By Ernest Kearney — Writer/Performer Richard Shelton’s Sinatra: Raw is, in a fashion, the mirrored opposite to the other musical homage of HFF23, Performer Rainee Blake’s Take Me As I Am: A Joni Mitchell Tribute.
Whereas I have heard the complaint (the only one that I’ve heard) that the show, while superb musically, gave slight attention to the persona of Mitchell, that is definitely not the case with this show.
Shelton’s handling of the Sinatra standards – I’ve Got You Under My Skin, One For My Baby, It Was a Very Good Year, and others, are exemplary and cannot be faulted in any way.
Perhaps he does not convey Sinatra’s voice with the finely etched precision that Blake does in her handling of Mitchell’s most memorable tunes, but Shelton’s own pipes are as appreciable as those of the focus of his show.
Where Shelton’s effort excels in the excess is in his conveyance of the singer himself, one of the most emblematic entertainers of history, as well as of the tumultuous times that served in crystallizing the man.
Shelton — in recreating Sinatra’s celebrated “farewell” performance in Palm Springs, The Purple Room — presents his audience with a portrait of the towering crooner from his legendary “blue eyes” down to his very human clay feet.
The audience is treated to the full humanity and folly of Sinatra as well as of the inescapable historical tapestry of which he was so much a part and which was so much a part of him.
With Blake’s show, you will leave feeling you have heard Mitchell, leaving Shelton’s show you’ll go feeling you have met the “Chairman of the Board.”
A very bright Gold Medal.
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Sinatra: Raw playing at the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2023
at
The Broadwater (Studio) in Hollywood.
For Hollywood Fringe Festival Details, Sinatra: Raw Show Information, and Tickets Click HERE.
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