Tip-Off
'Smokey Joe's' will open next MVT season

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

"We're ecstatic about 'Smokey Joe's,'" said Dwight Martin, producing director of MVT. "The show has fabulous music for our target audience and it's perfect for our performing space. With nine vocalists in our intimate theater, the show will blow our roof off. It just closed (on road tours) in January and we pounced on it."

The period musical is but one of the provocative and richly diverse fare that MVT – often called Hawai'i's off-Broadway house – is serving up this coming year in its 150-seat theater, situated next to a graveyard. Among the expected triumphs will be "Wit," a searing but brilliant drama about a distinguished literature professor who is dying of ovarian cancer; a revival of "Song of Singapore," an environmental musical where the audience is part of the action; and "The Cripple of Inishmaan," a wickedly hilarious comedy by award-winning Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, dealing with a crippled boy living on a small island off the coast of Ireland who longs for something more in life than village living.

"We're proud of our new season," said Martin. All plays have been widely produced and earned accolades among critics and fans.

The season:

• "Smokey Joe's Cafe," Sept. 5-23 – A stroll down memory lane, with a jukebox full of golden oldies by Leiber-Stoller, from "Hound Dog" to "Love Potion No. 9," from "Stand By Me" to "Under the Boardwalk," recalling the era of first kisses, last dances, and do-wop delights. Earned seven Tony Award nominations in the 1995 Broadway season, including Best Musical.
• "The Wash," Nov.14-Dec. 2 – A play by Philip Kan Gotanda, whose "Sisters Matsumoto" was staged by MVT this season. Japanese tradition collides with contemporary American culture when Nobu Matsumoto and his wife, Masi, both in their 60s, separate at her request. His new bachelorhood is interrupted by her dutiful weekly laundry visits; their two daughters have opposing views on the situation.
• "Over the River and Through the Woods," Jan. 9-27 – A comedy by Joe DePietro, author of "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change." Nick, a single, Italian-American from New Jersey, is close to both sets of his grandparents, with whom he dines every Sunday night. But a new job beckons and threatens the relationship, leading the older couples to scheme to keep him around.
• "Song of Singapore," March 6-24 – A musical with book by Allan Katz, Erick Frandsen, Robert Hipkens, Michael Garin and Paula Lockheart, with music and lyrics by Erick Frandsen, Robert Hipkens, Michael Garin and Paula Lockheart. A revival of an earlier MVT hit, set in a seedy nightclub when Japanese invaders threaten nightclubbers while the band plays on. A parody of films such as "Casablanca" – complete with mystery, a dragon lady, corrupt police and lots of funny business – with the audience part of the action, sitting at tables within the "club."
• "Wit," May 15-June 2 – A drama by Margaret Edson, about Vivian Bearing, an English professor and expert on poet John Donne, and her battle with ovarian cancer. With brutal honesty and engaging clarity, the play follows her as she reassesses her life and her work with profundity and humor. Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play in New York's 1999 off-Broadway season.
• "The Cripple of Inishmaan," July 10-28 – A comedy-drama by Martin McDonagh, an Irish playwright, about crippled Billy Claven, determined to break away from his life of tedium for one in the movies, when word hits the island community that a famed Hollywood director is heading their way. A black comedy.