Twenty-five years ago, three young vocalists, Eric Comstock, Christopher Gines, and Hilary Kole, with a commitment to performing and keeping alive the Great American Songbook, conceived, created and starred in Our Sinatra: A Musical Celebration. The original production, produced by Jack Lewin, was presented at the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room. Through the years, it has been presented with a variety of casts, off-Broadway, in national tours, and occasional one-off reunions. Currently it is playing at The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater through November 29. (Above photo, from left: Comstock, Kole, Gines).
From the beginning, the trio of vocalists, plus a bassist, performed a program of about 30 songs plus a closing medley of bits from an additional 30-plus selections. Comstock also played piano and served as Musical Director. They performed the songs individually, in duos and as a trio. Each of these singers has their own style, Comstock being from the Bobby Short school of piano bar singers; Gines, a classic Sinatra-style pop vocalist with a strong baritone; and Kole, a jazz-influenced vocalist with a wide and flexible range. They all exhibit the influence of Sinatra, but do not try to imitate him.
Throughout the show, each performer contributed informative and often witty commentary about Sinatra’s career, the songs and personal anecdotes. Most of the selections were grouped into themed medleys. The program is well paced with an opening trio take on “Where or When,” followed by Gines’ swinging “Oh! Look at Me Now,” Kole exploring “Night and Day,” and Comstock adding “Too Marvelous for Words.”
Gines gave a beautiful ballad treatment to “I Fall in Love Too Easily;” Kole and Comstock performed a duo on “Time After Time;” and Kole sang “The Tender Trap.” Then they turned their attention to songs performed by Sinatra in films. These included: “From Here to Eternity” by Gines, “You’re Sensational” by Comstock, and a medley of “Well, Did You Evah,” “My Kind of Town,” and “New York New York” by the trio.
Next up were four songs related to relationships, “Nice ‘n Easy,” Kole and Gines; “I’m a Fool to Want You,” Kole; “Everything Happens to Me,” Comstock; and “Day In, Day Out,” Comstock and Kole. Gines then added a powerful performance of “Ol’ Man River” before the trio sang “Without a Song.”
Sinatra was noted for singing what he referred to as “saloon songs.” Comstock and Kole addressed “One for My Baby”/“Angel Eyes;” Comstock rendered “In the Wee Small Hours” hauntingly; Kole sang “It Never Entered My Mind;” and Gines deeply explored “Last Night When We Were Young” before the trio revisited “One for My Baby.”
“At Long Last Love’ found the trio harmonizing before Gines did “For Once in My Life.” Kole then exhibited her jazz chops on “I’ve Got the World on a String” in a scat exchange with bassist Jay Leonhart. Comstock sang “All the Way” before he and Gines humorously took on “The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else,” with Kole being the object of their affections.
To bring the show to a conclusion, they launched into what Comstock called “the mother of all medleys,” a clever stringing together of bits from more than 30 songs associated with Sinatra, including many of his hits such as “Witchcraft,” “The Summer Wind,” and concluding with a full version of the theme from “New York, New York.” Interestingly, they did not include “My Way,” a song that his fans loved but that Sinatra supposedly hated despite performing it at most of his concerts. Before leaving the stage, trio left the audience with an a capella take on the song that Sinatra used to close his radio show, “Put Your Dreams Away.”
After the 90 minutes were over, the audience rose to offer a standing ovation for what had been a superb set of music expertly performed by a trio of singers whose affection for Sinatra, the man and his music was on display from the opening to the closing notes.-JOE LANG
(Note: there will be performances of “Our Sinatra” through November 29. For more information or to order tickets log onto https://oursinatra.com/)
PHOTO BY RUSS HOLLAND