honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, March 21, 2003

STAGE SCENE
She's footloose and following the footlights

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Isabelle "Izzy" Decauwert, back in town from her New York base to co-star with Larry Paxton in Diamond Head Theatre's "Romance, Romance" starting tonight, lives and breathes theater.

'Romance, Romance'

A musical by Keith Herrman and Barry Harman, produced by Diamond Head Theatre

Premieres at 8 p.m. today; repeats at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays, through April 6

Diamond Head Theatre

$10-$40

733-0274

Also featuring Sherry Chock Wong and Gary Masuoka

Directed and choreographed by John Rampage

Musical direction by Donald Yap

As such, she's always up against the odds, responding to cattle calls for roles that often elude her. Still, it's what she does, and she'll go practically anywhere if the role suits her fancy.

Which brings her back home, in a reunion with Paxton. Together, they had done DHT's "Jekyll & Hyde" in 2001; he was the schizoid central figure, she portrayed the prostitute Lucy.

And they had a grand time together.

"After my experience with 'Jekyll & Hyde,' and the fun I had, it was easy to say yes," she said. "When you do shows in Hawai'i, you focus on rehearsals at nights, but your days are free. That's a perk."

Paxton enjoyed the musical sparks they created. "We had such good chemistry and a wonderful working relationship," he said of Decauwert. "Basically, (director) John Rampage couldn't do this show without chemistry, and we both loved working with him earlier."

Paxton, a University of Hawai'i music professor, said a romantic comedy devoid of dark themes is "kind of fortuitous in these troubled times. This is a perfect show for now."

The show looks at two romances, one set in long-ago Vienna, the other in the present-day Hamptons. Decauwert portrays Josephine and Monica, Paxton is Alfred and Sam.

Decauwert left the chill of New York and a paying backstage stint as a hairdresser for the hit musical "Hairspray" to settle into "Romance, Romance" several weeks ago. While touring in the rock opera "Tommy," she had one too many bad wig days, so she took the trouble to learn about wigs. Now she has a hair union card.

She only recently earned her Actors Equity card (when she did her last acting role, "Children of Eden" in Colorado) so she did not qualify for "Hairspray" when it was being cast. "Besides, I was too old to play the kids and too young to play the character roles," she said. "So I played with hair, meeting a lot of people in the process."

New York is the heartbeat of a theatrical wannabe. And Decauwert wants to be ... badly.

"You could sit home and get scared, but getting out there to audition for everything, even if it's not right for you, could get you eventually noticed," she said.

She recalled a Danny DeVito interview in which he said he went out when there was a call for a tall, angular veterinarian type. "Eventually, you get hired," she said of the routine.

She is enjoying both the "then" and "now" characters of "Romance." "They're well written, but enough is left out so you can pull from your own experiences to shape the roles," she said.

With New York as her hub, she's journeyed all over the place: "I think I've been to all 50 states to work."

Her indoctrination to the Big Apple was initially painful and gradual. "I wanted to leave the city because everything was daunting, even frightening," said Decauwert. "So you either make friends with the city and survive, or you leave. It can be the nicest place to be, or the most horrible; it's what you make of it. It all depends on your frame of mind."

There was a point when she couldn't find theatrical work for a year and a half, "not one gig," so she worked as a manager of a movie theater. "You need to have many life experiences," she said.

When she's away, Decauwert misses Zippy's Zip-pac the most. "And the chili and rice," she gulped, then adding "the crab dip and focaccia at Ryan's. Oh, yes, and Yummy Korean barbecue. And Columbia Inn."