Phoebe Panaretos: Finding Nancy Sinatra’s voice

“I’ve always believed this is a game of endurance as much as it is talent, and I am grateful for sticking it out.”

Phoebe Panaretos delivers this assessment with the hard-won pragmatism of an actor who gambled everything and nearly lost. Six years ago, she packed up her life in Australia and bought a one-way ticket to London. She arrived just in time for the global theatre industry to shut down completely when COVID ushered the UK into lockdown.

Now, she is preparing to step onto the stage of the Aldwych Theatre as Nancy Sinatra in the West End premiere of Sinatra The Musical. Opening in June 2026, the production arrives heavily backed by Universal Music Group and Frank Sinatra Enterprises. It aims to chart the singer’s meteoric rise from a 1942 New Year’s Eve gig at New York’s Paramount Theatre, his subsequent career collapse amid a public affair with Ava Gardner, and his eventual return to prominence.

For Panaretos, reaching this point required a singular stubbornness. “I’m definitely not a Broadway star, as most of my work I’ve done in Australia,” she said. “Getting to the West End has been a big journey.”

“I’ve always believed this is a game of endurance as much as it is talent, and I am grateful for sticking it out.”

The timing of her relocation was disastrous. “The world stopped, Australia locked down, and I wasn’t able to work or get home for 2 years,” she recalled. Isolation naturally bred doubt. “It was during this period and for some time after I really questioned if I’d made the right decision is coming over here. Starting over, especially post-pandemic, with zero West End credits, was certainly challenging. I just needed a break, and when that came, I needed to invite everyone to come and see it.”

That break took twelve months to arrive once theatres reopened. From there, her representatives brought in Grindrod Casting, who eventually placed her in the audition room for Nancy Sinatra some months later.

The confidence to make that initial transatlantic jump came from an early career baptism of fire. Panaretos first made international headlines when Baz Luhrmann handpicked her to play Fran in the world premiere musical adaptation of Strictly Ballroom. That experience proved foundational.

“Most certainly, I honestly don’t think I would’ve had the gumption to leave Australia and give the West End a crack if I hadn’t had my experience working with Baz,” she said. “He instilled in me at such a young age with so much hope and confidence; he’s a maker of magic, and it was with his influence and guidance I made the decision to back myself and move over.”

Beyond the ‘Long-Suffering’ Trope

Biographical musicals often suffer from a specific structural flaw. The protagonist’s spouse, particularly the first wife left behind during the ascent to fame, is frequently reduced to a flat, passive cypher. Nancy Sinatra endured her husband’s infidelities, most notably his highly publicised desertion for movie star Ava Gardner (played here by Ana Villafañe). Avoiding the trap of making Nancy a mere narrative victim was a priority for the creative team.

**Anna Villafañe (Ava Gardner), Joel Harper-Jackson (Frank Sinatra), Phoebe Panaretos (Nancy Sinatra)**

“This is such a great question! Thank you for asking it- I tend to agree!” Panaretos said. “This has been something that I feel has been a constant dialogue between myself, the writer Joe Di Pietro, Tina Sinatra and our director Kathleen Marshall. Nancy was a special person and a real anchor in Frank’s life right up until his death.”

Maintaining her agency opposite Frank Sinatra presents a distinct theatrical challenge. The plot naturally tilts towards the titular star, played by Joel Harper-Jackson, who steps into the role with an acute awareness of the scrutiny that follows a cultural icon. Panaretos insists the production affords Nancy her own trajectory rather than treating her as collateral damage.

“Naturally, this is of course a challenge; it’s Frank’s world and Nancy, for a lot of her show, is unconditionally loving and supportive in spite of Frank’s unfaithfulness,” she explained. “She does, however, have a voice, and her evolution in finding it is a beautiful and strong moment in our show.”

That evolution hinges on historical reality. Nancy Sinatra was not a passive bystander; she was a foundational element of his early success, managing fan mail and presenting a wholesome family image that his initial publicity relied upon heavily. “I think all who know her story and the role she played in the making of Sinatra have a deep respect and love for her – the team around this show have honoured that,” Panaretos added.

From Birmingham to the Aldwych

Panaretos first built this iteration of Nancy Sinatra during the musical’s try-out run at the Birmingham Rep in 2023. The framework of the story remains the same. The show’s starting point is deliberate. New Year’s Eve, 1942, is widely considered the dawn of modern pop-music hysteria. The musical targets this specific inflexion point, right as the skinny Italian-American singer from Hoboken ceased being a mere band vocalist and became an obsession.

However, the West End demands a sharper product. The creative team has spent the intervening years refining the material. “There are loads of changes,” Panaretos confirmed. “Birmingham, we had a great show on our hands, but the show has since evolved, things have been cut/changed and added, and the show is going to be completely different.”

The production relies on creatives with serious pedigrees to execute these revisions. Director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall arrives with three Tony Awards to her name, signalling a commitment to classic, muscular musical theatre staging. Marshall must balance the explosive, public-facing musical performances with the quiet, devastating implosion of the Sinatra household. Joe DiPietro, a two-time Tony winner, supplies the book, tasking himself with handling complex, music-industry narratives without succumbing to cheap sentimentality.

Tackling this revised material requires stamina. Sinatra The Musical leans heavily into the darker chapters of its subject’s life. Singing through a failing marriage night after night extracts a heavy toll.

“You sound like you’ve seen the show already, ha!” Panaretos laughed, acknowledging the nightly emotional weight of the material. “You can’t sing songs like ‘in the wee small hours of the morning’ without heartache.”

Yet, the gloom is punctured by the requisite showbiz glamour of the era. “There are, however, many joyful moments, and we get to have fun living in old Hollywood singing ‘The best is yet to come’ – it’s a rollercoaster, but we get to ride through it all.”

The Family Approval

Perhaps the most daunting aspect of the production is the presence of the Sinatra estate in the rehearsal room. Tina Sinatra, Frank and Nancy’s youngest daughter, serves as a producer alongside Charles Pignone. For an actor tasked with dramatising the painful dissolution of her producer’s parents’ marriage, the pressure is inevitably acute.

“Naturally, this is of course a challenge; it’s Frank’s world and Nancy, for a lot of her show, is unconditionally loving and supportive in spite of Frank’s unfaithfulness,” she explained. “She does, however, have a voice, and her evolution in finding it is a beautiful and strong moment in our show.”

“At times totally daunting, but Tina very quickly made me feel like family,” Panaretos said. The proximity to the family has grounded the production in reality, preventing it from sliding into pure hagiography.

For Tina Sinatra, the musical serves a dual purpose. While it naturally trades on her father’s legendary status, it also reintroduces her mother to a public that has largely forgotten her vital role in the Sinatra mythology. Bringing her mother’s quiet dignity to the foreground is clearly a driving force behind the project.

“She’s a very special person, and what she’s done with her Father’s legacy is remarkable, and what’s great about this moment for her is that audiences will now know who her mum was,” Panaretos observed. “She’s often said, ‘this is for mum too’, and I think that’s really beautiful. I’m honoured to have been chosen to be the one to share this woman’s story.”

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