Sinatra: The Musical Review – A Legend’s Successful Life But Never Under His Own Skin | stage

HeyBlue Eyes is back again: first performed in Birmingham three years ago and working in the workshop ever since, this lively Frank Sinatra musical has now arrived in the West End with big band energy. Its intriguing premise is the star’s nadir, those chaotic years of the late 1940s and early 1950s when it seemed as if an extraordinary talent might come to a tragic and wasted end.

We begin at the Paramount Theater, when our heart beats with everything going for him: screaming fans, a devoted spaghetti-cooking husband, and a movie about sailors with Gene Kelly that will deal with disturbing accusations of draft evasion. Up front, Joel Harper-Jackson mixes smooth vocal power with Sinatra’s signature swagger—the head bobbing, the corner-of-the-mouth smirk. Our hero’s weakness for women is played out as a charmingly comedic foil, with a bed-jumping rendition of “Come Fly With Me” featuring Lana Turner, Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich.

When Sinatra meets Ava Gardner in Palm Springs, he quickly gets her under his skin, and this is the beginning of the end for his marriage to Nancy (Phoebe Panaretos). But while Ana Villafañe captures Gardner’s incredible power, and there’s no shortage of emotion in the musical numbers, Joe DiPietro’s book never really raises the real buzz of this legendary case. This is a couple whose first date allegedly ended in a drunken shootout, but the febrile nature of their relationship is here limited to ceremoniously smashing whiskey glasses into a grate.

Sinatra’s producer daughter, Tina, who helped shape the story, wanted her father to be better understood. But the reluctance to embrace too much darkness lends a sense that things are happening to our hero. It’s at odds with the comeback story and stubbornness we’re told he inherited from his Italian mother — Gina Russell, who can steal a scene with just one line delivered over the phone.

We get some coloring of Sinatra’s progressive values, and the sense of anti-immigrant discrimination that prompted him, but the script often feels less three-dimensional than the video-enabled set design. Fortunately, Kathleen Marshall’s production, complete with a great ensemble and some delightful choreography, doesn’t skimp on the big hits — on opening night, you could hear the audience swooning.