Wood Craft Ben Wood

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Ables Sayre deserves praise for earning Tony nomination

Years of hard work singing in clubs and shows and doing commercials has paid off for Hawaii's Loretta Ables Sayre, who received a Tony nomination Monday for Best Performance By a Featured Actress in a Musical. Loretta received rave reviews for her role as Bloody Mary in Lincoln Center Theater's Broadway revival of "South Pacific" and deserves high praise ... A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim is the Hawaii Opera Theatre's summer season production, sponsored by Louis Vuitton. It plays at Blaisdell Concert Hall Aug. 1, 3, 9 and 10. Tickets are on sale now. "We are thrilled to have legendary opera singer Rosalind Elias on-stage along with the bright stars of opera today -- Audrey Luna, Jake Gardner, Diane Alexander and Derek Taylor," said Henry Akina, HOT Artistic Director ...

To culminate its 25th year, HUGS -- Help, Understanding, Group Support -- is holding a fundraising dinner Saturday in the Royal Hawaiian's Monarch Room. Kristian Lei will sing Broadway tunes. Cocktails start the evening at 6. Tickets are $150; call 732-4846. HUGS has assisted 9,000 families with seriously ill children over the years ...

Some parents give their kids unusual names. My American Savings banker is named Ryan Enos. You'd think that's a guy, right? Wrong! Ryan is a she, and said her mom was kind enough to give her a girl's middle name, Mae. But Ryan is what she is called. Ryan said she knows another girl named Ryan, Ryan Sweeney. I called friendly Ray Sweeney and he said Ryan Sweeney is his daughter from Korea that he and wife Adrienne adopted when she was a a baby. When entering Iolani's seventh grade, Ryan was asked her family ancestry. She said Irish and Italian, as Ray is Irish and Adrienne is Italian. Hearing that from an Asian girl threw off the school official and Ryan added, "Well, I'm Korean, too" ... Then there's my nephew, Ramsey Pedersen, who retires June 30 as chancellor of Honolulu Community College. Before he was born, my sister Bev and her husband, Pete Pedersen, saw the movie "Ramrod." They wanted to nickname their child Ramrod if they had a boy. So when they had a son they named him Ramsey Rodney. I don't know if he ever forgave them for that. Have a great retirement Ramrod. Your uncle, who occasionally changed your diapers, is very proud of you ...