Stage Scene
TV odd couple's thespian venture

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

Pat Sajak plays fussy Felix and Joe Moore plays sloppy Oscar in Neil Simon's stage hit about two divorced men who live together. First performed in 1968, the play remains one of Simon's best-loved comedies. The production is a benefit for Manoa Valley Theater. Lesly Sajak "The Odd Couple" A Neil Simon comedy, produced by Manoa Valley Theatre; a benefit for MVT 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27-29, 4 p.m. Sept. 30 Hawai'i Theatre $17.50-$37 528-0506

However, "I hope people don't come to see Pat and Joe," said Sajak earlier this week in a telephone interview. "They need to come to watch actors play Felix and Oscar, not two television personalities."

Sajak, of course, is the host of the world's No. 1 syndicated game show, "Wheel of Fortune," a job he has been doing for 20 years.

Moore is the man behind the KHON-2 news desk and happens to be the state's No. 1-rated anchor.

They're Army buddies from way back, and they make no pretenses about why they engage in these periodic theatrical ventures.

"I certainly don't do it for money," said Sajak. "It's mostly for fun. And charity."

"It's all about charity," said Moore. "Nearly everything I do outside of the news is for charitable organizations or arts groups." The Simon classic is a fund-raiser for Manoa Valley Theatre.

But it's also the most serious — albeit, in a comedic mode — stage endeavor undertaken by the TV buddies. Sajak took a minor role here several years back when Moore wrote a play called "Prophecy and Honor," which was presented as a Diamond Head Theatre benefit. While Sajak has done cameos here and there, this is his first stab at a co-starring role.

Being actors with a common goal but separated by an ocean (or continent, since Sajak lives both in Los Angeles and in Baltimore) has produced challenges, he said.

"I guess it was somewhat of a logistical nightmare because I have a life on the Mainland, with my job and my family," said Sajak, who is married and the father of two. "So we had to sit down and put down on a calendar how and where we could have a manageable rehearsal schedule. And I was the one who created the scheduling problems."

Moore, who has a wife and child, uses vacation from his news job for his stage work.

Since summer, Sajak has flown to Hawai'i two times to rehearse, then returned to his "Wheel" world, but is here now for the final run-throughs and blocking, working with director Jim Hutchison.

Because of the distance, Sajak had to do a lot of preparation on his own. "I had to come with the lines in place so we could proceed with the rest of the business," Sajak said.

He couldn't pinpoint the precise time or manner in which he and Moore agreed to collaborate again.

"It must have happened over a glass of wine," Sajak laughed. "And because Joe hadn't put pen to paper, as he did previously, we searched for a suitable vehicle with two leads, and 'The Odd Couple' sprung to mind. I hadn't seen it in decades. I thought I'd better read it to see if it was still timely and still funny and still works. And yes, it does. I remember reading that Neil Simon said he didn't know why this play perseveres, if it's the people wanting to see it or the actors wanting to do it."

Figuring out who would be Felix (the neatnik) and who would be Oscar (the slob) was relatively easy. "Although we're both generally neat in our private lives, Joe fits the Oscar mold a little better than I do, so that's what we decided."

Sajak doesn't go hunting for acting roles, large or small, but his artistic relationship with Moore has been binding over the years, hinged to their friendship. He's kind of a repertory company member in the Moore theatrical factory and even was asked to play the lead (eventually taken by Milo O'Shea, because of scheduling conflicts) in Moore's indie film, "Moonglow."

"You can't tell Joe no," said Sajak. "I don't consider myself an Olivier or a Jack Lemmon, though I must admit, with my level of performance (on "Wheel of Fortune"), I do have some comic timing. This is surely the most fun I'm having and the most extensive role I'm tackling. And the ensemble and Hutchison are so very patient with me; we all want to make it happen. And Joe and I want to be treated as one of the ensemble, not as stars.

"Acting is a great luxury for me; I suppose I have that celebrity entree. If I had been working at Wal-Mart, my chances of doing this play would be less. No one thought to ask me, 'Can you act?,' in giving me this role.

"I guess the acting bug may bite me some day, and I may want to do more than I have been doing," he said. "When I go into the theater — whether it's a comedy, a drama, a musical — I see when the play's working, when the audience responds, when the adrenaline is going with the actors. It's the purest form of show business, an experience I want to have."

He arrived here under trying conditions, in light of last week's terrorism on the East Coast.

"Our show was scheduled to tape in Miami last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and most of our crew was there prior to the horrors that unfolded on TV," said Sajak. He was home shaving Tuesday morning, when his wife Lesly told him about the first plane ramming into the World Trade Center tower.

"You just can't get those images out of your mind," he said of the compelling images TV provided. "I saw the second plane hit the second tower and we wondered if we should tape or go ahead and we proceeded with plans to do the 'Wheel.' We couldn't fly (the airports were shut down) so I had to be driven, in a Winnebago, for 18 hours.

"It was tough to focus, but it certainly was therapeutic to do the shows. It was our form of escape. We talked about the horrors with the audience, but not for the taping, since the shows air in November. Reality has overtaken what movies can do, and I know movie-makers will have more social responsibility here on out in terms of what kind of films they make.

"And while I've not been a big fan of TV coverage of a lot of events, I have to admit that TV came through for the most part. The coverage has been stunning. The horror stuck in the heart of the news divisions and they were as appalled and shocked as all of us, but they had to put on their game faces and do the news. TV has been a unifying force, providing the human side of coverage, too. I hope the coverage will sustain with new developments."

After last week's "Wheel" tapings, Sony, which owns the "Wheel" franchise, provided a private jet to whisk him to Los Angeles, where he took a commercial flight with few personal belongings. "I shipped over most of my stuff, so I wasn't subjected to all that intensive searching. But the L.A. and the Honolulu airports were quite vacant. In these (troubled) times, few people are flying."