Category: Stage

Hawaii actress-singer Nicole Scherzinger will be ready for her film closeup when she stars as Norma Desmond, a silent movie star struggling with the arrival of talkies, in a West End revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical, “Sunset Boulevard.”

Scherzinger, pictured below, is no stranger to Lloyd Webber productions. She earlier played Grizabella in a London version of the  musical, “Cats.”

The “Sunset Boulevard” reboot will open in September in the midst of the 30^th anniversary of the show, to be staged at the Savoy Theatre in London, directed by Jamie Lloyd.

Lloyd Webber said of Scherzinger, “Nicole is one of the finest singers I have worked with, and I can’t wait to get started on this exciting show with her and the rest of this brilliant team.”

The Desmond role, echoing the life and times of silent movie star Gloria Swanson when she was facing the transition to movie talkies, has a storied past. Patti LuPone originated the role in London, Glenn Close starred in Los Angeles and later on Broadway in New York.

Scherzinger also played Grace in “Annie Live!,” a revival of “Annie,” and voiced the Sina character in Disney’s animated “Moana.”  She also starred in ABC’s update of “Dirty Dancing.” …

‘Bad’ news for Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Bad Cinderella,” an unlikely interpretation of the legendary fairytale, is shutting down June 4 at the Imperial Theatre in New York.

The closure, and a brief four-month run, is not surprising.

Lloyd Webber, pictured right, has had a golden run on Broadway for nearly 45 years of triumphs. Thus, his reign is over, since his biggie, “The Phantom of the Opera,” finally has left the building known as the Majestic Theatre. The grand master of British musical has had bad luck this year, when “Cinderella” ticket sales soured, and worse, the show earned zero Tony nominations but amassed mostly bad reviews.

Lloyd Webber’s storied success, which began with “Evita” in 1979, generated a tidal wave of British blockbusters transferred to Broadway from the West End, including his “Cats,” with humans as felines; “Starlight Express,” with actors as railroad cars; “Sunset Boulevard,” about the reclusive and wilting Hollywood silent-film actress battling the arrival of talkies; “Jesus Christ, Superstar,”  a rock opera about the religious icon; “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” with a hero with a multi-hued coat; and “School of Rock,” about  youngsters rocking it out with their school teacher.

A sequel to “Phantom,” with the masked one relocated at Coney Island, never made it to the Great White Way, but in Lloyd Webber’s prime, his stage successes also commanded more Brit imports from the West End to Broadway, including “Les Miserables” and “Miss Saigon.”

Ah, memories….

New g.m. at Chamber Music Hawaii

Christopher Cabrera is the new general manager of Chamber Music Hawaii. He is both a musician and an educator, serving as associate principal timpanist and section percussionist with the Hawaii Symphony orchestra, and serves as a community outreach instructor with the Hawaii Youth Symphony.

Additionally, Cabrera is a board member for the Musicians’ Association of Hawaii, Local 677, American Federation of Musicians and serves as chair of the symphony’s orchestra committee. …

And that’s Show Biz. …

The 2023 Tony Awards, set for June 11 in New York, are in jeopardy.

Unless the Writers Guild of America strike is settled in the next few weeks, the planned telecast on CBS won’t happen.

The American Theatre Wing and Broadway League, two sponsors of the annual awards fest, are huddling about what to do.

They sought a waiver to enable the show to proceed, with no success. If the event is held without some agreement for a green-light, it’s likely that nominees and presenters would not attend, since that would be crossing the line.

No pact, no presence of keen participants. So talks evidently will continue.

The Tonys are Broadway’s biggest promotional opportunity.

So what are potential options and effects?

The strike settlement would mean business as usual.

The Tonys could be postponed till after the strike is over and writers go back…to writing. Delaying the show is nothing new; during the first year of the pandemic, the Tonys were shelved till later. The 2020 event was pushed back to the fall of 2021, after theaters reopened after the COVID crisis.

