Critic's Choice: Theater

Mini-reviews of current stage productions, by Advertiser theater critic Joseph Rozmiarek

"Over the River and Through the Woods": A Neil Simon look-alike family comedy by Joe DiPietro filled with long laughs and bittersweet sentimentality. Excellently acted and a guaranteed sell-out for Manoa Valley Theatre. Repeats at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 3. Tickets are $25 general, $20 for seniors and military, $10 for those 25 and younger. 988-6131.

"To the Last Hawaiian Soldier": The improbable premise links a contemporary Hawaiian activist with a historical revolutionary, but powerfully structures action that bridges time and space. Excellently directed and featuring a fine performance by Moses Goods III in the central roles. Repeats at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 10, at Kumu Kahua Theatre. Tickets are $16 general; $13 for seniors and for those in groups of 10 or more; $10 students (on Thursdays only: $13; $11 for seniors and for groups of 10 or more; $5 students and the unemployed). 536-4441.

Critic's Choice: Art exhibits

Mini-reviews of current exhibits, by Advertiser art critic Virginia Wageman

9-11: Response and Remembrance (Koa Gallery, Kapi'olani Community College, through Feb. 9; 734-9375). With 140 pieces by 110 artists, this rambling show continues in KCC's Lama Library. Artists' responses to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 range from the tortured expressions of Masami Teraoka and Jodi Endicott to Linny Morris Cunningham's gorgeous photographs of the World Trade Center, which she made in 1978 and recently unearthed, and George Woollard's elegiac "Flight of the Souls," celebrating the thousands who lost their lives in the attacks. It's difficult to park at the college, but parking is free on Saturdays, when the gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the library is open until 1 p.m.

Wayne Miyata (Bibelot Gallery, 1130 Koko Head Ave., through Feb. 1; 738-0368). Kaua'i ceramic artist Wayne Miyata has played with the concept of Zen figures for a couple of years now, progressing from simple stoneware forms with rugged, textured glazes to the graceful figures he is exhibiting this month at Bibelot. Miyata's new work is lovely for the delicacy and purity of its forms as well as for its finishes — whether shiny burnished clay or translucent celadon glaze.