Richard Shelton To Bring Two Shows About Sinatra Back To The Edinburgh Fringe

SINATRA: RAW and SINATRA & ME, written and performed by Richard Shelton, will be presented at the Edinburgh Fringe. 

Performances will take place at C aurora (Main house) Lauriston Hall, 28 Lauriston St, Edinburgh EH3 9DJ

Mon 12- Sun 25 Aug 21.00 (22.05)

Palm Springs. 1971. Frank Sinatra's last intimate show. His blue eyes are red rimmed with memories and regret. This is the 2am Sinatra you dream of meeting - dangerous, unpredictable, brilliant. After sell-out runs in London, New York and LA, Richard Shelton's masterful, critically acclaimed, multi-award-winning show returns to reveal the man behind the myth.

This critically acclaimed dramatic play takes audiences behind the complex blue eyes of the icon to experience what really made Sinatra tick. How he won it all, lost it all and clawed his way back to the top of Hollywood; the lengths he'd go to in the pursuit of perfection; the mob allegations and how his hatred of social and racial inequality changed the rules in Las Vegas.

Richard Shelton's life and Sinatra's are inextricably linked by music, drama and staggering synchronicity. This show tells how Sinatra's tuxedo walked into his life, after Shelton's award-winning album, An Englishman in Love in LA was recorded with Sinatra's band mates using Sinatra's famed microphone inside Sinatra's 'Studio B' at Capitol Studios. And how Sinatra's hands and feet imprints on the Hollywood Walk of Fame are an exact fit with Shelton's and were made on Shelton's birthday. Shelton describes how he was one of the last people alive inside Sinatra's last home as it was being demolished. It shows Shelton become Sinatra as he don's the tuxedo and sings 'My Way'.

After global sell-outs in New York, Los Angeles and London, the show is back in Edinburgh for just nine exclusive performances.

This is the first time these shows have ever been performed together - offering audiences a unique and intimate double insight into the psychology of Frank Sinatra.

Richard Shelton comments, "I'm often asked how I found Sinatra, but I think it's more the other way around. My relationship with Sinatra is that of an actor - I understand how to go behind his blue eyes and into the mercurial mind of the man - to find out what made him tick. When you do that, you start to understand how the music defined him and how he acted his way through the lyrics of a song. When Sinatra sang of loss and loneliness, you were there with him in the bar at 3am. When he sang of love, you were flying to the moon right alongside him. That was his magic - storytelling. But you must find your own voice too and that's what inspired mine, in my album An Englishman in Love in LA written by BBC Composer of the Year, Alex Rudd."

Running time 1hr 5min

Suitability 14+

Trigger warnings None

Ticket prices Mon & Tue £11 (£9) Wed-Fri £13 (£11) Sat & Sun £15 (£13)

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