felt he'd learn more onstage than in a classroom. Over the next few years he moved frequently, doing theme park shows at Disneyland and Universal Studios (he had a long stint as Barney Rubble in a "Flintstones" show and as a singing-dancing cast member of the "Beetlejuice Rockin' Graveyard" revue), filming a children's television pilot for Nickelodeon in Florida, making direct-to-video children's films, and doing musical theater all over Southern California.

His big break came in 1997, when he played the title role in the L.A. premiere of "Bat Boy: The Musical," based on the fictional vampire boy from the Weekly World News tabloid. The show earned him a 1998 Ovation Award as Best Lead Actor in a Musical, and it would consume his life for much of the next four years.

"I poured my heart and soul into that show because I really identified with the character. It was something that stirred up my passion," May said. "I got picked on a lot as a kid because I was a very chubby, big fat kid in school and I could relate to being the outcast."

Although "Bat Boy's" subsequent New York run was cut short by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the musical played for a year in London (May logged more than 800 performances in total), and since then, it has been produced more than 1,000 times at high schools around the world. "I get e-mails all the time from boys wanting advice on how to play Bat Boy. It's an honor to have this kind of following."

When May auditioned for "Jersey Boys" in mid-2006, he got advice from one of the musical's original castmates -- part-time Valley Center resident Christian Hoff, who grew up in La Jolla and won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Tommy DeVito. "He laid it out for me," May said. "He said 'Just be real. Don't be a musical theater actor.' "

Casting agents wanted May for the role of Frankie Valli, but he preferred the role of Tommy. It was a meatier, edgier part, and it required far less wear and tear on the voice.

"I knew if I played Tommy, I didn't have to go to bed early and live like a nun. I could go out and have a drink. I lived like that for four years with 'Bat Boy,' and I didn't want to cloister myself any more to protect my voice," said May, who perfected DeVito's Jersey accent by listening to 40-year-old tapes of the band on TV's "Mike Douglas Show."

Since joining the tour, May said he's been enjoying the long tour stops and the crowd reactions. He talks frequently by phone with DeVito, who comes to each opening night and has given May his unconditional stamp of approval.

"I was onstage taking my bows and here he comes, this big bull of a man, and he puts his arm around my neck in a headlock and says 'I'm so f--ing proud of you.' It was very emotional for me. It had been an intense process and those were big shoes to fill, but when he gave me his New Jersey blessing, it was wonderfully devastating."

May's one-year commitment to "Jersey Boys" is up in December. He's not sure whether he'll stay on the tour, settle into a regional "Jersey Boys" production or move on. When he's not performing, May spends time with his girlfriend of "more than one year, less than two," Nashville-based country singer/songwriter Sherrie Austin; does professional photography and graphic design; plays guitar; travels (he's just back from a scuba-diving trip in Mexico); and is developing an animated series for television with his business partner, Doug Crawford.

"It's been a long road," he said, "but I'm in a great spot right now, and this is a great show to be in."

Gouveia's 'Jersey' ride

Some might call the meteoric rise of "Jersey Boys" a lucky break, but nobody feels luckier than Steve Gouveia, the 1987 Poway High grad who turned a slot in the original La Jolla production's onstage band into a two-year ride on Broadway, and now a starring role in the show's national tour. It's a cinderella story that even Gouveia calls "absurd."

Gouveia, 38 was "just a musician around town" when McAnuff called him and invited him to play guitar and bass in the musical's La Jolla Playhouse premiere in 2004. He'd met McAnuff in 2001 when the director was looking for musicians for the Playhouse's "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid" and they'd become good friends. A onetime rock musician, McAnuff had formed a ragtag group, the Red Dirt Band, that included Gouveia, brothers Ken and Kevin Dow and several others, to perform at various La Jolla Playhouse charity functions and musicals. "Jersey Boys" was just another gig the Red Dirt Band was booked to play.

"We had no idea it would take off the way it did," Gouveia said, "but they wrote a great script that was so far beyond anybody's expectations."

When the musical transferred to Broadway, the Red Dirt Band went with it, and eventually Gouveia -- who had a theater degree from UC Santa Barbara and a resume that included lengthy runs in "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story" in San Diego, Chicago and Calgary -- was soon understudying the role of guitarist/bassist Nick Massi (played by Robert Spencer).

"I got lucky," Gouveia said. "I found a Broadway show where the third part of my triple-threat didn't have to be dancing. I played guitar and bass all my life, so there wasn't anything I had to think about up there onstage other than just doing a great show."

After filling in for Spencer several times on Broadway, Gouveia was cast as Massi in the Chicago production of "Jersey Boys" and then joined the national tour in San Francisco. Massi led a quiet life and died before "Jersey Boys" began, so not much is known about him, Gouveia said.

"He was only with the group a short time, and in interviews I read everyone else in the band thought he was strange, weird and mysterious, which is the cliche for any bass player," Gouveia joked. "Massi was always impeccably dressed and he'd pick out the group's costumes. He never said anything about the clothes, but they'd show up at appearances and he'd be wearing one of the suits he'd picked out for them and they'd just say 'I guess this is what we're wearing.' "

Having been with "Jersey Boys" since its inception (more than 800 performances), Gouveia admits that it takes focus and energy to stay fresh and inspired.

"It's still fun but you get tired of it sometimes," he said. "Still, this is the biggest show out there right now and it would be foolish to leave it before I am completely over it. This is my first tour and I'm having a great time. The people in New York doing the same thing every night are clocking in, but I can bring it to a new city every couple of weeks. It's a great life to have."

Gouveia is committed to the tour through April and then he's not sure what path he'll take next. One thing he does know is that there's not another job with the same kind of rewards.

"It's like there's 3,000 people who applaud me every night when I go home from work," he said. "People are so happy when they see this thing. It makes people so happy, and that makes me happy."

"Jersey Boys"

When: Preview performance, 7 p.m. Oct. 17; Opens Oct. 18 and runs through Nov. 11; showtimes, 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 7 p.m. Wednesdays; 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 1 and 6 p.m. Sundays

Where: San Diego Civic Theatre, Third Avenue at B Street, San Diego

Tickets: $19-$127

Info: (888) 937-8995

Web: www.broadwaysd.com