The Tonys are the Broadway community’s largest promotional tool. Winning shows would see a burst of  ticket sales. Winning actors and other aspects of play production would get a boost in popularity and likely a jump in salary.

New plays or musicals, in particular, need the exposure from the Tonys; without the show, the struggling productions would have to shut down.

The New York Times reports that four of the five nominees for Best New Musicals are not filling seats to cover the production costs each week, and  all nominees could get a jump in box office sales. Even a nominee that doesn’t win usually gets a boost if a production number performed live on the Tony show connects with viewers at home.

If the strike lingers, theaters would remain dark for the duration of the walk-out; the 2007 WGA strike lasted more than three months, resolved in 2008.

So the stakes are large, and producers are trying to figure out a path to success…or an end to the strike. …

Broadway grosses, week ending May 7

“Sweeney Todd, the Demon of Fleet Street” is moving on up; it’s now in the No. 2 slot of the week’s top-grossing shows.

Thus, the Top 7 rankings look like this:

1 – “The Lion King,” $1.961 million.

2 – “Sweeney Todd,” 1.826 million.

3—“Hamilton,” $1.778 million.

4 – “MJ, the Musical,” $1.653 million.

5 – “Wicked,” $1.484 million.

6 – “Funny Girl,”  $1.448 million.

7 – “Moulin Rouge,” $1.250 million.

The weekly list, courtesy The Broadway League:

And that’s Show Biz. …

Feel the chill? Diamond Head Theatre has secured the rights to be the first community group to stage the Disney film-turned-stage hit “Frozen,” involving Elsa and Ella and amid a wintery wonderland.

The popular musical – a Hawaii premiere — will top DHT’s 2023-2024 season and will be staged July 26 through Aug. 11, 2024.

It will replace “My Fair Lady,” originally pegged in that time slot. Thus, data in an earlier DHT season mailer are now incorrect and obsolete.

Current season subscribers will get first dibs in securing tickets, through May 19, 2023.

The new season will include “Mamma Mia!,” “Scrooge, the Stingiest Man in Town,” “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940,” “Kiss Me Kate,” and “Tootsie,” with “Frozen” winding up the season.

New season subscribers will have to wait till early summer to order tickets. …

Tony nominees will be named May 2

Nominees for this year’s 76^th annual Tony Awards will be announced May 2, in a ceremony hosted by Lea Michele, currently starring in “Funny Girl,” and Myles Frost, , last year’s Best Actor in a Musical for his role as Michael Jackson in “MJ, the Musical.”

The announcement will be streamed via the Tony Awards’ YouTube channel

The actual Tony Awards program will be staged June 11, originating at the United Palace in Washington Heights, New York, and airing live via CBS…

Symphonies important

The Hawaii Symphony Orchestra staged four free concerts at the Hawaii Theatre for school keiki and their teachers, with 3,200 listeners tuning in April 20 and 21.

What a splendid treat. The HSO’s Fund for Education and Community Engagement partnered with other community resources to make the shows possible. Others engaged in the endeavor included Hawaii Theatre’s Partners in Arts Program, the U.S. Forest Service, the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture, and the Arts, and DOFAW (the Division of Forestry and Wildlife). Students in grades 4 through 12 were eligible to attend, and the performances focused on music and themes connecting classical music, hula, art, science and the importance of Hawaii’s native forests, linking visuals with live performances.

I recall, from way back in time (and memory), that I saw and heard my first symphonic music when the Honolulu Symphony, the predecessor of HSO, performed “Peter and the Wolf” at the McKinley High School Auditorium. The maestro was George Barati, just to indicate how long ago this was, and while the Hawaii Theatre already was standing, it likely was waiting for the renovation that came, and Blaisdell Concert Hall was not yet erected.

I was not wholly mesmerized by  the classical genre, but the early exposure was an important revelation: that there was a spectrum of music I would explore in the years to come. …

And that’s Show Biz. ….

