Teams of archaeologists could labour for decades without unearthing the point of this show. Lavishly mounted but lamely written and characterised, it imperfectly hammers hits from Frank Sinatra’s back catalogue into a misconceived triumph-over-adversity narrative that covers nine years of his life. Why? For whom?
It goes from the “swoonatra” crooning era with Benny Goodman’s band in 1945 to his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing “upstart Guinea” Maggio in From Here to Eternity in 1954. In between, his wife and kids are neglected in pursuit of his singing and screen careers and his priapic desires. (The dialogue is full of “Why, Lana Turner/Marlene Dietrich/Ava Gardner, fancy meeting you here” stuff.) His reputation falls into the toilet until revived by that Academy Award and a team-up with Nelson Riddle which resulted in - we are told as an afterthought - the invention of the concept album.
