Five years after Frank Sinatra’s death, old blue eyes is back on Broadway. Radio City Music Hall they’re in final rehearsals for Sinatra’s 13th opening performance. It’s a concert that could not have been possible without a marriage between new technology and decade’s old film.
FRANK SINATRA WAS the epitome of cool, the skinny singer who made women swoon and the leader of the rat pack. He spent 40 years on the charts and in the headlines and now, the chairman of the board is back, larger than life.
“It’s a strange thing to say but when I think about my father very often it’s in black and white,” says Tina Sinatra.
Frank’s youngest daughter Tina was thrilled by the discovery of unseen footage of her dad filmed during the single season he hosted a television show back in 1957.
“I didn’t know that the 35 millimeter existed until the staff sent in our archivists to go through all the stacks and it was found. We were shocked, delighted.”
After deteriorating in storage for 40 years, the film was painstakingly restored — pencil marks and scratches were erased, the original backgrounds were wiped out. What was left is now the centerpiece of a new stage show at Radio City Music Hall: “Sinatra His Voice His World His Way.”
In the show, Sinatra’s image is projected on 40-foot moveable panels. It’s accompanied by a live 40 piece orchestra as well as the world famous Rockettes. It’s the vision of Des McAnuff, a veteran film and Broadway producer.
Nobody has done this to put the projected performer up front and have the live performances in support of that. This is a brave new world in that way.
For Tina, the show is an important milestone.
“It was always something in the back of our minds that we would think about when the time was right.”
She adds, “We were being ripped off by every bad impersonator and low life producer trying to create their own shows which were all very unflattering and very… I was upset about it but I wasn’t going to rush into something.”
McAnuff: “Sinatra was the Marlon Brando of singers. He was singing about his own life and times.”
Tina: “The essence of the show is going to represent who dad was as a man and as a performer. You will see the foibles and the woes. We want people to leave the theater feeling like they have experienced a Frank Sinatra concert and may. He’s the coolest personality, the way his whole form and style just blows me away still.”