Last weekend to see Rita McKenzie dazzle in “Ethel Merman’s Broadway” at El Portal Theatre in NoHo!

Last week, an emergency prevented me from attending the opening night of Ethel Merman’s Broadway at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood.

But I still want to give this critically acclaimed Broadway-bound show, starring Rita McKenzie as Merman, a big shout out as it concludes its Southern California run this weekend.

McKenzie is said to bring an extremely realistic and well-researched persona of the world famous brassy broad to life. The show features a 12-piece orchestra under the Musical Director/Arranger David Snyder.

The producers report that since the show’s last Los Angeles engagement in 2005, it has been retooled, updated and quite literally refashioned with five additional costume changes by Eric Winterling, who created the costumes for Wicked, and additional songs.

Writes BroadwayWorld.com:  Song highlights of the evening spanning the Gerhswins, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Jerry Herman, who wrote her a special song to sing when she starred in Hello Dolly! are Merman favorites: You’re the Top, I Got Rhythm, Anything Goes, I Get a Kick Out of You, You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun, There’s No Business like Show Business, They Say It’s Wonderful, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, The Hostess with the Mostess, Some People, Everything’s Coming Up Roses, and the rarely heard Herman song World Take Me Back, all belted with gusto, in great Mermanesque style and flare, proving without question ‘Broadway was King and Ethel happened to be Queen’.