Diablo Theatre Company opens its 53rd season with My Way, A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra, a 53-song tour through the music and legend that was Ol' Blue Eyes himself.
The show opens September 7th at Walnut Creek's Lesher Center for the Arts and runs through September 29th.
Four singers and eight dancers take the reins of Sinatra's songbook. Their destinations? Everywhere from Mr. Sinatra's early big band recordings with Tommy Dorsey ("I'll Never Smile Again") to the bright lights of Las Vegas ("It Was a Very Good Year," "Strangers in the Night") to the September years of his career that produced, surprisingly, some of his most trademark work ("My Way," "[Theme from] New York, New York.")
A nostalgic tour through song and dance, My Way recreates an elegant supper club at the height of the Swing Era, allowing audiences to hear this treasured music as they might have heard it seventy years ago. The Chairman of the Board has provided the soundtrack for countless lives: a couple's first slow dance; a night at the cinema to see Anchor's Aweigh! or Guys and Dolls; early mornings with Captain Kangaroo and his "High Hopes." Mr. Sinatra's influence certainly extends into our current cultural conversation through programs such as Mad Men, The Sopranos, and Dancing with the Stars; echoes of his music can be heard in the songs recorded by Michael Buble, Jamie Cullum, Diana Krall, and Amy Winehouse.
David Grapes and Todd Olson co-created this revue, which premiered in 2000 and has since delighted Sinatra fans and fans-to-be throughout North America. Unlike many tribute musicals, which attempt to recreate the life of a person in just over two hours, My Way is a celebration just as Mr. Sinatra would have wanted: a few stories, a few drinks, and plenty of knockout tunes.
The director/choreographer of Diablo Theatre Company's production is Derrick Silva; music direction is by César Cancino. The multi-talented cast is well known to Bay Area theatre audiences and features: Jessica Fisher, Carlos Lopez, Chloe Condon and Michael Kern Cassidy.
THE CAST
Featuring: Jessica Fisher (Woman #1), Carlos Lopez (Man #1), Chloe Condon
(Woman #2) & Michael Kern Cassidy (Man #2)
Dance Ensemble: Trisha Ayllon, Yolonda D’Amico, Anthony Finley, Nina Hernandez, Brian Sterling, Sean Akihiko Stover, Gerardo Valencia & Hailey Yaffee
Show Information:
WHAT: Diablo Theatre Company’s production of “My Way, A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra”
WHEN: 8 p.m. - Sept. 7,8,14,15,20,21,22,27,28,29 and 2 p.m. - Sept.9,16,23,29
WHERE: Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek – Hofmann Theatre
RUNNING TIME: 2 hours 15 minutes, one intermission
TICKETS: $35-$53 (925) 943-7469; www.lesherartscenter.org, www.diablotheatre.org
