Sinatra: The Musical – a hit-filled biography that never gets under the skin

After premiering in Birmingham three years ago, the Frank Sinatra musical has transferred to the West End with big band energy. It begins at the star's lowest point, the messy late 1940s and early 1950s when it seemed his extraordinary talent might go to waste.

Joel Harper-Jackson in the lead combines smooth vocal power with Sinatra's signature swagger – the head wobble, the smirk. His weakness for women is played as a comical character quirk, with a bed-hopping rendition of "Come Fly With Me" involving Lana Turner, Judy Garland, and Marlene Dietrich.

When Sinatra meets Ava Gardner in Palm Springs, it marks the beginning of the end for his marriage to Nancy (Phoebe Panaretos). Ana Villafañe captures Gardner's bombshell power, but Joe DiPietro's book never conveys the true tumult of this legendary affair. Their first date allegedly ended in drunken gunplay, but here it's reduced to a ceremonial smashing of whisky glasses.

Sinatra's producer daughter Tina, who helped shape the story, wanted her father to be better understood. However, a reluctance to embrace darkness makes it seem as if things just happen to him – at odds with the comeback narrative and his inherited stubbornness from his Italian mother (Jenna Russell steals scenes with a single phone line).

The script touches on Sinatra's progressive values and anti-immigrant discrimination, but often feels less three-dimensional than the video-assisted set. Happily, Kathleen Marshall's production, with a fine ensemble and joyful choreography, doesn't stint on the big hits – on opening night the audience swooned.