Archives for January 2019

Borgata guests will be able to celebrate two iconic entertainment legends together at The Event Center. Enjoy the sounds of Frank Sinatra by tribute artist Michael Martocci and his Ol’ Blue Eyes Orchestra as they perform all of the hits. As if that is not enough, he’ll be joined by members of the cast of the television hit series The Sopranos. Steven Schirripa (Bobby ‘Bacala’), Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti) and Vincent Pastore (‘Big Pussy’ Bonpensiero) will take Borgata guests behind the scenes of the legendary show – the stories, the drams, the laughs – not to mention the countless theories about the show’s controversial finale! It’s Sinatra Meets The Sopranos, and it’s coming to Atlantic City on February 9 starting at 8PM!

We had the opportunity to sit down with Michael Martocci to discuss his love for Sinatra and to get a sneak peek of the extravaganza coming to Atlantic City!

Whose idea was it for you to pair up with the stars of  The Sopranos?  Steve Shirripa and I grew up a few blocks away from each other.  He called me and he was talking about how he did a show in Detroit with Michael [Imperioli] and Vinny [Pastore].  They hired them to tell some stories about the show and people loved it.  They got an offer after to come to Australia to come in May to tour six or seven cities. They have a video that opens the first few minutes of the evening that shows them getting [killed on the show] at one point or another, and then the show opens and they all walk out.  At the same time, I was approached by the Count Basie Theatre to come up with a Sinatra show, and we thought, why not do Sinatra and The Sopranos, the two biggest Italian names in entertainment? It’s the best of both worlds, and it’s the 20th Anniversary of The Sopranos, which we can piggy back off of.

Sinatra’s music is so legendary—what about it makes a classic, a standard?  It is very simple—the lyrics, the music behind it, the instrumentation, and the person who interpreted it.  Everything today is done in a studio with a computer. Very rarely do members of the band see the singers. In the old days, Sinatra’s music was like a concert in the studio. Everyone was there—the singer was in the middle, and they recordered. It’s so genuine when it coms out.  When someone plays an instrument, you can get the feeling they put into it. Music has a real human factor to it and it appeals to people’s lives.

Even though The Sopranos ended it’s run years ago, people still love it.  What about that show makes people still so interested? First of all, the story line and the writing is fantatic. You can relate to these characters, and people have always been intrigued with mobster stories in motion pictures.  The cast just came together. The Sopranos is being re-found by Millenials who have never seen it—the show has a whole new market. People are watching it on their laptops and their tablets. Something like that is never going to go out of style.  

You’re performing this show at Fountainbleau in Miami in march—that’s a pretty iconic location for such a program! We’re going to perform in the room where Sinatra performed all of the time—The Fountainbleau Ballroom.  I’ve performed there before. Now we’re bringing these Soprano actors in there and it’s going to be incredible.

Do you think your Borgata performances are going to attract a lot of fans given that The Sopranos was mostly filmed in NJ? What we want to do is make it special for these audiences.  I don’t want to spill the beans too much.  The show is about getting to know these guys and their characters, getting to know these guys as individuals, talking about that final episode and wanting to know how it ends, and sharing some funny stories that you’ve never heard before.

Tickets to Sinatra Meets The Sopranos are now on sale via this link.