Sinatra the Musical - Birmingham Rep

Does he also feed the whole audience with five loaves and two fishes? 

Am revisiting it this week so will see if any changes

Matt Doyle has shared this article on IG which might explain why “My Way” isn’t included in the musical;

www.gq.com/story/my-way-is-the-worst

Any idea when the reviews embargo is for this? Realise they had their Press Night the same evening as Old Friends.

Sorry, I meant from the National papers. The only reviews I’ve seen have been local/blogger ones.

They could be keeping the papers away though in case it jeopardises a London run based on the posters above?

Looks like they’re, cleverly, keeping them away. I think National reviews would severely scupper the London run.

Sure, this is completely undemanding theatre, but sometimes that's what you're in the mood for, and tonight I was.

Just to sit back and wallow, taking in classics from the American Songbook, is divine. Conductor Mark Aspinall has an orchestra of sixteen, so this really is Big Band, and they sound fantastic.

Sinatra's rise to fame, mob connections and womanising are dealt with in a sanitised and a largely non-judgemental manner, which is par for the course with nearly all these true-life celebrity musicals, especially when the family are involved. That said, the tale told is engaging and zips along nicely, and the supporting cast acquit themselves well.

Matt Doyle as Frank is worth the admission price alone, but Phoebe Panaretos and Ana Villafañe as the first two wives provide excellent vocal competition, as does Ryesha Higgs in a delightful cameo as Billie Holiday (but oddly credited only as part of the Ensemble).

Staging (with slick and efficient scene changes) and choreography are first rate. Costumes, sound and lighting are effective.

For a show running at two and three-quarter hours, the time fair flew, and was warmly received with a generous ovation.

Four stars.

Act 1: 19:32-20:49
Act 2: 21:12-22:13

But then local paper review won’t give it the boost to transfer- they need national critics to see it

Finally got to see this on Saturday night. Got a reasonably priced front side ticket for £40. I'm no Sinatra expert but I thought I knew his career fairly well from him being a big band singer, going solo and into films then the Rat Pack and becoming a Vegas legend. I hadn't realised that he had a slump period at the end of the 1940's and was effectively living off his 2nd wife.

The mob links were briefly mentioned, maybe we would have heard more if it had gone up to the Vegas era. A lot of legendary names were shown in passing but apart from Ava Gardner none were really developed. Matt Doyle is amazing in the lead and whilst not a Sinatra lookalike has his manner and voice perfectly.

Ana Villafane has the seductiveness of Ava Gardner to a tee and Phoebe Panaretos as the long suffering first wife Nancy both provided excellent support. I also enjoyed Dawn Buckland as his straight talking mother and Vincent Riotta as the father who tended to agree with the mother just to have an easy life.

The show wasn't perfect but a lot better than I thought it might be. Probably about 85% full I'd guess. Could it transfer to the West End I'd not say so with much confidence. But it could be a good touring show around the major cities and if it built momentum could then go into London at least for a limited run.

I really enjoyed this, but I agree with much of what's been said above: great singing and slick staging with an absence of feeling and drama at the centre.

Around the centre, there's some affecting moments, principally everything Ana Villafane's Ava Gardner does, as well as a lovely moment from Vincent Riotta as Sinatra's dear old Dad.

Some spoilers follow. . .

This isn't a total hagiography, in that it does hint at Sinatra's flaws (faithlessness, neglecting his family, associating with the mafia), but it refuses to make actual drama out of those things, preferring to move along sharply.

Take the mafia bit, where Tommy Dorsey, who did a lot to make Sinatra's career take off, gets bullied out of his cut of Frank's earnings: we see it happen, but nothing to do with Sinatra's involvement, either before or after. The moment that Coppola showed in "The Godfather," where the Sinatra-esque character begs for a favour is not shown, nor is any guilty reaction to having the guy who helped build his career extorted. I mean, we got a fantastic "My Way," at the end of this show, as a singalong led by Matt Doyle, and that was so much fun, but damn, how much more poignant and dramatic would it have been if it was a haunted confession of rolling over his old friend? What if it was a confession of rolling over the mother of his children and his children as well?

Cos we do see a couple of fantastic scenes that pertain to him cheating on his wives, but mostly in Sinatra's absence. For example, it is a strong scene and song where Phoebe Panaretos's Nancy realises that her marriage is not for better but for worse, singing "Come Rain or Come Shine," but Doyle's Sinatra isn't present to take the brunt of it, so we lose the chance for character growth.

In fact, we almost never see Sinatra personally suffer, except when his career is threatened, and he has his most powerful song, "That's Life," at the end of the first half. But even then, when he picks up a gun as if he's contemplating suicide, it feels unearned and out of the blue, as he's been cheesily charming everyone with with a permagrin the entire time up until then. It's as if picking up the gun tells us he's suicidal, rather than we know he's suicidal and we're terrified he'll pick up the gun. Further, if he felt as bad about the mafia thing and/or the betrayal of his wife and children as he feels about not being able to greenlight a movie, which is a little self-absorbed, we might feel more for the character. Like BeingAlive said above, these are book problems.

There are no such book problems pertaining to Ana Villafane's Ava Gardner. She is introduced singing about what a fool she is to love him, which is just so smart, as it shows she has a self-critical and tragically poignant internal life right from the get-go. In every scene, she is given a subtext that wins us over, so even at her very worst moment, when she aborts his kid without telling him first, the subtext is the tragedy of a woman who wants to behave like a man being forced to behave like a woman. And goodness, Ana Villafane may not have that many songs and moments, but she nails every one. Aided by the book, her Gardner is instantly one of the best characters in the show.

Although Doyle, and his permagrin, probably more closely resembles Cliff Richard than Frank Sinatra, Doyle's singing is so on point, I overlooked his appearance. It's the book that lets him down, and it's the songs that lift him up, even as he lifts them up.

As Sinatra's quiet man Dad, Vincent Riotta is utterly winning, affably depicted barely ever saying anything, but when he does open his mouth, every word is glorious.

This musical has a superb cast and superb songs, but if you want an audience to care, the central character has to have a book that credits him with a credible internal life behind the toothy smile.

3 and a half stars for the slick staging, superb stars and swoony songs.

It's certainly possible I have higher standards than most - there has just been so much mediocrity in theatre these past few years that we (as a collective) seem to celebrate and thus we get more mediocrity, and I'm keen for that to change.

Ticket for sale for today's matinee in the noticeboard. I can't make it due to train cancellations thanks to flooding!