Hawaii
Opera, musicals, dramas,
comedies fill isle theatersNOBODY can say there's nothing happening on isle stages. In the past two weeks I've taken in the opera "Carmen" at the Blaisdell Concert Hall and the musical comedy "Song of Singapore" at Manoa Valley Theatre. This was followed by the old comedy "Harvey," revived by The Actors Group at the Yellow Brick Theatre. I saw the St. Louis High production of "Footloose" with the author, Dean Pitchford, also in attendance and the UH drama department's production of Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Crimes of the Heart," a wrenching tale of a dysfunctional Mississippi family, if that's not a redundancy. All brought back personal memories for me. I played the Mayor of Seville in an earlier version of "Carmen" years ago, and appeared in HPU's "The Dead" with Katie Leiva from "Singapore" and Mary Frances Kabel-Gwin in "Harvey." As for "Footloose," I directed a 13-year old Pitchford in a production of "Waiting for Godot" many years back, which he remembered well, and Jeremy Pippen, a lawyer in "Crimes," I cast as the young Patrick Dennis when he was 11 in "Mame" at Army Community Theatre in 1991. Now Diamond Head Theatre is holding its grand pre-opening party for a new production of "Mame" tomorrow night. What goes around comes around ...
DINING at 3660 on the Rise, "Footloose" creator Pitchford reminisced old times with owner/chef Russell Siu, a St. Louis High classmate, and pal Emme Tomingbang with husband Jim Burns, a high mucky-muck at the school today. Some diners were taken somewhat aback when every St. Louis grad in the place sang the St. Louis alma mater and nobody missed a word. Incidentally, Pitchford met with the "Footloose" cast backstage after the opening to congratulate them and was greeted with spontaneous applause. Father Alan Delong got the biggest hand of the evening, however, when he announced that all St. Louis students in the cast had the next day off from school ...
Sunday crunch
ON a normal Sunday night in downtown Honolulu you could shoot off a cannon and never hit a soul. Not so this past Sunday when thousands gathered for a huge St. Patrick's Day party. Tons of food (7,500 oysters alone) and many more tons of suds were consumed in a celebration of the Patron Saint of Ireland. Just strolling down Nuuanu between King and Merchant could be quite an obstacle course, though not an unpleasant one ...SPEAKING of cute chicks, and there were hundreds of them at that Paddy's Day party, the Kahala Mall is holding the "Cutest Chick Ever" costume contest. Chicks of all shapes and sizes ranging from newborn to 10-year-olds are eligible to compete, so the feathers should be flying. Only chicks need apply -- no bunnies ...
Xenites unite
GROUPIES calling themselves Xenites are holding a Xenafest at UH on May 5 and all those who are addicted to either Lucy Lawless or the "Xena" show in general will be attending. Special guest will be actor Robert Trebor, who's appeared in both "Xena" and "Hercules." Not to scare anyone off, but Trebor also played David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam," in the Martin Sheen movie, "Out of Darkness."
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
The Week That Was recalls items from Dave's 30 years of columns.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com