Actors, from left, K. Kawika Aki-Vick, Diana Carter Anderson,
Ben Perry, Karin Valasek and Michael Paekukui will perform
in ASATAD's "The !0% Revue."
Photo by Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin

When a single top-priced ticket to "Les Miz" could easily exceed the cost of a season subscription to a local company, there's reason for concern. However, representatives of several local theater groups are generally optimistic about the return of "Les Miz."

And as the Oahu theater season begins this month, audiences have never had so much variety to choose from.

In addition to the high-profile theater groups, the local scene is enriched by sporadic offerings from such groups as the Offstage Actors Group, Solange and Associates, a.k.a, Queer in Hawaii, LunaSea and Leeward Community College.

"Where we really feel a pinch is in publicity and market awareness because the shows that come to town take media attention away from the local shows," says Dwight Martin, producing director of Manoa Valley Theatre.

"That hurts us more than losing a market share at the box office although I can't say we go down 10 percent or anything. Obviously we'd like every one to get the same feature stories and attention."

If Oahu's theater groups were placed in a line according to the amount of mainstream Broadway material they do, MVT would be well into the off-Broadway or off-off-Broadway end of the scale.

"A substantial portion of our audience probably goes to the out-of-town shows (but) I think our show selections are different enough that our niche is well defined. By and large our audience isn't going to not come here just because 'Les Miz' is in town."

"One thing that does affect us is when a visiting show needs to tap into (theater) community resources for stage hands or special materials or 50 kids who can sing. You're starting with a limited resource pool and when the shows come to town sometimes the resources get drawn pretty thin."

Dennis Carroll serves as artistic director of Kumu Kahua and chairman of the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. He sees the impact of "Les Miz" on productions by either group as "minuscule, although it might effect certain productions of a musical production at UH-Kennedy Theatre if and when we do them."

Carroll suggests that even "theaters that specialize in doing revivals of old musicals" might find "Les Miz" and future road shows relatively benign.

"One argument people make is that (road shows) are very expensive and so people are more likely to shoot their whole load (on them) as it were but I don't think that argument make a lot of sense."

Windward Oahu's resident theater company, All Singing All Talking All Dancing (ASATAD) is opening the new season with an atypical musical, but ASATAD principal Diana Carter Anderson doesn't expect many conflicts either.

"I definitely think it's going to have an impact on the big houses since they're all doing big lavish musicals at the same time (but) we've been doing a different type of theater and the groups that support us are pretty loyal. Our season ticket sales are trickling in, but this is only the third time we've ever offered season tickets and we don't usually have very hefty advance sales until like the week the show opens. We're opening three weeks ahead of 'Les Miz' so I don't think we at ASATAD are going to feel much of an impact."

Biggest of the "big houses" is Diamond Head Theatre, opening its 82nd season with "Annie Get Your Gun" two days after "Les Miz." DHT Artistic Director John Rampage takes a long-range view of the situation.

"The impact is stronger on us but as an educator and a director I am always very happy when the big tours come in. It's a wonderful way for kids to see a Broadway-style production, what it takes (to present), and that it's something they can get involved with. 'Les Miz' is very important to kids in that respect. There's a whole generation of teen girls to whom Lea Salonga is a goddess - they see her and then they come audition for us. And, if 'Cats' hadn't come here last year we wouldn't have Mary Gutzi doing our show, so there are benefits."

Joyce Maltby, chairman of the Theater Department at Hawaii Pacific University, echoes Martin's assessment that part of the appeal of the big-budget shows is the media-driven public perception that these are once-in-a-lifetime events comparable to the much-hyped Eagles' reunion concert at Aloha Stadium last fall. With Salonga joining Craig Schulman in Andrew's staging of "Les Miz" that seems a fair assessment.

Maltby was in the audience for Loretta Swit's recent road show revival of "Shirley Valentine" (Maltby charmed the critics when she played the same role at MVT several years ago).

"I like to see people here support theater (of all kinds), but I think a lot of them only go to road shows and don't come to see the local theater at all. Even without 'Les Miz' I don't think I'd see them (at HPU). Our shows don't compete at all (with the road shows) and our ticket prices are so reasonable that they don't effect us negatively, but I wish more of the people who go to the 'events' would give the local shows a chance, too."

While conceding some lost sales of the road shows, Martin concludes that the equation isn't that simple.

"Right after 'Phantom' came to town and Hawaii's economy started going soft we did some market research and no one surveyed dismissed the possibility of supporting local theatre (too). Yes, the road shows came to town, the economy went to hell, and the box office numbers were off, but it's not that simple. We've found our sales really are driven by what we're offering as well. "