SHOW BIZ
Broadway shining bright with familiar faces
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor
There's still a Hawai'i presence on the Great White Way, though you have to search for the links. So we discovered during our annual trek to The Big Apple (and 10 Broadway shows, about which we'll write in a future Travel section story). ...
Peter Lawrence, ex-Islander who's been associated with such shows as "Miss Saigon," has been working with newcomer Josh Radnor's transition into "The Graduate" at the Plymouth Theatre. Radnor has replaced (through Aug. 18) Jason Biggs as Benjamin and already has built up a stage door following. Next up for Lawrence, a one-time drama critic for The Advertiser: A revival of "Man of La Mancha," with Brian Stokes Mitchell in the title role, and next year's "Gypsy" outing, starring Bernadette Peters. ...
Local girl Kim-E J. Balmilero is in the ensemble of the hot hit "Mamma Mia" at the Winter Garden, where curtain calls are reminiscent of a '70s ABBA concert, complete with platform heels. Though we didn't chat with her, she appeared to be having much fun, singing and dancing to the ABBA hit songs in the score. ...
Alan Campbell, one-time co-star of "Jake and the Fatman" in Hawai'i, has the featured male lead in the dance-concert musical, "Contact," at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center. We last saw him in "Sunset Boulevard" a couple of seasons back. ...
It was a lovely surprise, too, to encounter Melissa Dye, who'd sung Christine in an earlier "Phantom of the Opera" in Honolulu, in the role of Cinderella in "Into the Woods," starring Vanessa Williams, at the Broadhurst Theatre. Dye normally plays Rapunzel but also understudies Little Red Riding Hood. ...
And it was delightful, too, to see that Merwin Foard, remembered for his Javert performance in "Les Miz" in Hawai'i, plays Chalmers (and understudies Jud Fry), in the remarkable "Oklahoma!" revival at the Gershwin Theatre. ...
Kevin McCollum, a producer of "Rent" (still running at the Nederlander Theatre), has a new hit in "Private Lives," starring Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan, at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. ...
And Melissa Short, the singing and acting former Miss Hawai'i, has been in the short-run, off-Broadway musical, "Birdy's Bachelorette party," at the off-Broadway Culture Club. ...
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NAMES 'N' PLACES: While shopping at Century 21, a block away from the World Trade Center site, we bumped into Richard Jay-Alexander, whose New York ties these days include shaping Bernadette Peters' Radio City Music Hall concert recently. We first met Jay-Alexander through his association with "Les Miserables" and "Miss Saigon," and last dined with him earlier this year when he was en route to New Zealand aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 to produce a concert with British tenor Russell Watson. We met up with him at The Paris Commune, a tiny but fun Greenwich Village restaurant, and he said he'd take us to have a special dessert — cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, at 401 Bleeker St. The cupcakes are the buzz of the city because of appearances on HBO's "Sex and the City," and they are divine, with fanciful frosting, and cost about $1.25 apiece. So high is the demand that you're limited to a dozen. ...
Roy Yamaguchi's Roy's Restaurant, badly damaged Sept. 11, has reopened at 130 Washington St. ...
And yes, Ground Zero remains somber and quiet, though a sunny brightness — open space, where once stood those twin towers — yields a new kind of eeriness. Walls of memorials still flourish in the area, with pictures and hand-scribbled notes, amid dying and fresh floral bouquets, each with untold tales of grief and pain. ...
And that's Show Biz ...
Wayne Harada's Show Biz is now published Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach him at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, phone 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.
