Sinatra: The Man and His Music at the London Palladium
Posted on 12 August 2015
I haven't even passed the age of twenty yet so to say that Sinatra was not the main music legend of my lifetime would be an understatement. Nonetheless, I am familiar with a lot of his music through compilation albums, family members' interests and television and things like that but even though I knew all of this, I didn't have a clue about the man himself whatseoever. My grandma on the other hand has been a big Sinatra fan ever since he rose to fame when she was a teenager and I decided to take her along to the show with me to get a review of Sinatra: The Man And His Music at the London Palladium from both a new pair of eyes and a loyal fan's perspective.
From my perspective, Sinatra: The Man And His Music was surprisingly enjoyable considering I didn't have a clue what was going to happen before the curtain rose. The show is presented using a mix of live music (performed by a fantastic live orchestra that sit on a platform on the stage) and special videos and multimedia. This is used to carry the story of Sinatra's life inbetween the presentation of the songs and because multimedia is being used, the idea is that Sinatra is telling his life story himself: this is done by using different clips of him explaining events in his life in interviews and the audio is used over pictures and videos as well.
When songs from Sinatra's catalogue are performed in the show, the live orchestra plays the music whilst a vocal recording of Frank himself sings along. On the stage, a full scale dance is performed by a group of 40 dancers in elaborate costumes to bring the song to life in a true musical theatre style. I think it was this that grasped my attention the most; it was so nice to see these wonderful songs brought to life in such a theatrical way from both musical and dance perspectives; though I didn't feel totally engrossed throughout the show, purely because I'm not a Sinatra fan to be quite honest, I still found things that made me feel excited and to learn the story behind the man was new and interesting to me.
My Grandma felt similary about the dance and told me this: "Being a part of the older generation who got to love Sinatra when he was very high profile, it's fantastic to hear his wonderful music once again in such a theatrical setting. The dance was probably my favourite aspect; it really enchanced the musical performances for me". She also asks me to remind people of how nostalgic she found the show overall, but that the show was a bit too loud for her so sitting further back wouldn't be a trouble for you, especially since she thinks that we were a bit too close to take in the full effect of the show (we sat in the third row of the stalls).
Overall, it's safe to say that if you're a fan of Sinatra then this show is a good trip down memory lane. And even if you're not a fan of Sinatra? You're going to leave the theatre feeling inspired by an insight into the life of the legend. Get your Sinatra: The Man and His Music tickets and tweet me @shaunycat telling me your thoughts on the show!
