Sinatra was the musical just begging to be made. One of the recording world’s biggest stars, a gutsy story and some amazing songs lay the groundwork for a surefire hit – and it’s Birmingham Rep who have made it.

Written by Joe DiPietro, Sinatra The Musical takes us to the early days of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ career. We see him building a family with his wife Nancy and building a career as he gradually works his way through fronting bands and orchestras to singing solo. Then he crashes spectacularly until his private life and his musical career are in tatters.

But Sinatra tells us that what matters is not how many times you get knocked down but how many times you get back on your feet again and he lives up to those words – achieving what is often called the biggest showbusiness comeback in history.

The musical needs the perfect showman as Sinatra and Matt Doyle epitomizes this. He oozes charm, even when he is behaving intolerably, he has bucketloads of charisma and, even more importantly, he wins the audience over so that we are rooting for him no matter what.

Doyle, whose career features a string of hit musicals including Company, Book of Mormon, Spring Awakening, Sweeney Todd and West Side Story, also has a hugely expressive singing voice, picking up both the sadness and the joy of Sinatra’s songs.

He is supported by a really strong cast across the show. Phoebe Panaretos is the stalwart first wife Nancy, who falls for the young Sinatra, believes in him and even supports him travelling to Hollywood despite knowing his weakness for women. We all feel for her as he heads for the bright lights leaving her to care for three children while her husband romances Hollywood actresses.

But DiPietro’s genius is that we also feel sympathy for Ana Villafañe’s Ava Gardner despite her role as the other woman. In Villafañe’s Gardner we see a woman who is only too aware of the fragility of her fame and yet who fights for it ruthlessly and selfishly – prepared to sacrifice anything for her next movie.

The show has some great other roles, not least Dawn Buckland as Frank’s savvy mother. Packed full of humour, here is an Italian mamma who pushes her son no matter what. But we also see her soft side when she dances to You Make Me Feel So Young with husband Marty played by Vincent Riotta.

Directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall with sets designed by Peter McKintosh, there are some wonderful moments of theatre dotted throughout the show. Sinatra’s first foray as a womanizer in Hollywood is brilliantly portrayed as a series of stars appear and disappear in his double bed. And there is a lovely cameo from Ryesha Higgs as Billie Holliday meeting Frank when he’s down and out in a bar in the early hours of the morning and joining with him to sing One For My Baby.

It all looks luscious, from the kitchens of 1930s New Jersey through to the excitement of a Hollywood set. Jon Morrell’s costumes remind us of the days when dressing up really meant something with women in beautifully structured dresses and the guys always with a jacket within reach.

Central to the musical are, of course, the songs made famous by Frank and more than 25 are packed in one after the other including All of Me, Come Fly With Me, Love and Marriage, That’s Life, The Way You Look Tonight and New York, New York.

Produced by Birmingham Rep in association with Universal Music Group Theatrical and Frank Sinatra Enterprises, this is ultimately a sympathetic tale of Sinatra and yet one which isn’t afraid to show his faults. What comes through above all is the fractured human being behind the face and voice we all know so well.

Birmingham Rep should be justly proud of staging the world premiere of this musical. Bursting with glamour and glitz but also grit, hopefully it’s only a matter of time before we see it transfer to the West End and Broadway, taking the name of Birmingham with it.

Five stars

Reviewed by Diane Parkes at The Rep Birmingham on Tuesday 3 October. Sinatra The Musical continues to show at the venue until Saturday 28 October.