Geordie Sinatra (Scarborough)

Chris Monks’ production of Geordie Sinatra, presented jointly with Live Theatre, Newcastle, ends triumphantly, with Anthony Cable delivering high-powered versions of “My Way” and “New York, New York”, while the other cast members (multi-skilled in the way of actors nowadays) help to deliver the musical accompaniment. It seems churlish, therefore, to quibble with a play and production that delighted the Scarborough audience, but I found it difficult to decide what sort of a play Fiona Evans has written.

It is certainly a play that offers an excuse for performing a well-chosen selection of Frank Sinatra songs – and this part works perfectly, Cable’s capable and intelligent vocalising backed by the fine piano accompaniment of MD Richard Atkinson, with the help of cast members and, sometimes, the witty choreography of Beverley Norris-Edmunds.

However, the plot doesn’t seem to me to have much to say about dementia, despite Evans’ undoubted good intentions. Geordie, a former club singer in the Sinatra mould, is living with his partner/nurse in what was the Sands Hotel, Whitley Bay, and suffering from dementia. To keep him happy his partner pretends that he has a comeback scheduled at the club: who’s first to guess it will really take place and be a triumph? His daughter by his late wife has returned, a celebrity columnist recently sacked by the “Daily Mail” and seeking reassurance and recuperation. The appearance of Sonny, the drummer from 30 years ago, adds to the potential for friction.

Unfortunately the serious/comic presentation of the contrasts between reality and hallucination and the problems of living with dementia is hi-jacked by a totally unconvincing mystery in which the past is rewritten and people prove not to be who they claim to be. I’m not including here the fact that Geordie takes Sonny for songwriter Jimmy van Heusen, though the “American” scenes are painfully corny, probably deliberately – surely Evans is suggesting that this is the way washed up club singers on Tyneside imagine Las Vegas!

Anthony Cable acts with a great deal of truth as Geordie, but Jill Myers and Heather Saunders have too many changes of gear to fully convince as partner and daughter – in the case of Saunders, her crassly selfish personality and ear-splittingly affected delivery seem a bit much even for a “Daily Mail” columnist. Kraig Thornber is amiably engaging as a Police Officer and Sonny. All impress musically, especially Myers who’s called on for the Harry Edison muted trumpet thing.

Jan Bee Brown’s design, of the bar/stage of the Sands (Whitley Bay and Geordie’s fantasy Las Vegas), manages to be simultaneously glitzy and decrepit and the re-configured In the Round (three sides only) works well, though I hope this doesn’t become a regular feature. After all, the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s international reputation is founded on in-the-round productions.