[Capdist-announce] Sinatra Centennial in Salem

[Jay Kerr]

SALEM CELEBRATES SINATRA CENTENNIAL 

SALEM, NY – The Cabaret at Fort Salem Theater announces a very special evening, Saturday, November 14, at 8 PM, when popular Capital Region personality, Jerry Gretzinger, once again explores the Frank Sinatra songbook in an all-new production chronicling the Billboard hits of arguably the greatest male performer of the twentieth century. Gretzinger’s first Sinatra outing, Mostly Frank, opened five years ago at the Washington County cabaret, playing around the area, including an often-broadcast special backed by a swing band on WAMC.

Frank Sinatra, born December 12, 1915, sang as a teen in local New Jersey dance clubs until he toured first with Harry James and then Tommy Dorsey Big Bands. His career blossomed in the forties until some unfortunate personal and professional choices almost tanked his career. His Academy Award-winning performance in From Here to Eternity, in 1953, put him back on the top of the show-business heap, leading to a new popularity that transcended the questionable quality of many of his future film performances or television variety series.

Ironically, at the same time, Sinatra came into his stylistic own in the iconic albums of the fifties and early sixties, working with arrangers Nelson Riddle and Billy May, recording “All the Way,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “Come Fly With Me,” “High Hopes,” “Young at Heart,” and “Night and Day.” By the sixties, he could record songs as simple or as silly as “Strangers in the Night” and “Something Stupid” and end up with significant hits.

Jerry Gretzinger, a forty-two year-old former CBS6 news anchor, now Vice President, Strategic Communications and Public Relations at SUNY Poly College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, in his early teen years came upon Sinatra quite by accident. “My friends were listening to heavy metal,” confesses Gretzinger, “ and I was listening to Frank.” While taking in the age-appropriate Steve Martin-Lily Tomlin film, All of Me, Gretzinger was mesmerized by Sinatra’s rendition of the title tune. “I’d discovered this great new singer, and then I discovered he’d been recording for quite some time.”

Gretzinger had performed in most of the local community and semi-professional theaters by 2009 when his news-buddy Benita Zahn suggested that he join her and her fellow WNYT news anchor Jessica Layton, in a cabaret outing at Fort Salem Theater. Their fall booking was quickly followed by a holiday show as a fund-raiser for St. Mary’s School in Hoosick Falls; and, in quick order, The Singing Anchors and The Singing Anchors’ Holiday Show were born. (The holiday show plays the Fort this year on November 29, and subsequently at the Racino in Saratoga and at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library.)

In The Sinatra Centennial, Jerry will be joined for a number by his wife of six months, Erin, harmonizing with him on Frank’s classic duet with daughter Nancy, “Something Stupid;” and by four of the five young people who comprise their new extended family.

Jerry Gretzinger is Frank in The Sinatra Centennial for one show only, Saturday, November 14, at 8 PM. Seating is limited, so reservations are required. Dessert and coffee, catered by Norene and Fred’s, are served when doors open at 7:30 PM. More information is available on the theater’s website (fortsalemtheater.com) or by calling the theater box office at (518) 854-9200.


Jay Kerr
Artistic Director
Fort Salem Theater
jay at fortsalemtheater.com
(518) 854-9200
Txt: 212-582-5118



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