You can’t knock the ambition of All Roads Theatre Company as they launch their first production of 2025 in a big way with the world premiere of One For My Baby for a very short two week engagement at the El Portal Theatre. But clocking in at over three hours, 24 songs, and 10 lead characters, this overly stuffy and long musical could use some serious plot focusing and trimming before it is “Broadway bound.”

One For My Baby is a tale of lust, heartbreak, greed and redemption.  As the story unfolds we are introduced to a colorful crowd of characters in the manner of old Hollywood all-star movies such as “Grand Hotel” or “Dinner at Eight.”  Set in 1947, Panama Jones, a sophisticated African-American diva oversees one of the sexiest nightclubs in town, Dreamland.  Tess Fleming, a wealthy, glamorous socialite, relentlessly promotes her handsome new singing beau, Rick Anderson, to Dreamland’s owner, Duke Sullivan, never imagining that her chic best friend Meredith Allen has designs on Rick for her own shocking purposes.  Meanwhile, a knockout newcomer showgirl, Kitty McVey, and her smitten boyfriend, hoofer Eddie Parsons, vie for performing jobs at Dreamland, while Ethel, the club’s cigarette girl, is smitten with Eddie herself. Current club headliners, Jackie James (niece of Panama Jones) and her husband Keith, struggle to maintain their marriage and professional foothold against underworld skullduggery. Drama and intrigue lurk at every turn for this kaleidoscope of characters in this glittering, film-noir, jazz-drenched world.

This musical is long. Very long. You’ll feel the length as they stuff 24 Harold Arlen (best known as the composer who created “Over the Rainbow”) songs into one musical with varying degrees of success as the characters will say a few lines of dialogue, belt out a five-minute song, do a dance number, and repeat. Because there’s so many plot lines being shoved at you, there is an odd sensation that everything is incredibly rushed yet excruciatingly drawn out at the same time. There’s also a reason why musicals use the belter moments sparingly because it creates maximum dramatic effect but that effect is lost if almost every number has the singer just belting their lungs out. I do give credit to lead actors Lana Gordon and Luba Mason for really showcasing their Broadway musical talent and fulfilling that excessive demand.

The actors are really trying and giving it their all, from the leads to the ensemble cast who are furiously dancing and singing in precarious set pieces that needed a lot more rehearsals and safety calls. The opening night performance had many, many technical errors that made me more nervous for the actors than actually enjoying the show but I guess it can’t be helped because they only had TWO previews. This musical simply needed more time to work out their kinks because where it is now, it’s still in very, very rough shape. There are however two diamonds in this rough and they are the performances done by Natalie Holt McDonald and Sean McGibbon who completely nail their roles and the tone of this musical genre. McGibbon particularly has an incredibly riveting solo number that is easily the highlight of the entire show (or maybe because I feared for his life when he was tapdancing on top of the bar).

But even if the technical elements were smoothed out, it still doesn’t avoid the fact that there were 24 songs crammed in, each blending with one another in terms of their plot effectiveness and sound. Despite the show centering around Lana Gordon’s Panama Jones character, she is but one of many characters whose storylines become diluted due to the fact that the musical was juggling four to five plots simultaneously. Somehow, she becomes a background character in her own story.

The show centers around a Black lead but somehow, it feels very, very white and antiquated in its indulgence for the good ol’ ritzy days with a severe white gaze in how the story is told. There’s no question that such a musical will appeal to many older white audience members and that’s about it. Yet even in the 90% white audience, the classic Harold Arlen songs couldn’t keep most of their attention as I saw and heard many nodding off throughout the show. This musical would have been much stronger if they kept the narrative on Lana Gordon and made her story the primary center while also making the musical numbers count. Less is more here.

I’d also like to point out the diversity of the cast or rather the sheer lack of it. If this is a made up story and if we must maintain the hankering to the days of old, the ethnicity of the characters should have been opened up significantly because as it stands, it is overwhelmingly white with the exception of Lana Gordon, Harris Matthew, Amber Wright, Jess Val Ortiz (although they made her appear very white passing on stage), and a couple of the ensemble dance members. This was reflected in their casting call and the musical suffers because of it. Ultimately, what this musical is all about is the pursuit of the American dream to succeed and what better way to show that than to showcase ALL of its American citizens?

It’s no easy feat to pull off a large musical and I must commend the writers Scott Thompson and Fred Barton (who also directed and conducted & music arranged respectively) for making this happen. I’ve become painfully aware that pulling such an endeavor off successfully in Los Angeles is a serious challenge. But the challenge is not in finding the right actors as they are most definitely here, it comes with also having the material to back it up in a more compelling narrative sense. I believe we need material that reflects towards tomorrow, rather than being stuck in the nostalgic (white) past.

All Roads Theatre Company (ARTCO), kicks off its 2025 Season with the World Premiere musical, ONE FOR MY BABY, presented in association with Fred Barton, Sheri Clark Henriksen, Jeramiah Peay, Josie Yount and Brian Zucker with Music by Harold Arlen, Lyrics by Ted Koehler, Johnny Mercer, E.Y. Harburg and Ira Gershwin, Book by Scott Thompson and Fred Barton with Music Arrangements by Conductor Fred Barton, Directed and Choreographed by Scott Thompson.  Broadway stars Lana Gordon (Hadestown, Chicago) and Luba Mason (Jekyll and Hyde, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying) lead a cast of 29 other performers in the new musical, supported by a 11-piece Big Band.

WHERE:
Debbie Reynolds Main Stage at the El Portal Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Boulevard (at Weddington Avenue), North Hollywood, CA  91601.  Parking is available on streets surrounding the theatre.  The total running time of the show is 160 minutes, not including intermission.

WHEN:
Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 8:00 p.m.
Friday, March 21, 2025 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 22, 2025 at 3:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 22, 2025 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday March 23, 2025 at 3:00 p.m.

HOW:   
Tickets for ONE FOR MY BABY range in price from $42 – $135.  For tickets and more information, call the El Portal Theatre Box Office at 818-508-4200 or buy online at www.elportaltheatre.com   Box Office Operators are available by phone from 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.  Box Office Hours are 3:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. on weekdays, and from 12 Noon until show time on matinee days.