Tina Sinatra: 'Broadway Is Where I Believe He Should Be'; Go Inside Sinatra the Musical Reading

Universal Music Group Theatrical and Frank Sinatra Enterprises presented an invitation-only reading of Sinatra The Musical November 21 at the Apollo Theatre.

The reading, directed by Tony winner Kathleen Marshall, featured Tony winner Matt Doyle as Frank Sinatra, Ana Villafañe as Ava Gardner, Phoebe Panaretos as Nancy Sinatra, Caroline Duffy Concannon as Little Nancy, Toni Di Buono as Dolly Sinatra, Mark Lotito as Marty Sinatra, and Brad Oscar as George Evans.

A video released November 22, which includes highlights from both the reading and the show's earlier U.K. premiere, also features an interview with Tina Sinatra, Frank Sinatra's daughter, who says, "Broadway is where I believe he should be, and that's what we're working toward. It feels right to me to do this. He is generational." Watch the complete interview above.

The reading also featured David Abeles, Clyde Alves, Amber Ardolino, E. Clayton Cornelious, Stephen DeRosa, Donna English, Matthew Griffin, Nathan Lucrezio, Katerina McCrimmon, Morgan McGhee, Angel Reda, and Maya Lynn Sistruck.

With a book by Tony winner Joe DiPietro, Sinatra The Musical is set on New Year's Eve 1942 as a 27-year-old Italian-American singer is about to step onto the stage of New York's Paramount Theatre. As Sinatra's career skyrockets, he struggles with balancing the love of his wife, Nancy, against the demands and temptations of his career. When he begins an affair with Ava Gardner, his records stop selling and the press turns against him, but one of the greatest comebacks in showbiz will follow.

Marshall also directed the world premiere of Sinatra The Musical at Birmingham Rep in 2023. Doyle and Villafañe starred.

An American icon, both as a singer and, later, as a movie actor, Sinatra never performed on Broadway, but starred in Hollywood film adaptations of four classic musicals: Guys and Dolls, On the Town, Pal Joey, and Can-Can. He appeared in many non-Broadway musicals as well, including Anchors Aweigh, Reveille With Beverly, and Robin and the Seven Hoods. Among non-musicals, Sinatra starred in the film of Neil Simon's first Broadway play, Come Blow Your Horn. His late-career hit "New York, New York" was written for a film of the same name (a stage adaptation of the film recently played Broadway) by the Chicago and Cabaret team of John Kander and Fred Ebb.

During the time in the 1940s-1960s when show tunes and Top 40 were virtually identical, Sinatra recorded dozens of them, some several times. Cole Porter songs were a favorite, but he returned again and again to the works of Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, and Cy Coleman, among many others.

Even after rock pushed showtunes out of the Top 40, Sinatra continued to record them, including the Stephen Sondheim classic "Send in the Clowns."