‘Sinatra The Musical’ Revisits the Fame, Music and Struggles of Frank Sinatra

A new West End musical is bringing Frank Sinatra’s story, the soaring highs and devastating lows, to the London stage.

"Sinatra The Musical" began performances at the Aldwych Theatre on June 3, with press night on June 24. The show opens on New Year's Eve, 1942, as 27-year-old Sinatra steps onto the stage of New York’s Paramount Theatre for a career-defining performance.

As his career skyrockets, his personal life begins to unravel, centered on the souring of his marriage to Nancy and his affair with actress Ava Gardner.

The production features a book by two-time Tony Award winner Joe DiPietro (Memphis the Musical, What's New Pussycat?) and is directed and choreographed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall (Anything Goes, Top Hat).

Endorsed by the singer's own daughter, Tina Sinatra, the show features more than 20 of Sinatra's hits, including Come Fly With Me, That's Life and One for My Baby.

Joel Harper-Jackson stars as Sinatra, alongside Ana Villafañe as Ava Gardner and Phoebe Panaretos as Nancy Sinatra. Tina Sinatra handpicked Panaretos to play her mother.

Tina has spoken openly about the emotional experience of watching her parents' story unfold on stage.

"Dad would say, 'Myth is always better than truth. It's much ​more interesting.' This is truth, and I think it's very interesting," Tina said, according to Reuters, who also worked as a co-producer on the musical.

"It's the intimacy of mom and dad and Ava entering into that, their lives. It is what I ​knew as I matured as a child, and I had a lot to say about it. They just made a mess together, ‌the three of them.”

"It's intimate and a roller coaster all at one time. And the music, of course, just enhances it all. And that was the key, that was the real purpose, to put the music into a medium we'd never touched before,” she said.

“The whole experience is being so exposed to him and being so impressed by how it's being, how he's being performed by others and my mom and Ava.”

Tina also described the experience of watching the cast embody her family.

“It's like seeing your past that you didn't see cuz you were barely born, you know? I'm meeting them for the first time in a lot of ways, my parents,” Tina told This Morning.

She also praised the performances of Harper-Jackson, Villafañe and Panaretos, adding, “They're embodied by all this talented, these kids are amazing. And Eva and Phoebe Panarottis, I want to say, and our Joel Harper Jackson, they come at you virginal, and the next thing you know you're calling them mom. It's just because they have embodied them for me. I never saw that happen.”