By Marilyn Lester***What makes a legend most? For actor-vocalist-icon Francis Albert Sinatra, the answer would (and has) take volumes. Lucky for us, the short, succinct and thoroughly, wonderful cabaret/stage show, Our Sinatra answers the question in less than two entertaining hours of Sinatra love. Now playing at the Marjorie S. 
Deane Little Theater, Our Sinatra, A Musical Celebration has proved itself a legend in its own right, in 25-plus years after its creation in 1999.
On May 14, 1998, Sinatra passed into show business history. Since that day, tribute shows have come in abundance, and mostly gone. Not Our Sinatra, crafted by three young talents and friends at the very start of their careers: pianist-singer, Eric Comstock and vocalists Hillary Kole and Christopher Gines. After a debut at the famed Algonquin Hotel Oak Room, Our Sinatra quickly moved to the former nightclub, Blue Angel Theatre in December 1999 for 1,000 performances, and then went on a Nation Tour, followed by, over the years, productions in NYC at the Repetto Theater, Birdland, Feinstein’s at Loew’s Regency and 54 Below—but not necessarily with the original cast. So this official reunion was especial magic. Our Sinatra does play best in the intimacy of a supper club, but this adaptation, with all its slickness and polish, is still transcendent—and that’s due to the earnestness, chemistry and undiminished passion of the cast. Has any time passed at all, you wonder?
Back in the day, those clever youngsters crafted the perfect Sinatra show; no impersonators here, but an intelligent mix of music and narrative. The text, carefully woven amidst the songs, distills the epic Sinatra bio to the really important bits, and the music choices: well, how do you mine Sinatra’s 1,500-plus studio recordings for material? Fortunately, Comstock happens to be a sharp repository of musical history. The mix of tunes from the 1930s to Sinatra’s later years offered a great selection of the megahits with lesser-known material, which come mainly from Sinatra’s films, such as “From Here to Eternity”(Fred Karger, Robert Wells). And never underestimate the power of the medley to reel off a blazing number of songs in short order—especially the wonderfully head-spinning “mega-medley” at the end of the show.
With Kole beautifully gowned and attired, and Gines tuxed, the air was, as it should be, sophisticated. Expert staging by director Kurt Stamm kept the pacing smooth and the movement fluid. The mix of solos, duets and trios was also keenly mixed and presented, 
but the core power of Our Sinatra, the ingredient that rises above the sophistication and the brilliance of Sinatra’s material is in the over-arching package of storytelling. Capturing that essence was/is the key to invoking the master of storytelling himself. Sinatra knew its value, and he attributed everything he knew about telling the story to the incomparable Queen of its art, Mabel Mercer.
A highlight of the evening was the “drunk song” (as Sinatra called them) segment, with Kole and Gines seated on stools at the piano. Comstock began and ended with “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)” (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer) and in between a few sad songs from Sinatra’s Wee Small Hours album were sung. Comstock also delivered a defining interpretation of 
“Everything Happens to Me” (Tom Adair, Matt Dennis); Gines went into full-out Sinatra with a stirring “Old Man River” (Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II); and Kole demonstrated why she’s become a foremost Jazz singer of today with a swinging, scat-heavy “I’ve Got the World on a String” (Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler).
Over the years, Our Sinatra has been subtly tweaked to adapt to certain staging and performers, but always with its essence and intent intact. For this outing, the opening and almost closing numbers were cleverly part of the set list: the former, “Where or When” (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) muses, “Some things that happened for the first time/Seem to be happening again” and on the outro, “The Second Time Around” Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen) states the case. But, indeed, there could only
be one true ending of Our Sinatra for the Hoboken boy wo made good here, and the hometown crowd in attendance: “Theme from New York, New York” (John Kander, Fred Ebb), with exuberant and well-deserved clapping alng and finally applause from an audience propelled into the icon zone.
Performing stellar accompaniment during the evening, along with Comstock’s piano. was bassist Marco Panascia. Our Sinatra, A Musical Celebration was supervised by Tony Award-winner Richard Maltby, Jr., directed by Kurt Stamm and produced by Jack Lewin for Lewin Productions.
Our Sinatra, A Musical Celebration plays at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater (located at the West Side YMCA at 10 West 64th Street, NYC) until Sunday, November 29. Click here for more information and tickets.