 Note: this column originally was posted on March 29, 2023, after “La Cage Aux Folles” opened at Diamond Head Theatre. The original art appearing here has been replaced with photos by Brandon Miyagi, which DHT provided a few days ago.

“La Cage Aux Folles,” now at Diamond Head Theatre, is a giddy and gorgeous musical bubbling with heart and hilarity, about a gay couple named Georges and Albin who share a home, a nightclub and heartbreak that test their longstanding relationship.

Georges (Guy Merola, grandly showcasing his tenor voice, with substantial operatic presence) operates “La Cage Aux Folles,” a hotspot in St. Tropez, France, where he is the supposed guy in a supposed hetero-homo lifestyle. His partner, Albin (Andrew Sakaguchi, in a career-best expedition as a gorgeous drag queen chanteuse, with abundant swish and sizzle), is the trans whose baritone soars to the high notes, on three-inch pumps and ultra glamorous wigs coupled with body-clinging gowns.

The narrative supposes this is a happy household, where Albin doubles as a “mom” to Jean Michel (Charles Ho, a cutie like the boy next door, who is the 20-something straight son of Georges) from a previous relationship named Sylvia, mentioned but not seen.

Guy Merola as Georges, Andrew Sakaguchi as Albin, the lovers in “La Cage.”

The wrinkle: Jean-Michel visits the couple’s apartment, which adjoins the sexy nightclub, to announce he’s about to marry g.f. Anne (Nanea Allen, also a cutie-beauty). Thus, the calm becomes chaotic, complicated  and challenging, when the tempo and temperature rise.

Based on a play by Jean Poiret, with a book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, “La Cage” plays unabashedly gay, and preys on cliched and exaggerated manners, gestures and chatter.

But an undercurrent of traditional virtues and values — the respect for lifestyle choices that may not be the norm, the notions of acceptance and empathy, the bond of family harmony  –  echoes a rom-com involving two traditional lovers. Everyone, everywhere and everything become threatened by distortions, fibs and pretense, when, in fact, the show celebrates and humanizes the gayness of the leads.

Director John Rampage, a wizard of spectacle, has assembled a stellar cast to play out the different strains of the rainbow with sentimental turns without resorting to caricature. Sakaguchi doubles as choreographer, with swirls of clubby dancing, surrounding himself with the Cagelles decked out in  eye-filling frou-frou. For the audience, it’s a guessing game to figure out which are women with plumes and sequins, which are men masquerading as exotic dancers on heels.

Merola, who is making a comeback after more than a dozen years away from the stage spotlight, has the best of times when his tenor works its magical spell. His handling of the “Song on the Sand” ballad, with those la-da-da-das, is captivating, and is generously heard twice (in Act 1 as a solo number, in Act 2 as a duet) with Sakaguchi’s powerful, pliable voice in both gentlemanly and womanly modes.

The tension and trauma unfold when the conservative parents of Anne, Edouard Dindon (Joe Martyak, perfect as a big shot bigot) and his wife, Marie Dindon (Kim Anderson, hilarious and open-minded) pay a visit to meet the parents of Jean Michel. The tangled play-out is over-the-top outrageous, but never falls to mockery.

A dinner with Georges (above, left) and Albin (below, right), at Chez Jacqueline Restaurant, formally introduces Jacqueline (Shari Lynn, in a cameo, repeating the role of the restaurant owner), enabling the dependable Shari to  uncork her Jacqueline juice on “The Best of Times,” with Albin and Marie chiming in.

Composer Herman’s score is rich and savory, with two precise, enduring hits — the aforementioned “The Best of Times” and the be-who-you-are anthem, “I Am What I Am”–delivered with precision and pride in an empowering, ecstatic Sakaguchi interpretation that closes Act 1.

At the Saturday night (March 25) performance I attended, La Tanya Faamausili-Siliato’s sound was quirky and uncertain, crackling a few times with feedback. Ouch!

