Sinatra The Musical
On the hottest day of the summer, the company of Sinatra had their work cut out to keep their cool and deliver such a fast flowing and exceptionally smooth flowing musical, but they did it seemingly without breaking a sweat!
From the start the simple gauze is filled with projections, smoothly transporting us to the heart of Manhattan. This lifts, to reveal an impressive 17-piece on-stage band, something we rarely see in the West End in 2026. The arrangements of orchestrator extraordinaire Larry Black, transport us into the late 1930-early 1940’s. The band looks and sounds powerful and almost overwhelms Joel Harper-Jackson (who plays Frank Sinatra). Almost, because Joel is soon to show us his vocal dexterity will soar above and through the production.
As the whole band slides back on its rostra – the stage is set for us to enter the roller coaster life of Sinatra. As we see him mix with all things showbiz it soon becomes clear, this certainly is a warts-and-all production. Yes, he’s a great singer, and yes he knows what he wants. But at the same time he is depicted as a man who would sleep with anyone in a skirt - and he does that quite openly in front of the wife and family. This is one of the challenges of the whole show. The writer, Jo DiPietra does his best to give us the warm side of Francis Sinatra – but personally I find the character difficult to like, or care about!
The story moves rapidly as does the scene changes in this production. But everything about these changes has a touch of class – the smoothness of the era seems to be echo in the well-dressed sets and slick transition.
Of course, you don’t go to the theatre merely to see smooth scene changes and impressive on-stage bands – however good they are. At the heart of the show is the music of Sinatra – some 28 songs from his repertoire of over 300 possibilities. Many are classics and songs we will have heard from yester-year. They are performed well – but inevitably, I guess are somewhat “samey” for a Musical Theatre Production, which risks it feeling a little boring!
With all I have said about the lack of empathy for the character Sinatra – Joel Harper-Jackson plays his part with a charm and a vocal purity. You want to like him – even if the character he is plays behaves like an arrogant dog on heat! For me, this show belongs to the women. Set, as it is, in an era where the men believed they were in charge. There are numerous nods to who really wear the pants in this production. Powerful arrangements of Sinatra’s songs, cleverly revoiced for the women of the show bring some of the best musical theatre highlights of this piece.
A diamond in the production is Jenna Russell who plays Dolly Sinatra (Frank’s Mum). She employs all her well-honed stage skills to portray an American/Italian matriarch. She plays this comic role for all the laughs she can get – which always changes the tempo of any scene, she is in, for the better.
The whole production feels like a modern take on a classic musical such as Oklahoma (great songs and quite a lot of narrative – if little plot) blended with the juke box musicals of the past 30 years (shoe-horned songs and a nod to the audience that we all understand what is happening).
Sinatra certain brings the smooth into the West End but whether this musical will fly anyone to the moon – I doubt it!
This show was reviewed on Wednesday 24th June 2026 at the Aldwych Theatre, London where it runs until the 10th April 2027. Tickets available here: Sinatra The Musical | Aldwych Theatre, London | June 2026
Review written by Paul Wood
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Photo credit : Brinkhoff-Moegenburg
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