Frank does it his way

"I'm sure it was in the back of his head that these images of him should somehow endure," suggests Zehme. "I think it showed he had a tremendous sense of posterity."

THE writer should know his subject well because, in 1996, he produced an award-winning, long profile for Esquire magazine with which Sinatra cooperated fully. It gives a sense of the man behind the kaleidoscope of images through which he projected himself: crooner, actor, tough guy, comic, ladies' man, man's man, hellraiser. Zehme made it his business to collect the myriad stories that bore witness to these various personae. The article was notable because it was the first time Sinatra was revealed in all his flawed humanity: generous, jealous, loyal, tempestuous. He was a lot more than a pretend mobster.

In the late 1950s, when the new footage used in the current show was shot, Sinatra was standing proud. After a period in the movie wilderness, he won an Oscar for his performance as the runty Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953). At the same time, he moved to a new record company, Capitol, and started to work with the arranger Nelson Riddle, a partnership that resulted in a string of classic and hugely popular albums. Records such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers and Come Fly with Me dominated the American Billboard charts, while singles such as Chicago, The Tender Trap and Love and Marriage were big hits on both sides of the Atlantic.

The resurgence of success brought its own tribulations. The young Sinatra had experienced the first stirrings of teen frenzy when the bobbysoxers took him to their screaming hearts. The mature Frank was less ready to tolerate intrusions into his privacy, and his confrontations with the press, often violent, were legendary.

At the same time, his passionate yet mutually destructive marriage to Ava Gardner was coming apart - they finally divorced in 1957 - which did nothing for his peace of mind, yet somehow increased his attraction. Despite two marriages up to this point - and three children - Sinatra also dated Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Jackie Kennedy, Angie Dickinson, Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe. He was, quite simply, the brightest star in the firmament.

"At Every concert he played," relates Zehme, "Frank would stop at some point and talk to the audience, have a drink with them and tell stories. This was the human Frank, and everyone wanted to know what it was like to be with him. Director David Leveaux asked me to get involved with this new show because he wanted to achieve a visceral sense of the man. The intention of this show is to recreate an evening in his company, to give a sense of the blood pulsing through the veins of Sinatra."

To this end, the only voice that will be heard all evening is that of Frank Sinatra. This will naturally include definitive versions of favourites like My Way, New York, New York and One for My Baby, but it will also encompass the spoken word - "the breadth and scope of his lore" as Zehme puts it - as lifted from various taped interviews he undertook over the years. "We didn't want to belabour the biographical narrative," explains Zehme, "and the idea was to put his words in his mouth. He had a way of saying things that was purely Sinatra, his parlance and locution can be thrilling to encounter."

Sinatra was notorious for being easily bored - he once flew home in his private plane from the set of a film that was proceeding too slowly for his liking - and it is tempting to wonder what he would have made of this entertainment dedicated to his life.

"It's an interesting question," concedes Zehme. "What we do know about Frank was that as he got older he got - as we all do - more nostalgic and sentimental. A 52-year-old Sinatra would probably raise an eyebrow and exclaim, 'I'm still here baby, what's all this jazz about?' But as he grew older he became quite touched by the idea that his work could live on and please other people. He especially loved the thought of touching new generations, I know that meant the world to him. And he's the only old guy who has done it."

Which is a miracle in itself considering the legends that have accumulated around his heroic drinking exploits. The very fact that he went into a ninth decade suggests that Sinatra might have been more restrained in his carousing than is popularly supposed.

"Frank could be a fairly deceptive drinker," agrees Zehme. "In a bar, he would often take only a couple of sips of a drink before discarding it, something that's easy to do when you have a wallet full of dough. And then there was always the need to maintain the figure - la figura."

As befits a man who was meticulous about his music, re-recording songs endlessly until completely satisfied with his performance, Sinatra the show is at great pains to do justice to its subject. The technology is too complex for consideration, but in essence, what will be on stage is a series of sharp images, sometimes looming as tall as 20 feet, projecting the images of a man who transcended all the categories, but was most perfectly realised as a singer with the gift to invest songs with every nuance of life.

Strictly speaking, Sinatra's is not the only voice to be heard throughout the course of the show. At the 1996 Grammy Awards, U2 singer Bono made a speech in praise of an all-time great. The gist of it was simple: "Frank Sinatra has what we want". These words will be echoed at each performance, as posterity is treated to the essential primer in iconography.