Phil Hidalgo’s music direction — silky smooth and smart, even employing an actor to “play” an accordion onstage — deserves a curtain call, but it’s impossible because the stage pit design disallows the bow. Quel dommage.

Madison Gholston’s first costume design assignment included a boutique-like array of garb, from showgirl glitz to snappy traditional men’s suits, from houseboy uniforms to the stunning formal glam garb donned by Albin, notably in Act 2. Bravo!

And makeup and wig designer Aiko Schick merits kudos for her flamboyant finery, in concert with the varied and imaginative hair design by Shaw Rodriguez. Magnifique!

Georges and Albin, seated, with the chorus of glam Cagelles in the background.

Steven Clear’s light design provided keen sheen, but Dawn Oshima’s set design was a wonderment, with limited utilization of the facility’s fly space, mostly lowering curtains and bejeweled ribbon drops and a couple of painted scenic. There’s still constant reliance of split-sets scenery of the Georges-Albin digs and a French promenade,  wheeled out in sections on wagons instead of aerial drops (too heavy?) from the fly space. Porquoi?

“La Cage Aux Folles” reflects and embraces the joyous era of the musical with songs that audiences can sing or hum as they exit the theater. It also boasts a grand opening overture that includes the key hit songs, a formula of the prolific Rodgers and Hammerstein duo of yesteryear, still a requisite in revivals.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and the “Les Miserables” team of Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil  are among the creative forces who have followed the R&H format, with appealing overtures and scores that produce breakout hit songs.  …

“La Cage Aux Folles”

A musical based on a play by Jean Poiret, with songs and lyrics by  Jerry Herman and book by Harvey Fierstein

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, through April 9, plus extended shows at 7:30 p.m. April 15 and 4 p.m. April 16

Where: Diamond Head Theatre

Tickets: $27 to $52, at (808) 733-0274 or www.diamondheadtheatre.com …

And that’s Show Biz. …

A Filipino American child actor from Hawaii is the latest to join a growing list of accomplished performers in high profile roles.

Milo Maharlika, 9, a fifth grader, joined a touring company of the Tony Award-winning “Les Misérables,” in the featured role of Gavroche. He made his debut March 31,  in a Durham Performing Arts Center staging of “Les Miz” in North Carolina, which will embark on a 12-week tour over the next six months.

As Gavroche, Maharlika (pictured below) solos on “Little People,” the tune that boasts a can-do attitude of a youngster.

Or, as the lyrics say, “The world is big, but little people turn it around!” In context of the show, Gavroche is a young patriot who does his best to work among adult soldiers amid the barricades, based on Victor Hugo’s compelling French Revolution novel, transferred to the Broadway stage and subsequently, in a film.

He’s the first Filipino actor to play this role—customarily cast with Caucasian lads, and infrequently Asians – in the U.S.  One of the early Hawaii actors to portray Gavroche in the 1990s was Jason Tam, who performed in the show here as well as on Broadway, and since has developed into an adult Broadway star with such notable credits as “A Chorus Line,”  “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Be More Chill.” Islander Ryan Rumbaugh also took on the role, too. …

‘Kamusta, Pilipinas!’

If you have relatives in the Philippines, might want to inform them that “Hamilton” is heading for the Philippines in September.

Show creator Lin-Manuel Miranda was in Manila a few days ago and told media that his award-winning show will be staged at The Theater at Solaire.

“Kamusta Pilipinas!” (Hello, Filipinos), Miranda said prior to sharing a video of his hit show. He also acknowledged that there are several actors in his company of shows who are Filipinos, including Marc dela Cruz (pictured right), from the Big Island, in the flagship Broadway company. It’s not likely for dela Cruz to join the touring company on tour, though Filipinos in the cast would boost ticket sales.

“Now we get to bring the show to your beautiful country very soon,” Miranda said. “I can’t wait for you to see it.” …

And that’s Show Biz. …