Stage Scene
Curtains rise with variety of styles and themes
By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer
Three very different season-opening stage productions take a bow in the next several days, with three very different behind-the-scenes stories.
Kyle Sackowski • The Honolulu Advertiser
Homage to rock 'n' roll writers
Manoa Valley Theatre's 33rd season opener, "Smokey Joe's Cafe," features cast members, clockwise from left to right, back row: Christopher Washington, Marika Dillard, Rand Wilson, Lesley Alexander, Kala'i Stern, Riya Davis. Front row: Ka'ohi Yojo and John Bryan.
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller are to rock 'n' roll what Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein are to American musical theater. Not quite the inventors of their art form, but among those who elevated it to its greatest heights.
Just try to imagine the glory days of rock 'n' roll without the writer-producer team's impressive collection of propulsive, snarling rockers or smooth blue-eyed soul ballads and doo-wop. Among their compositions: "Jailhouse Rock," "Stand By Me," "Kansas City," "Yakety Yak" and "Hound Dog." Among the artists who made these famous: Elvis Presley, The Coasters, The Drifters, Big Mama Thornton and Peggy Lee.
Not your everyday two hours of musical theater, "Smokey Joe's Cafe" is an homage to Leiber and Stoller's musical legacy and a must-see for fans of rock 'n' roll's early years. A concert packed with just shy of 40 of the duo's best compositions, the production is a briskly paced package of sweet soul vocalizing, exuberant choreography, flashy costumes, and very little plot.
The eight-member cast of "Smokey Joe's Cafe" kicks off a 15-performance run at Manoa Valley Theatre next week with director Andrew Sakaguchi ("Chess," "Tommy") doing double duty on choreography.
| 'Smokey Joe's Cafe' | |
| • | Opens at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday |
| • | Manoa Valley Theatre |
| • | $30 (discount available for seniors, military and patrons 25 and under) |
| • | 988-6131 |
| • | Shows at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 4 p.m. Sundays, through Sept. 23 |
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Opening on Broadway in 1995, "Smokey Joe's" was nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Choreography. It closed in January 2000, setting a record as Broadway's longest-running musical revue. The sheer number of three-minute masterpieces in "Smokey Joe's" has happily launched Sakaguchi into creative overdrive.
"Every song has its own mood and we run the gamut of dance styles," said Sakaguchi. "'Spanish Harlem' is a lyrical love ballad, so we have a little mini-ballet going on in that. 'On Broadway' is a huge, showstopper-type song so we've got the guys doing really athletic, aerobic Temptations-style choreography while having to sing at the same time. Most of the movement is just a lot of fun because the music is so much fun."
A multi-layered music fan, Sakaguchi also admires the elevated status the production lends rock 'n' roll pop.
"'Smokey Joe's' presents these popular songs in a way that validates them as great pieces of music," said Sakaguchi, "and in a way where people can appreciate them as more than just the fluff they may have been seen as in the 1950s and 1960s."
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Army Community Theatre offers 'My Fair Lady'
| 'My Fair Lady' | |
| • | Opens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday |
| • | Richardson Theatre, Fort Shafter |
| • | $12-$15 adults; $6-$8 children under 12 |
| • | 438-4480 |
| • | Shows at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, through Sept. 22 |
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Just try to forget the image of an eternally young Audrey Hepburn swooning her way through "I Could Have Danced All Night" (with vocals courtesy of "Dubber to the Stars" Marni Nixon) in 1964's George Cukor-helmed big screen "My Fair Lady."
The rest of the musical doesn't slouch either, thanks to Lerner and Loewe classics such as "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," "On the Street Where You Live," and "Get Me to the Church on Time."
University of Hawai'i-Manoa theater professor Glenn Cannon directs an army of an Army Community Theatre cast — 28 to be exact — through his first staging of the 1956 Broadway musical based on George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" stage play.
"It had always been a desire of mine to direct this," said Cannon. Asked why, Cannon practically pounced through the telephone line.
"Because it's a magnificent play!" he scolded. "It's as simple as that." Oh, come on, Mr. Cannon, there has to be a back story.
"Not really," said Cannon. "It's witty and intelligent. The music is magnificent. And it's a story that touches people every time it's performed, no matter how often it's performed."
Magnificent!
• • •
'A Language of Their Own' by Kumu Kahua Theatre
Brad Goda
"I thought it was a beautiful love story," director Harry Wong said of his Kumu Kahua Theatre production of playwright Chay Yew's "A Language of Their Own."
Oscar (J. Martin Romualdez) and Daniel (Norman M. Munoz) in Kumu Kahua's season-opening production, "A Language of Their Own."
Wong draws comparisons between Yew's story of two gay Asian-American men who abruptly break off their still-passionate relationship when one of them tests positive for HIV, and Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."
"The lead characters (of both) never get to know the fading of love, when passion begins to dissolve," said Wong. "The play shows how the breakup of one couple's relationship influences their next relationships. It's about how our past relationships scar us for the next person we meet."
Wong's four-member cast will be working in the round with a bed as the set's sole prop.
'A Language of Their Own'
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Opens at 8 p.m. Thursday Kumu Kahua Theatre
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$16; $13 seniors; $10 students
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536-4441
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Shows at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; and 2 p.m. Sundays, through Oct. 7
"Most of the play takes place in the bedroom, where most moments between couples like fighting and truth-revealing happens," said Wong.
An admirer of Yew's sagely worded Asian-American-themed plays, Wong praised "Language's" universal appeal.
"The play has Asian-American issues, gay issues and a character dying of AIDS, but it has a lot to do with people in general," said Wong. "The audience will be able to recognize some of the behaviors and habits of themselves up there. These people are human beings that have to struggle the same way we all struggle."
