New Group to Continue El Portal Programming

El Portal Center for the Arts--the nonprofit that leased North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre--is insolvent because of debts that may reach as high as $3 million, stemming from the organization’s conversion of the 1926 movie palace into a live performance center during the last decade, according to former board members.

But the organization’s programming will continue under different auspices.

Stan Haberman, who was the last remaining board member of the nonprofit until he resigned last week, is leading a group that will independently finance and produce El Portal’s 2002 mainstage season under the banner of Shadow Box Productions, paying rent directly to the building’s owners. Shadow Box tickets will be printed and mailed to the approximately 2,300 subscribers who bought the season last year, Haberman said.

The season will begin with the previously announced revival of a 1971 Kander and Ebb musical, “70, Girls, 70,” starring Charlotte Rae, Marni Nixon and Jane Kean, playing May 18-June 9. The other shows are “Vamps,” which was postponed in January because of the financial crunch, “Nunsense” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’.”

The building’s two smaller theaters are already running shows from independent producers that also rent directly from the building’s owners.

David Houk, an L.A.-based theatrical entrepreneur who once owned the Pasadena Playhouse complex, is considering taking over the lease for the El Portal mainstage.