SHOW BIZ
Stars head up Manoa Valley Theatre benefit
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
SHOWTIME: Cris Groenendaal unequivocally is "Hawai'i's Phantom," having starred in "The Phantom of the Opera" here. Craig Schulman, the definitive Jean Valjean from "Les Miserables," also performed here. The two are reaching into their Broadway song bags for a one-nighter June 7 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom.
The occasion is a Manoa Valley Theatre fund-raiser, in which yours truly will be saluted, in an event themed "Black and White and Read All Over." Sue Anderson, who is Mrs. Groenendaal in private life, will be the piano accompanist.
The evening, from 5:30 p.m. to midnight, includes the special show, a silent auction, and additional songs by co-emcees Loretta Ables Sayre and Jimmy Borges. Richard Jay-Alexander, a Broadway producer-director, is assembling a video with messages by an array of show folks (don't know who yet), and Tino & the Rhythm Klub will provide apres-show dance music. ...
Publicist Lisa Josephsohn, back recently from a Los Angeles trip where her task was to pick up a bunch of donated Academy Awards-nominated material for a round of upcoming silent auctions, has quite a bundle to distribute. The intended recipients include the Hawai'i Theatre, for its "Now and Zen" event May 2 at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hawaii; Diamond Head Theatre's "Leathers, Feathers and All That Jazz" on May 31 at the Wai'alae Country Club; and the earlier-mentioned MVT benefit. While lunching with pals Cheri Tschannel of Warner Bros. and Charlotte Kandel (formerly WB's head of publicity), she ran into longtime pal Sal Casola and his son, Sal Jr., dining at Morel's French Bistro and Steakhouse at The Grove. Turns out that Casola is a former Victoria Station partner and restaurateur involved in several Rick Enos and Dick Bradley operations; Enos and Bradley are clients of Josephsohn. ...
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WHEE, THE PEOPLE: The Salvation Army's Celebrity Fashion Show, set for May 10 at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, has lined up about 30 models, with a blitz of media types donning SA outfits. New to the modeling roster: Vivian Aiona, wife of Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona, who normally is devoted to raising three kids and serving as a eucharistic minister at her Waipi'o church, will step into the limelight. She joins KHON's Tannya Boyd; KITV's Pamela Young, Jill Kuramoto, Mahealani Richardson, Kathy Muneno and Denby Fawcett; KGMB's Britt Riedl, Stacy Loe and Angela Keen; and KHNL's Barbara Wallace, Jodi Leong, Joann Shin and Cindy Paliracio. Femcee will be KHON's Leslie Wilcox. ...
Singer Matt Yee has been active on shipboard cruises, performing on the Navigator in runs in the eastern and western Caribbean. He's home May 3 for a quick vacation, and managed to take in Kumu Kahua's "Heads by Harry" during his last hiatus here. ...
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SHORTS OF SORTS: Augie Rey's audience at the Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel has included Melveen Leed, Glen Pinho, Winston Tam, Rocky Holmes, Greg MacDonald, Al Waterson, Nancy Bernal, Kim Gennaula and Guy Hagi. ...
The Hunks, a boy group from the Philippines that played to a crowd of 4,000 last year in the Stan Sheriff Center at the University of Hawai'i, will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Hawai'i Theatre. The five studs — Jericho Rosales, Bernard Palanca, Carlos Agassi, Piolo Pascual and Diether Ocampo — are hot to trot on The Filipino Channel and generate heat with the ladies. Also on the bill: starlet Rica Peralejo. Tickets are $100, $65 and $35, but hey, they fetched that tariff last year. When you're hot, you're hot. ...
And that's Show Biz . ...
Wayne Harada's Show Biz is published Tuesdays and Thursdays; reach him at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.
