Universal Music Group Theatrical and Frank Sinatra Enterprises are presenting an invitation-only reading of Sinatra The Musical November 21 at the Apollo Theatre.
The reading, directed by Tony winner Kathleen Marshall, features Tony winner Matt Doyle as Frank Sinatra, Ana Villafañe as Ava Gardner, Phoebe Panaretos as Nancy Sinatra, Caroline Duffy Concannon as Little Nancy, Toni Di Buono as Dolly Sinatra, Mark Lotito as Marty Sinatra, and Brad Oscar as George Evans with David Abeles, Clyde Alves, Amber Ardolino, E. Clayton Cornelious, Stephen DeRosa, Donna English, Matthew Griffin, Nathan Lucrezio, Katerina McCrimmon, Morgan McGhee, Angel Reda, and Maya Lynn Sistruck.
Check out photos from rehearsals of the reading—featuring Doyle, Villafañe, Tina Sinatra, and more—in the gallery below.
Phoebe Panaretos and Ana Villafañe
Phoebe Panaretos, Ana Villafañe, and Matt Doyle
Phoebe Panaretos, Ana Villafañe, Tina Sinatra, and Matt Doyle
Ana Villafañe and Matt Doyle
Joe DiPietro, Matt Doyle, Ana Villafañe, and Kathleen Marshall
Matt Doyle, Tina Sinatra, and Ana Villafañe
With a book by Tony winner Joe DiPietro, Sinatra The Musical is set on New Year's Eve 1942 as a 27-year-old Italian-American singer is about to step onto the stage of New York's Paramount Theatre. As Sinatra's career skyrockets, he struggles with balancing the love of his wife, Nancy, against the demands and temptations of his career. When he begins an affair with Ava Gardner, his records stop selling and the press turns against him, but one of the greatest comebacks in showbiz will follow.
Marshall also directed the world premiere of Sinatra The Musical at Birmingham Rep in 2023. Doyle and Villafañe starred.
The creative team also includes set designer Peter McKintosh, costume designer Jon Morrell, musical supervisor Gareth Valentine, orchestrators Larry Blank and John Clayton, arrangers Ian Eisendrath and Gareth Valentine, dance arranger David Chase, music director Mark Aspinall, lighting designer Tim Mitchell, sound designer Paul Groothuis, video designer Akhila Krishna for Circadian Design LTD, and wigs, hair, and makeup designer Cambell Young with casting by David Grindod for Grindod Burton Casting and U.S. casting by Jim Carnahan and Jason Thinger. Lisa Iacucci is the production stage manager, and Hudson Theatrical Associates' Neil Mazzella is the U.S. technical director.
An American icon, both as a singer and, later, as a movie actor, Sinatra never performed on Broadway, but starred in Hollywood film adaptations of four classic musicals: Guys and Dolls, On the Town, Pal Joey, and Can-Can. He appeared in many non-Broadway musicals as well, including Anchors Aweigh, Reveille With Beverly, and Robin and the Seven Hoods. Among non-musicals, Sinatra starred in the film of Neil Simon's first Broadway play, Come Blow Your Horn. His late-career hit "New York, New York" was written for a film of the same name (a stage adaptation of the film recently played Broadway) by the Chicago and Cabaret team of John Kander and Fred Ebb.
During the time in the 1940s-1960s when show tunes and Top 40 were virtually identical, Sinatra recorded dozens of them, some several times. Cole Porter songs were a favorite, but he returned again and again to the works of Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, and Cy Coleman, among many others.
Even after rock pushed showtunes out of the Top 40, Sinatra continued to record them, including the Stephen Sondheim classic "Send in the Clowns."
Sinatra The Musical is executive-produced by Scott Landis and Mark Shacket at Foresight Theatrical serves as the general manager.
