Sinatra: The Musical dramatises the star’s career during a minor wobble in the early 1950s. After falling from grace, Sinatra stages a comeback and becomes an Oscar-winning film actor. Joe DiPietro’s script gives the impression that Sinatra’s world is ruled by wise, powerful and well-connected women. Billie Holiday teaches him how to sing with feeling: ‘Bend the notes at the end of the phrases.’ His mother explains the secret of a happy marriage: ‘One talks, the other doesn’t.’ When Sinatra punches and injures a photographer, his wife tries to restore his image by ordering him to play a priest in The Miracle of the Bells. Sinatra obeys. The film bombs so badly that his press agent, George, severs all contact with him. George wants to keep Sinatra on his books but he admits that his wife – that is George’s wife – won’t allow it. When Sinatra meets Ava Gardner she speaks to him like a janitor. ‘If you don’t bore me, I’ll take you for a test drive and see how good you are in the sack.’ They get married but Ava disregards her vows and spends most of the 1950s touring southern Europe, sleeping with bullfighters. Sinatra is desperate to play Private........

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