Sinatra: The Musical brims with hits but never gets under his skin

Ol' Blue Eyes returns to the stage: first mounted in Birmingham three years ago and workshopped since, this Frank Sinatra bio-musical has arrived in the West End with big-band energy. Its intriguing premise focuses on the star’s nadir in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the period when an extraordinary talent seemed at risk of squandering itself.

The show opens at the Paramount, when Sinatra appears to have everything — screaming fans, a devoted, spaghetti-cooking wife and a film with Gene Kelly that should counter accusations of draft-dodging. Joel Harper-Jackson pairs smooth vocal power with Sinatra’s signature swagger: the head wobble and that half-smile.

His womanising is treated as a comically charming quirk, culminating in a bed-hopping Come Fly With Me that riffs on Lana Turner, Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich. When Sinatra meets Ava Gardner in Palm Springs the affair marks the beginning of the end for his marriage to Nancy (Phoebe Panaretos).

frank sinatra, sinatra musical, west end, joel harper-jackson, phoebe panaretos, ava gardner, big-band, paramount, gene kelly, palm springs