The Papakura Theatre Company has configured the venue as a club with a dozen tables. Stage left is set up for a large jazz band ensemble with three iconic Fifties-style Shure microphones up front. Stage left has a modest home lounge, vaguely art deco furniture and a typical home entertainment centre.
Written by New Zealand playwright April Phillips. A debut show for director Barb Hieatt, who has been a theatre performer and in management for many years.
We meet Frances (Sharnie Carlyle), going through her recently deceased Mum’s personal effects in the lounge. She finds a bundle of letters written to her lifetime idol Sinatra. Slowly she pieces together the young life of her mum for the first time.
Her mother sang in a tribute band, and the past comes to life as each letter documents the progression of the Sixties for Sinatra’s last great musical era.
Sinatra is a mercurial figure in American entertainment. He was probably the first artist to become a genuine teen idol, pre-dating Elvis by ten years.
He hated Elvis and the new Rock’n’roll. Then he sang Witchcraft with him after his return from the Army. He also professed to hate Beatlemania.
He became a genuine movie star, which Elvis could not.
A confidant of the Kennedys and politicians, as well as having deep Mob connections. The two were intermingled in ways which are still under embargo to this day.
The only thing he didn’t do was run for President. Maybe he didn’t think of it but one of his good friends Jerry Lewis made the comment in 2016, that Trump would be the first showman President of the United States. Sinatra dodged that bullet.
Frances’ mum was hopelessly and unrequitedly in love with him as only a young fan who has never met their idol can be.
Kaitlyn Tanoa-i plays Mother, and first song out is Nice and Easy. She falters a little on the high soprano parts, but by her next song she is hitting it on target with One for My Baby, and one of the evenings highlights is You Make Me Feel So Young.
Reuben Su’a and Jack Styles are the male singers Jimmy and Andy respectively. Su’a has the lower warm baritone voice and Styles is the tenor. It may appear that Styles has a lighter voice but that is likely not a fair criticism.
Sinatra had a wide-ranging voice. Nelson Riddle described this as a strident top register, smooth and lyrical in the middle register, and a very tender sound in the low. Arch American music critic Robert Christgau reduced it all down to the greatest voice of the twentieth century. Sinatra himself was his harshest critic and considered Tony Bennet as the greatest voice in the business.
Styles takes his first solo on It Happened in Monterey.
Both men duet on Me and my Shadow, and they harmonize in…ahem, style. JFK and Sammy Davis Jr are name-dropped.
Su’a’s stand-out solo is It Was a Very Good Year. Superb slow phrasing in the low register, and he does justice to this 1964 Grammy winner for Best Male Vocal Performance.
The eight-piece Jazz band led by musical director Paul Radden are both stellar and understated. There is tenor saxophone, trumpet, trombone, French horn, possibly flugelhorn, along with piano, electric bass and guitar, and drums.
They swing easily, sound like Eastern European klezmer jazz at times, and are quietly authoritative. There is no Buddy Rich style drum flash (which informed the style of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham). Rather it is steady with muscle, in the manner of a Charlie Watts.
The mix and balance of sound is superb with the vocalists prominent. It leaves no place to hide for any small slips.
Lisa Lorrell
Lisa L
I don’t know much more about her, but her singing speaks for itself as she runs through just a few of the many classics from the Great American Songbook.
A bit of a warm-up to acclimatise to the room with I’ve Got Rhythm and she is off.
As Time Goes By has a nice swing. She does not have a live band. Her backing is pre-recorded. She has a wide range in her repertoire.
Two standouts. Fever, in the manner of Peggy Lee. Starts with louche laid-back jazz and rises in intensity. The original version from Little Willie John has sadly been forgotten, as it is a classic of early Soul. Attributed to writers called Davenport and Cooley, but actually written by the great Otis Blackwell (Don’t Be Cruel).
The other, Zing Went the Strings of My Heart in the manner of Judy Garland. A complex song to get right.
Blue Eyes
The most swinging tune is a great Mack the Knife. Classic Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill and a two-hander from the guys.
Something Stupid is good as you would expect, with Su’a and Tanoa-i.
Blue Eyes is smooth and seamless and ninety minutes with twenty songs pass by quickly. New York New York, the celebrated title song to Scorsese’s movie, is perfect to finish on.
Rev Orange Peel
Final performance is this evening. Tickets are available HERE.