Jimmy Borges, Cris Groenendaal
A GUTZI singer took the stage at the Lewers Lounge of the Halekulani the other night. That would be Mary Gutzi, who played Grizabella in the national touring company of "Cats" a few seasons back. No "Memory" for her Friday night, however, as she chose to do an upbeat "Time After Time." She was with director John Rampage, having just come from seeing "Six Degrees of Separation" at Diamond Head Theatre and getting a laugh over the fact that a con man in that show dupes wealthy New Yorkers into thinking they'll be extras in the movie version of "Cats" ... Tales of ‘Cats’
and bark of dogSPEAKING of "Cats," City Bank's Wayne Miyao (say his last name out loud) is helping put on a golf tourney on Thursday to benefit the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Miyao is behind the scenes as an organizer of many golf tournaments for charity, but despite all his work it hasn't improved his handicap one whit. The reason: He doesn't play the game. "Not my sport," meows Miyao ... From "Cats," we go to the dogs. In the Manoa Valley's recently extended production of "Woman in Black," sound designer Ronald Perry has had to incorporate many eerie sounds, such as wind, a child's and woman's screams, horses' hooves and the like. But when it came to the bark of a small dog, he couldn't find just the right tone and tempo sound he needed. To the rescue scampered director Karen Brilliande, who demonstrated a hitherto unknown talent by creating the barking sound using her own voice. She made a fine dog, and that's not a catty comment .
After this weekend, the Lewers Lounge will be one of the very few places to hear live jazz, along with Shari Lynn at the Hale Koa's Warrior Bar. Jimmy Borges confirms that this Friday and Saturday will be the final shows for him and Betty Loo Taylor at the Alana Hotel. New management has other ideas for the Picasso Lounge, apparently, with one report being a sushi bar may open there ...
THE lure of the islands worked its magic on Cris Groenendaal, who played the titular role in "Phantom of the Opera" in Honolulu, and on Saturday night he'll perform unmasked at the Hawaii Theatre. Oh, you'll still get to hear him do "Music of the Night," you can bet on that. But he walked away from Whoopi Goldberg, with whom he's appearing in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" on Broadway, to take Easter week off in Hawaii. He's with wife Sue Anderson, who'll accompany his cabaret show. And if you want to meet the former Phantom personally, sign up for Golden Circle tickets ($100 a pop) and you can attend a postshow party with the couple ... What's Whoopi to do?
AFTER seeing Hawaii's advertising industry give itself Pele awards for some fairly cheesy product, it's with great pleasure that I congratulate AT&T for that wonderful TV commercial in which a youngster asks her mom if she'll take her to the beach. "I'm sorry," the mommy says, "but I've got an important meeting with a client." The disappointed girl looks up and says, "When can I get to be a client?" The mother reassesses her priorities and says, "You've got five minutes to get ready for the beach or I leave without you." Great stuff, and it even brings to mind the company's slogan, "Reach Out and Touch Someone." ...
THERE'LL be a reception tomorrow thrown by El Comandante del Buque-Escuela "Gloria" de la Armada de Colombia at Honolulu Harbor. The Mexican consulate is holding the reception for the Colombian ship. It follows in the wake of "Juan Sebastian de Elcano," the training ship from Spain that held a reception at Pier 9 on Friday night. It was quite a site for diners or imbibers at Gordon Biersch watching tuxedoed gents and ladies in high heels and gowns drag themselves up the gangway to a reception hosted by the ship's captain, through the auspices of Portuguese honorary Consul John Henry Felix. It gave me the opportunity to practice my entire Spanish vocabulary: Cerveza por favor, vino tinto, vino blanco and Jerez ... Ship daze
Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.
