PATRICK MARMION's first night review: 'An intoxicating voice like a double whiskey... but you never get under the skin of this airbrushed Sinatra'

SINATRA: THE MUSICAL

Aldwych Theatre, London

Verdict: Ersatz Sinatra (three out of five stars) 

As a leading member of the Rat Pack singers, Frank Sinatra was one of the 20th century's snappiest dressers (as well as one of its busiest womanisers).

Now Ol' Blue Eyes is being honoured in a stunningly sung – but thoroughly plastic – musical that borders on air-brushing.

The legendary crooner was the son of Sicilian immigrants, and we are invited to witness his tough life dating some of Hollywood's most beautiful women.

While still married to first wife Nancy, fans were already dropping hotel keys into his pocket at shows – and that's before Lana Turner batted her eyes at him, and his second wife Ava Gardner came on the scene (Mia Farrow and Barbara Marx followed).

Matching these and other life events with hits from his songbook, the show reveals his career to be an equally bumpy ride.

The adulterous affair with sex siren Gardner saw his popularity plummet with his conservative fan base. 

But the comeback king made an improbable return, winning an Oscar for From Here To Eternity to re-establish himself in mid-life – and become known as The Chairman Of The Board.

Sinatra's darker side, including his suspected association with the Mafia, is hardly mentioned. Does it matter?

After all, it's the tobacco-y voice we've come to swoon over, and musical theatre star Joel Harper-Jackson serves it up like a double whiskey on the rocks.

His singing is an intoxicating party piece, catching Sinatra's every nuance and vocal trick as he works his way through more than 20 of his biggest hits, including those howled in karaoke bars all over the world from My Way to New York, New York.

Harper-Jackson is so good, he comes close to giving Frankie a credible emotional core, with a show-stopping rendition of That's Life as he laments the agonies of his affair with Anna Villafane's jaw-dropping Gardner.

His smoochy I've Got You Under My Skin is reserved for serenading that goddess of the silver screen.

What Kathleen Marshall's production doesn't do is get under Frankie's skin. Not even film director Martin Scorsese was allowed to do that, and he eventually gave up trying to make a movie about the man.

Sinatra's private life remains a closed book, defying even 40 years of being tailed by the FBI.

Immaculately tailored Tutti-Frutti costumes and Marshall's splashily choreographed razzmatazz allow us instead to skate blissfully over the surface.

There are touches of comic criticism, from Frank's exasperated publicist George Evans (Lee Zarrett), who's a walking, talking peptic ulcer with a Brooklyn accent. 

As Nancy, the long-suffering mother of Frank's children, Phoebe Panaretos gives her numbers a good double-barrelled bellow, while taking no nonsense from her celebrity spouse. 

There's even shameless schmaltz between Frankie and his Teddy bear-clutching daughter 'Moonbeam' (effortlessly cute Felicity Watson, alternating with other child actors), in the duet I'm Gonna Love You.

This will be too 'authorised' and synthetic for people – like me – who want to get behind those sly blue eyes. But if you're happy with a 3D jukebox, Harper-Jackson could well fly you to the moon. 

Sinatra: The Musical is booking until April 2027.