By Eyal Solomon, Theater Pizzazz Editor/Publisher…
Scott Siegel’s homage to Ole’ Blue Eyes pays loving respect to Sinatra’s multi-faceted life, music and artistry
How do you curate a Sinatra night when the man logged 209 Billboard Top 100 hits, not to mention the deep cuts, the concept albums, the saloon songs, the heartbreak anthems? More daunting, which Sinatra do you choose? The swaggering Vegas kingpin? The Hoboken kid with something to prove? The poet of the wee small hours?
That is where Scott Siegel comes in. With nearly 100 Sinatra concerts under his belt, many staged at 54 Below, Siegel knows how to shape an arc. He understands which standards still ignite a room, which selections make audiences blink in surprise, and which voice should carry each torch.
The format, familiar to fans of his long-running “Best of Broadway” series, is part cabaret and part master class. Each number is preceded by an introduction of the performer, followed by the song’s origin story and a handful of irresistible tidbits – who knew about the Japanese album cover that read “I’ve Got You Under My Sink,” or Sinatra’s heartbreak after his divorce from Nancy that fueled the aching vulnerability of “I’m a Fool to Want You”? These stories are not filler. They deepen the experience. You feel the deliberateness of every choice.
It’s the performers, of course, that made the evening. Each and every one of them was able to give their songs (each performer sang two or three over the course of the evening) a unique personality. No one crooned in borrowed phrasing or leaned into caricature. Instead, each performer bent the material toward their own artistic center, and somehow the result still feels entirely Sinatra. Jenny Lee Stern brought over-the-top wackiness and Anaïs Reno glided through her selections with effortless cool. Willie Demyan inhabited “One for My Baby” with lived-in ache, as if last call has already come and gone. Jared Goodwin slipped under our skin with easy charm and Kylie Heyman soared.
Michael Winther, perhaps the embodiment of Sinatra for the night, closed the night with a “My Way” that resists bombast and somehow sounds more believable.
Isaac Harlan did an exquisite job as music director and accompanist.
Get updates about “Frank Sinatra: The Concert!” series at 54 Below, as well as Scott Siegel’s other productions, at https://54below.org/artists/scott-siegel/
Photos: Eyal Solomon
