Our Sinatra and Yamaha: A Meeting of Masterpieces

(Top) Tom Postilio, Hilary Kole and Ronny Whyte

The show is Our Sinatra, at the Reprise Room at Dillons Restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. This three-person cabaret-style production was lauded by critic Rex Reed as “happy, energetic, witty, and tuneful.” The show captures the essence of the man and his music through a bit of banter and more than 50 songs including performances of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “When Your Lover Has Gone,” and “The Tender Trap,” all immortalized by Ol’ Blue Eyes.

But it begins with the piano: a Yamaha grand, alone in the spotlight, on which Sinatra himself smiles from a framed photo. According to Jack Lewin, who created Our Sinatra and continues to produce it, a tribute to the greatest of all song stylists demands the greatest of pianos. “I love Yamahas,” he says. “Of course it can be thrilling to play any great piano, but to me a Yamaha guarantees that you’ve got a great instrument.”

This has proven true in each venue. A few months after opening at the Algonquin Hotel in August 1999, Our Sinatra moved to the Blue Angel, a roomy supper club near Times Square. Lewin personally picked an S6 for that engagement; when the show moved to Dillons in August 2000, he switched to a C2, whose 5’8” length was more appropriate to the smaller room.

Throughout each run, gifted performers passed through the cast, including Peter Cincotti, who spent six months in Our Sinatra while still in high school. Since then he has been featured with his own show at the Algonquin’s Oak Room and on WNBC’s Weekend Today in New York, on which he played an S6 grand provided by Yamaha.

In each New York incarnation, a Yamaha grand has taken the place of the big band and rhythm section — and according to Paul Greenwood, pianist and singer with the show, who recently replaced Ronny Whyte – the C2 that he plays at Dillons has no trouble meeting the challenge.

“I’m a part of the show, so I tend to play more expressively than if I were only the accompanist,” he points out. “And whether I’m building up a crescendo or bringing it down as quietly as possible, I’ve never had a problem with the Yamaha. It’s completely dependable.”

Greenwood and his fellow performers, Tom Postilio and Hilary Kole, take their turns with classics from the Sinatra catalog; in classic cabaret fashion, Kole even purrs a tune while perched on the piano. Physically as well as musically, the instrument delivers without fail. As Lewin puts it, “When you see that a piano is a Yamaha, you know that it’s going to be as good a piano as there is.”