All Roads Theatre Company Will Open With MACK & MABEL in 2024

ALL ROADS THEATRE COMPANY (ARTCO) announces its emergence into the Southern California Arts Scene with the bold announcement of a fully staged and choreographed “In Concert” presentation of Jerry Herman’s and Michael Stewart’s beloved but seldom-produced musical, MACK & MABEL, for three performances, February 16, 17 and 18, 2024 at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood. 

The brainchild of founders Scott Thompson and Fred Barton, ARTCO will follow its inaugural production with a 2024/2025 season of three productions: a classic play, a second classic musical, a digital new works play festival, and the rollout of a concert series, featuring an orchestra and major musical theatre performers, dedicated to the work of classical Broadway composers.  

“Though long in the planning, ARTCO comes along at a crucial time in the theatre life of this city,” says Producing Artistic Director Scott Thompson. “While several major professional theatres around the country are curtailing or cancelling their seasons, ARTCO’s business model is based on mainstream, audience-friendly titles to establish itself and attract a wide, diverse, and solid fan base.”
 

Managing Director Fred Barton states, “We are taking note of the hugely popular theatrical productions on the boards both on Broadway and throughout the country, and believe we can emulate their success with intelligent, discriminating, and targeted programming which the Los Angeles theatregoing community hungers for, and which can best promote a return to pre-Pandemic theatre-going habits.”

While ARTCO expects to draw heavily from the brilliant talent pool of Los Angeles theatre and film artists, it will also cast a wider net to bring New-York-based Broadway Artists to LA audiences as well.  “It is our aim to cast the best people we can find for our productions without their geographical location necessarily being the deciding factor,” said Thompson.  Full casting for MACK & MABEL will be announced in the near future, along with specific subsequent productions for ARTCO’S 2024/25 Season.

Scott Thompson is an award-winning producer, director and choreographer who has produced and directed a “Who’s Who” of today’s Broadway talent at theatres around the United States with an eclectic repertoire of productions including GYPSY starring Broadway legend Betty Buckley, OLIVER starring Tony Award winner Stephanie J. Block, and the notorious classic Tom Eyen play, “Women Behind Bars,” which enjoyed a successful run in Los Angeles at the Montalban Theatre starring Traci Lords and Eureka O’Hara, now streaming on Broadway HD and coming soon to Amazon Prime. 

Fred Barton debuted at age 23 as co-creator of the international hit Forbidden Broadway, also arranging and playing the Off-Broadway hit revue SPAMILTON (including the hit LA productions.) At age 24, Fred created his one-man musical theatre piece MISS GULCH RETURNS!, still produced by theatres nationwide into 2024. Broadway/National Tour conducting credits: Anthony Quinn in ZORBA, Hal Prince’s CABARET revival, Cy Coleman’s CITY OF ANGELS, and Robert Goulet in CAMELOT. Television Composer/Arranger/Conductor credits: THE MAGIC SCHOOLBUS (Emmy Award), HBO’s CATHOUSE: THE MUSICAL, WONDER PETS! (Emmy Award), and OLIVIA.

“MACK & MABEL” is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. The plot involves the tumultuous romantic and artistic relationship between Hollywood director Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand, who became one of his biggest stars. In a series of flashbacks, Sennett relates the glory days of Keystone Studios from 1911, when he discovered Normand and cast her in dozens of his early "two-reelers", through his creation of Sennett's Bathing Beauties and the Keystone Cops, to Mabel's death from tuberculosis in 1930.

The original 1974 Broadway production was produced by David Merrick and starred Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters. It received eight Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical. Jerry Herman's score is widely acclaimed as among his best, and was indeed his own personal favorite. The property has been revived only occasionally, but never on Broadway, and today remains a beloved, but seldom seen jewel of American musical theatre history.  ARTCO will present a fully choreographed, fully staged “In-Concert” rendering of the work with a full orchestra, dedicated to presenting Herman’s glorious score to its most thrilling effect. 

Regular tickets for MACK & MABEL will go on sale October 1. Specially-priced Gala Opening Night tickets for February 16th, 2024, which includes Priority Seating and an invitation to the official Celebration of ARTCO’s opening, will go on sale shortly. 

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