Interview: Scott Thompson of THE MUSIC THAT MAKES ME DANCE at El Portal Theatre
Thompson directs the song-and-dance tribute to the iconic music of Broadway composer Jule Styne, running May 1-3.
Fans of Broadway’s golden age won’t want to miss a song-and-dance revue celebrating the work of legendary composer Jule Styne this weekend at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood.
“The Music That Makes Me Dance,” running May 1–3 on the Debbie Reynolds Main Stage, features music from classics like “Gypsy,” “Funny Girl,” “Peter Pan,” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”
Featuring an Equity cast, the show stars Anneliese Van Der Pol (television’s “That’s So Raven” and Broadway’s “Beauty and the Beast,” “Vanities”), Nick Adams (“Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” “A Chorus Line,” “La Cage Aux Folles”), Lana Gordon (“Hadestown,” “Chicago,” and ARTCO’s 2025 production of “One for My Baby”), Angel Reda (“Chicago,” “Wicked,” “The Cher Show”), Rhett George (“Memphis,” “Sweet Charity”), Neil Starkenberg (“Mamma Mia!,” “Mrs. Doubtfire”), and introducing Michael Zampino (a member of All Roads Theatre Company’s Training Program for Kids). The cast is backed by Fred Barton, leading ARTCO’s 11-piece band.
At the helm is director and choreographer Scott Thompson, an L.A. theater veteran whose recent production of “One for My Baby” earned multiple BroadwayWorld honors.
BroadwayWorld talked with Thompson ahead of the show about why the production is so much more than “just a concert,” and why Styne’s music is still as electric as anything written today.
In one sentence, how would you describe this show?
A spectacular song-and-dance revue that’s a tribute to one of the greatest Broadway composers who ever lived.
Will it be more like a production for each song? Or is it more cabaret-style, one-solo-at-a-time?
If I can dissuade anyone from the notion of anything, it’s that this is a concert kind of thing. It’s not. It is a full stage. It is choreographed. Songs are put together to tell stories . . . I have hired triple-threat people and they will be working hard for you. . . . We do not stand at microphones and sing along.
You have a live orchestra, too. Why was that so important?
One thing that people may not know about Jule Styne is that when overtures were in fashion, he was the king of them. There was really nothing more exciting than hearing—if you like Broadway music—either the overture to Gypsy or Funny Girl. They’re just legendary.
Will the show include only Broadway songs?
We’re leaning a little bit more into the Broadway side. Styne’s heart was always in Broadway. He always thought that was where his most legitimate work would be done.
That said, he wrote some incredible songs in Hollywood. For instance, ‘Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week’ was a great song by Sinatra. It was never in a Broadway show. He wrote ‘Time After Time’ for Sinatra in a movie called “It Happened in Brooklyn” and you can’t not do “Time After Time.”
What makes Jule Styne’s music so instantly recognizable?
His use of the brass is incredible. But… his addictive melody.
I would say Irving Berlin and Jule Styne were similar in their ability to be able to sit down and just play a melody that would immediately seem timeless. It would be like an earworm that would get inside your head, where you go, ‘What?’ And he’d have 10 of those before breakfast.
You’ve said you wanted to “de-iconize” some of these songs. What does that mean?
You don’t want to put a young woman, as good as they may be, in a spot and say, sing ‘The Music That Makes Me Dance.’ It’s compared to Barbra. Come on, it’s hard. So what you do is in our particular show—all three women sing it in a brand new arrangement that if you think Barbra was soaring and belting away into the stratosphere, now we've got three women who are making this thing sound like it's never sounded before.
Do you think the show will resonate with younger audiences?
It’s frustrating to me that young people, some of them, don’t really give this a chance. But when they show up, they’re like, ‘Oh my God. Oh my God. This is so amazing.’ I really honestly think that would be the reaction from the electric show we’re putting on.
Tell me about casting the show.
We’re a Los Angeles-based company, and I always love to give Los Angeles people precedence. That said … We have wonderful actors in L.A., and we have brilliant singers in L.A., and we have brilliant dancers as well. But sometimes finding that Broadway package here is a little trickier than it is in New York. Because they’re living in New York, those are their three skill sets.
In our case, we have three brilliant talents from Los Angeles. And I did go for three brilliant talents out of New York City. It was more because of the old-school Broadway skills that were required to make this particular show work.
Tell me about the kid who’s in the show: Michael Zampino.
I discovered Michael a couple of years ago, and I really wanted to do the show, in a sense, before he aged out, because he has such a great spirit about him.
He tap dances like a dream. He dances like a dream. He sings great. He has a great personality. . . . He is not playing young Jule Styne, but he is sort of the essence of the spirit of the young man who became Jule Styne.
And you found him through ARTCO? Your nonprofit?
I love that you know about that. That's one of our main missions. I've been proud that in my career I have trained people like Glenn Powell. . . Warren Worsham. . . Nathan Parsons . . . I started training kids young, and I swear, there are people in my program now who you are going to hear from.
But yes. Every Saturday from 1 to 5, you’ll find me with my kids.
So you’re still hands-on with them?
They get me every Saturday, no matter what I’m doing.
Who do you think will love this show most?
I think both Broadway fans and people who love Jule Styne’s music. You don’t have to even particularly know Jule Styne’s music, but I’m telling you… If you’re a subscriber over at the Pantages Theatre,—it’s not that you shouldn’t be a subscriber at the Pantages; they do amazing work. But get out of your comfort zone. Get off your Netflix-and-chill moment. Get out and see what’s going on with ARTCO at the El Portal Theatre. These are Broadway-level people doing amazing things that are fresh and new. I think people will be astounded.
If you love Broadway in any facet, you’re going to have a great time at this show… At the end of the show, I think people will be a little bit in awe that one person wrote that.
The Music That Makes Me Dance will play at the El Portal Theatre May 1-3. Tickets start at $68 and are available at elportaltheatre.com/themusicthatmakesmedance.html.
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