Sinatra at the London Palladium

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Musical Concert Closed 16 September 2006

London Palladium Argyll Street, London

Frank Sinatra at The London Palladium
Ol' Blue Eyes is back... and larger than life!

A special theatrical event celebrating the life and career of Frank Sinatra. This live show explores the prime years of Frank Sinatra's music, film career and life through musical performance, gaint screens showing vintage footage of Frank in concert and dazzling visual effects.

Frank Sinatra at The London Palladium features a 24-piece live orchestra on stage along with a large company of dancers, plus special guests. But the centre-piece of this ground-breaking show is the use of the latest digital film and stage technology that lets Frank Sinatra actually duet with the live musicians on stage, and sing directly to the audience. His image will be projected on multiple moving screens and surfaces and magnified to 20 foot.

The all-swinging, all-dancing live spectacular!

"There are generations of people who keep saying, 'One of my main regrets in my life is that I never got to see him. I love him. I love his music'. Well, this is about as close as they are going to get." Nancy, Frank Sinatra's daughter.

"This show uses the wonders of technology to give us the man himself, digitally reconstituted. Several huge screens slide across or down, onto which are projected old film clips of Frank in performance, but so remastered and subtly coloured as to be images of real beauty. As Frank sings, the live band play and the cast dance in perfect synchronicity, directed with zest and flair by David Leveaux... This is technology in the service of entertainment, not vice versa, and it is an exhilarating moment... Until this evening, I had never really got the appeal of Sinatra... But Sinatra at The London Palladium was a revelation... it's satisfyingly loud and lively, big and brassy enough to make for a good night out." The Sunday Times

"The video technology is impressive" The London Evening Standard

"Sinatra at The London Palladium is staged by David Leveaux in collaboration with Sinatra's biographer Bill Zehme, a hi-tech design team and performers who are having a blast, with swish choreography by Stephen Mear and a thrilling big band. This is 10 times better than the clunking West End bio-musicals of the 1990s. Sinatra's story is told, essentially linearly... What's sassy is there's no ropey dramatic dialogue, just an impressionistic weave of cinematic montage, dance and snippets from interviews by way of a voiceover. All this keeps you busy, concealing the show's vacuous sketchy side." The Independent on Sunday

"The filmed Frank sings along to a live band, which really knows how to swing and gets maximum value from Nelson Riddle's peerless arrangements" The Daily Telegraph

"The big boast of Sinatra at The London Palladium is that it has nothing to do with impersonation but everything to do with creating the illusion of the real thing. Frank Sinatra is literally 'cut out' from film footage and then projected and magnified on the screens that appear from all angles... With a fabulous, live big band - twenty singers and dancers mark the passage of time in fantastic frocks and hairdos from the 40s when Frank started singing, through the fabulous 50s and into the swinging 60s." The Mail on Sunday

The producer of this show, James Sanna, said: "It all started with the Sinatra family being kind enough to let us go into their archives. We made an amazing discovery of material and the core of the show is a 35mm film Sinatra commissioned in the late Fifties. Frank paid for a 35mm camera to film him performing; he is singing virtually a cappella with only his piano player. We have used the latest in film and stage technologies to make those images really come to life. If you blink your eyes you will feel you are watching Sinatra actually performing. That is what we are setting out to achieve."

This unique show to brought to the London stage by the respected director David Leveaux, choreographer Stephen Mear and musical supervision by Gareth Valentine.