Frank Sinatra officially retired in 1971, but the comebacks that followed were numerous and grand.

Still, it's doubtful even he could have engineered a return to the stage a decade after his death.

That was a feat left instead to director David Leveaux, who launched his show Sinatra at the London Palladium - where the singer made his European debut in 1950 - two years ago.

The £5m multimedia stage show splices projected footage with onstage dancers and a live band, to give audiences the impression they have seen Ol' Blue Eyes perform a concert "in person".

Though critical response was mixed - one reviewer dubbed it "glitzy necrophilia" - it was praised by Sinatra's family, who gave their blessing to the project, and for its use of technology, which some hailed as a new genre of entertainment.

The show came about after films Sinatra had made while shooting his own ABC TV Series in the Fifties were uncovered. Brought out of the archives for the first time, they were the centrepiece of a commemorative celebration at Radio City Hall, New York, in 2003. The exhibition used large moving projector screens to show the footage and producers saw in it the potential to develop something bigger.

Leveaux, whose directorial credits range from big-budget musicals to Pinter, was approached to work on a London show.

A long-time Sinatra fan, the 51-year-old says: "It was so completely fascinating to have the opportunity to get hold of some of this material and and have a look at it.

"Apart from that, there was the appeal musically of being able to put Frank out there again. There's such an incredible collection of songs he is associated with.

"He's a guy who sang across three quarters of a century - that's pretty irresistible."

Though led by the footage, Leveaux says the staging of the show was pulled "almost out of thin air".

Animation techniques allowed footage of Sinatra - taken from television, cinema and home movies - to be manipulated so he can "perform", both with the on-stage band and, at times, with the dancers.

Choreographer Steven Mear, a man Leveaux describes as having "a particular gift for putting a show out there" was drafted in to work on the dance sequences, which take place both in front of the screens and occasionally on them.

"We had to work very carefully because we have got dancers on the stage along with Frank Sinatra," Leveaux explains. "He is our lead for the night and that means there has to be a very different relationship between live dancers and a moving screen.

"We sometimes blur the edges of who's on film and who's live."

A blend of cinematic montage and snippets from interviews provides a storyline of sorts, as well as a sense of a changing century as seen through Sinatra's eyes.

There is his first flush of popularity during World War Two, his Hollywood days with Ava Gardner and the Sixties Rat Pack era.

"It's kind of a life story of Frank Sinatra, but first and foremost it is a rolling concert with some of the best pop songs ever written, performed by a guy who was the ultimate saloon bar singer."

Leveaux identified 25 songs he knew should be included, planning the set as though it was a real concert with highs, downtempo numbers and a final climax. Classics like Fly Me To The Moon sit alongside In The Still Of The Night - "Frank was probably the greatest interpreter of Cole Porter ever" - and of course, My Way.

Leveaux is reluctant to give away exactly how the song is featured in the show, but says: "I think we found a special way to do it."

There have been many challenges in staging a show about a man who is so iconic to so many and Leveaux says "only a complete fool" would fail to realise the responsibility he carries.

So he was delighted when the Sinatra family gave it their approval. Nancy - Sinatra's daughter by first wife Nancy Barbato - handed him a bottle of her father's favourite whisky after one performance.

He says: "I can't imagine quite what it was like for her to sit in the Palladium and watch those images - it's not just Frank, there are home movies of Nancy and Tina her sister too.

"It was a pretty emotional thing for them and so it was always important to me to feel it was a musical of the standard that Frank warranted.

"But I also wanted to ensure that it wasn't just a solemn tribute and was very much a live show."

There have, of course, been scores of Sinatra shows and tributes over the years, of varying success.

Leveaux says the difference with his show - and the reason they felt justified in adding to the list - lies in their use of film.

"Even people who can give a quite passable impression of him can't quite touch the way he phrased things. He made it all so personal," he says.

"It's quite amazing when you see him up there on these big screens singing, because you realise that there really is only one Frank Sinatra."

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