Harold Arlen’s Timeless Songs Take Center Stage
in a New Book Musical at El Portal
North Hollywood is set to get a sparkling shot of classic American songwriting, big-band swing music from the swing era, and old-style showmanship. One for My Baby, a world-premiere book musical built around Harold Arlen songs, plays the El Portal Theatre on March 14 to 23, 2025.
It is not a best-of compilation. The production incorporates Arlen’s timeless tunes—songs such as “Stormy Weather,” “Get Happy,” and “That Old Black Magic”—into a completely new narrative, full of romance, deceit, and intrigue, that plays out in the smoky atmosphere of a 1947 supper club.
Luba Mason (photo by Darío Moreno)
The production is the creation of director-choreographer Scott Thompson and music arranger Fred Barton, a team with extensive Broadway and beyond experience. Thompson has directed from Gypsy to Jesus Christ Superstar, and Barton’s orchestrations have been performed at Carnegie Hall and around the nation. Together, they created a production that will evoke the glamour and grit of Hollywood’s golden era and place Arlen’s music center stage in a new and creative context.
Headlining the cast are Broadway veterans Lana Gordon (Broadway’s Hadestown) and Luba Mason (Chicago (Velma), Jekyll & Hyde (Lucy)), supported by a cast of 28 veteran musical theatre performers from Broadway, national tours, and the West End.
Lana Gordon (photo by Eagle Photography)
At the center of the tale is Panama Jones, the urbane nightclub owner who keeps the drinks mixed and the drama brewing. Socialite Tess Fleming insists on pushing her lover into the limelight—never mind that her best friend has other designs on him. In the meantime, an ambitious young dancer, a tough-headed headliner with secrets to hide, and a nightclub owner with a reputation for mob connections all add a touch of suspense. It’s a combustible mix of desire, ambition, and double-crosses, played out to Arlen’s lush, jazz-based score.
Harold Arlen was not only a songwriter but a master craftsman who infused his melodies with an emotional depth that few could rival. His ability to walk the line between jazz, blues, and Broadway gave his compositions an unmistakable personality—sophisticated without pretension, melancholy without despair. Unlike his contemporaries, Arlen wrote music that felt like it had always existed, blending effortlessly into America’s cultural fabric. Whether he’s documenting the anguish of lost love or the unstoppable elation of new love, his songs work because they get the human experience. One for My Baby is not only a tribute to his music—a celebration of the genius that created it.
For devotees of the Great American Songbook, this is a rare opportunity to experience Arlen’s music as it was meant to be experienced, in all its glory, with orchestral arrangements that evoke the rhythm and romance of another era. And for anyone who enjoys a big, splashy stage musical, One for My Baby is happy to comply—complete with show-stopping numbers, razor-sharp dances, and the kind of old-fashioned musical theatre that’s become all too uncommon.
The All Roads Theater’s 2024 staging of Jerry Herman’s Mack and Mabel was sold out. Tickets to the short run of One For My Baby are soon to be snapped up, so put the date in your diary if you want to see the golden era of American song revisited with a new twist.
Ensemble cast members include Todd Andrew Ball, Keaton Brandt, Ryan Cody, Barb Erfurt, Emma Featherstone, Sylvie Gosse, Brittany Rose Hammond, Shira Jackman, Danielle LaRauf, Max Larsen, Mark Marchillo, Kitrell “Kit Kat” Poe, Camal Pugh, Charlotte Scally, Olivia Schuh, Krystle Simmons, Alec Talbott, Jeremy Ward and Kelsee Woods.
poster art by Larry Saperstein
One For My Baby
All Roads Theater
Debbie Reynolds Main Stage at the El Portal Theatre, 5269 Lankershim in North Hollywood
Friday, March 14 at 8 (Preview)
Saturday, March 15 at 3 (Preview)
Saturday, March 15, 2025
(Opening Press Night, Special Gala, which includes a party and champagne with the cast)
Sunday, March 16 at 3
Thursday, March 20 at 8
Friday, March 21 at 8
Saturday, March 22 at 3
Saturday, March 22 at 8
Sunday March 23 at 3
for tickets ($42-$135, $175 for the gala), call 818.508.4200 or visit El Portal
