The Songs That Got Away

Presented by His Majesty's Theatre
Part of the Downstairs at The Maj 2022 Season

Take a stroll to 1930s Manhattan and pull up a chair at the Cotton Club.

The music of Harold Arlen drifts in and reigns supreme. He gave the world 'Stormy Weather', 'That Ol’ Black Magic', 'Get Happy', 'Paper Moon', 'Blues in the Night', 'One for my Baby', and the most recorded song of all time 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'. These songs that have seeped into our consciousness and remain universally loved, but the man who wrote these songs remained an enigma, while the women who sang them became household names.

Ethel Waters, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, and of course Judy Garland. All championed by Arlen, and associated with his music. He quietly fought against prejudice, poverty and limitation in segregated America, whilst writing some of the most loved music of all time. This is his story and theirs.

Acclaimed artist Johanna Allen, accompanied by Mark Simeon Ferguson, gives you a musical play based on the life of Harold Arlen, featuring his most famous standards and showtunes.

"She takes the audience on a time-travelling expedition back to the Cotton Club in 1930s Harlem. From Ethel Waters to Judy Garland and even Arlen’s wife and parents, the performance seamlessly weaves between songs, with inspired reinventions of classic songs, threaded together by a superbly executed narrative. 5 stars" - Broadway World