Home Page Skip Navigation
  • Venues West - Venues West
  • Conference Bristol - Conference Bristol Microsite
  • Harbourside - Harbourside

Home / Latest News / 2008 / 4 / 24 /

Sinatra at the Bristol Hippodrome

 

Sinatra at the Bristol HippodromeAfter a record breaking run at the London Palladium, 'Sinatra' embarks on a tour of the UK. This show marks legendary performer Frank Sinatra's latest, greatest and most ambitious comeback. At the heart of it is Sinatra himself, captured at the peak of his career, singing his greatest hit songs direct to the audience in ultra-rare and some never-before seen footage. Ground-breaking creative use of cutting-edge technology puts him centre stage, larger than life on multiple moving screens, and lets him perform with a brilliant company of dancers and singers, supported by a live orchestra of the best musicians - together performing some of the greatest music ever recorded.



This stage spectacular is an experience unlike anything you have seen before in the theatre. Award-winning director David Leveaux takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride through the extraordinary life, stunning music and turbulent times of the entertainer whose career dominated the twentieth century, and who was arguably the world's greatest popular entertainer - ever.


The concept was originally developed in a show that was a sell-out success at Radio City Music Hall. The producers brought together a brand new creative team, headed by Leveaux with choreographer Stephen Mear and musical supervisor Gareth Valentine for the hugely successful London Palladium production.


The show has the support of the Sinatra family, who have given the producers full access to their private archive material and home movies. A significant amount of the material was filmed on 35 mm film for Frank himself when he was in his early forties, at the peak of his career in the late 1950s. It has now been through an intensive cleaning and editing process, to produce images of extraordinary sharpness and clarity and a top quality 35mm sound track of Frank's voice in his prime. This is the first time the Sinatra family have allowed some of this material to be seen and this is the first ever live stage production to use it to create a Sinatra experience.


David Leveaux is one of Britain's most respected directors. His work encompasses Broadway productions of iconic American musicals including "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Nine" (with Antonio Banderas) to comedies such as Tom Stoppard's "Jumpers" (Tony Award nomination) and "The Real Thing", starring Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle (Donmar, Albery and Broadway where it won 3 Tony Awards including Best Revival), and Greek tragedy - "Electra", starring Zoe Wanamaker (Donmar and Broadway). He most recently directed Jessica Lange in "The Glass Menagerie" and Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner in "Cyrano" on Broadway.



Choreography is by Stephen Mear whose recent West End credits include the Olivier Award-winning co-choreography of "Mary Poppins", "Acorn Antiques", "On the Town" and the National Theatre's production of "Anything Goes" which transferred to a sell out season at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. He is currently working on Disney's "The Little Mermaid" for Broadway.



The Musical Supervisor is Gareth Valentine, whose work helped to create the hit shows of "Anything Goes", "Acorn Antiques", and the London production of "Chicago" and who starred in the Channel 4 TV series "Musicality". He is currently working on Trevor Nunn's new production of "Gone With the Wind".
Set design is by Tom Pye, whose credits include collaborations with Leveaux on "Cyrano", "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Glass Menagerie" on Broadway. Other credits include "Medea" for West End and Broadway and Art Direction for the film "Richard II", both directed by Deborah Warner.



The multimedia design is conceived by Leo Warner for Fifty-Nine Ltd, lighting is by Patrick Woodroffe and sound is by Terry Jardine and Nick Lidster for Autograph.


Sinatra's first ever performances in Europe were an absolute sell-out at the London Palladium in the summer of 1950 and he came back to Britain many times, including a return to the Palladium in November 1975. His last appearance in the UK was at the Royal Albert Hall from 26-31 May 1992.
"Sinatra" is presented by 3A Entertainment in association with Running Subway, Act Productions, with Karl Sydow in association with Sinatra Enterprises.

 

Tuesday 13th - Sunday 18th May

 

Tues-Sat at 8.00 pm
Sat & Sun at 2.30 pm
Tickets: £26.00 - £36.00
Concessions available