Musicals highlight Army theater's 39th season

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

The productions will be staged at Richardson Theatre at Fort Shafter.

As usual, a companion Matinee @ 2 Readers Theatre slate – a series of Sunday readings – will augment the mainstage productions.

The mainstage schedule:

• "My Fair Lady," Sept. 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22. The Alan Jay Lerner-Frederick Loewe musical, about the crotchety professor Henry Higgins and his attempt to turn a Cockney flower girl into a proper lady, includes a melange of memorable hit songs, such as "I Could Have Danced All Night," "The Rain in Spain," "With a Little Bit of Luck," "On the Street Where You Live," "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" and "Get Me to the Church on Time."
• "Sayonara," Nov. 15, 16, 17, 23, 24, 30, Dec. 1. A musical, based on Michener's novel that was a 1950 motion picture, recounts the "forbidden passion" between a U.S. jet pilot hero and a Japanese actress who stars in the all-female Takarazuka Theatre. Set in Japan during the Korean war, the drama explores the conflicts between two cultures, with tensions not unlike those in other wartime musicals such as "South Pacific" and "Miss Saigon."
• "Flower Drum Song," Feb. 28, March 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16. The Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, about generational gap and cultural clashes, has been fodder for Asian performers for years. Set in the San Francisco Chinatown of the 1950s, the show tackles elements that may not be politically correct today, such as picture brides, but boasts a string of hits such as "I Enjoy Being a Girl," "Love, Look Away," "Don't Marry Me" and "A Hundred Million Miracles."
• "Oliver," May 9, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25. This Bart beauty, based on Dickens' "Oliver Twist," serves up all the critters of a dark musical – the orphan Oliver, his pocket-picking friend the Artful Dodger, the crooked Fagin, the romantic Nancy, the conniving Bill Sykes. The tunes are also legendary: "Consider Yourself," "As Long as He Needs Me," "You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two," "Boy for Sale."

On the Readers Theatre slate:

• "The Debutante Ball," Sept. 9, 16, 23 – A comedy-drama by Beth Henley, set in Hattiesburg, Miss., on the morning of a debutante ball, an archetypal phenomenon in Southern culture, where a genteel maiden "comes out." Familial secrets unfold in the process, questioning reputations, crumbling facades and ultimately revealing the power of love.
• "The Redwood Curtain," Nov. 18, 25, Dec. 1. A drama by Lanford Wilson about a 17-year-old Vietnamese American girl, raised by adoptive parents in the United States, who journeys to the Redwood forests in California in search of the natural father she lost after the Vietnam war.
• "The Queen of Bingo," March 3, 10, 17. A comedy by Jeanne Michels and Phyllis Murphy. It's about two sisters on the far side of 50 who search for a little zest and verve in their lives. They find some excitement at Bingo Night, where they discover and share a secret, and find a special kind of redemption.
• "If We Are Women," May 12, 19, 26. A drama by Joanna McClelland, dealing with two grandmothers, a daughter and a granddaughter, who assemble on the deck of a beach house in Connecticut. Each has a "what if ..." dilemma, with pasts and presents discussed.