SINATRA: THE MAIN EVENT Begins 4 July at Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Sinatra: The Main Event was billed as the biggest comeback in showbusiness history - now the 40th anniversary is to be marked in the UK with a stunning recreation of The Main Event, exactly as it happened at New York's Madison Square Garden on October 13, 1974.

Sinatra: The Main Event will star one of the world's finest Sinatra interpreters, West End and Hollywood star Richard Shelton, and the world famous Syd Lawrence Orchestra - voted the 'Best Big Band in the Land' for the 12th consecutive year.

Sinatra: The Main Event, produced by The Ministry of Entertainment in association with Stageworks Worldwide Productions, will open on Independence Day, Friday 4 July, for a summer season at the 850-seat Globe Theatre at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

It then plays every Friday and Saturday until Saturday 6 September.

Richard Shelton performed as Frank Sinatra in the West End in Rat Pack Confidential, a performance that saw him nominated Best Actor in a Leading Role in the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards.

Frank Sinatra actually appeared twice in concert in the northern seaside mecca of Blackpool. In July 1950, with his career on the wane in the US, he became Blackpool's highest ever, paid performer at a princely £2,000 a show at the Opera House. "You know I could be mayor of this town!" he told his local chauffeur Frank Lucas, as he was mobbed by hundreds of excitable fans cheering, clapping, jumping up and down and banging on the car's windows on his arrival at the theatre. "They love me this town, don't they?" He returned for two further performances there in 1953.

Richard Shelton performed as Frank Sinatra in the West End in Rat Pack Confidential, a performance that saw him nominated Best Actorin a Leading Role in the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards. He has also performed in front of the Royal Family at Windsor and Prince Albert in Monaco. He was twice personally chosen by Elton John to appear at his famous annual White Tie and Tiara Ball. Shelton, a British actor now resident in Los Angeles, recently recorded a new album, An Englishman in Love in LA, in Frank Sinatra's actual studio at Capitol Records in Hollywood, backed by some of the remaining Sinatra musicians. He also performed as Sinatra in LA with Hollywood star Jeff Goldblum accompanying him on the piano.
Richard Shelton says, "Frank Sinatra continues to play an important part of my career and I'm very excited to bring to life the previously undiscovered treasure of his comeback tour. By evoking his spirit with the superb Syd Lawrence Orchestra, it's a chance to experience what it might have been like to spend an evening with arguably the greatest entertainer of all time and to listen to and be moved by some of the greatest hits of his career."

The Ministry of Entertainment co-director Anthony Blackburn said: "We are delighted to be working with Stageworks Worldwide Productions to bring Richard Shelton's masterly portrayal of the great man back to Blackpool and the Globe Theatre for the summer season - this the right show in the right theatre in the right town!"

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