FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Mrs. Robinson (Patrice Scott) wants Benjamin (Justin Brossier) to return to bed in a rehearsal for Manoa Valley Theatre's "The Graduate."

’60s revisited

That old adage "timing is everything" has a special relevance for local theatergoers this week with Manoa Valley Theatre's production of "The Graduate" just opening this past Wednesday. That was a week later than expected, but the first day that the rights to the hit play adaptation of the 1967 movie became available.

Classic show Manoa Valley Theatre presents "The Graduate" Where: Manoa Valley Theatre, 2833 East Manoa Road When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, through June 19 Tickets: $25 general, $20 seniors and military, and $15 for those 25 and younger Call: 988-6131 or go online at www.manoavalleytheatre.com

MVT producing director Dwight Martin says they were almost a victim of the show's international success.

"I hardly ever announce shows that I don't already have a license in hand. Once in a while, when there's a new opportunity like 'The Graduate' represented, we'll jump on it and try to make it happen.

"When we chose the play in March 2004, which was 14 months prior to the planned production, the licensing house didn't see a problem with the rights becoming available long before we would need them. I don't know if the national tour went longer than they expected (but things changed). ... I tried to get a special release for Hawaii, and was told that wasn't possible, but was told the show would be available June 1."

Had the national tour run any longer, Martin would have had to substitute another play. As it was, the delayed opening made it necessary to re-ticket all who had expected to see the "The Graduate" originally last week and "folding them in" to other performances.

"If it had been several weeks delay (instead of one), it would have banged up against the next show and I would have had to have chosen a different show, (but) it's been amazing how smooth it was. ... I've had no backlash from our subscribers. We try to do things that are hot off the presses and this one is so new that we had to delay opening by a week. We've heard from people sympathizing with the extra work it meant for us, but no one has complained about the rescheduling."

Justin Brossier stars as Benjamin Braddock, the role that launched Dustin Hoffman back in '67, with Patrice Scott as the adulterous Mrs. Robinson, Melanie Garcia as daughter and Ben's fiancée Elaine, Allen Cole as Mr. Robinson, and James Stanton and Karen Valasek as the long-suffering Braddocks.

THE STORY is very much a product of its era, and much of it is said to be more or less autobiographical. Charles Webb wrote his novel in 1963 about the aimless life of an affluent but deeply troubled young man who returns home to California after four years of academic success at an East Coast college, a year or so after Webb himself had done the same thing as his protagonist.

An affair between an older woman and a young man may have seemed racy back in the 1960s, but the theme of the generation gap seemed especially relevant back then. "The generational thing has always been an issue between parents and their offspring, and what's kind of fun about 'The Graduate,' which is now kind of a modern cult classic, is it was of an era where generations were radically changing anyway. It wasn't just traditional parents dealing with their rebellious traditional youth, it was the '60s youth, and there were so many other layers to what those different generations represented. (The story) really, really made a mark when it came out as a film and it is continuing to do that on stage.

"(The stage version) ran two years in London, and I think it was the American Film Institute that published a poll showing the 'The Graduate' was the seventh most popular film of all time ... so that says to me that it came out at a time when society was in upheaval and change, and it was a story about change on a very simple level, parents and their rebellious kids, that represented societal changes (as well).

"You can tell it's a period piece ... and yet it is also very universal and I think, as a recent history piece, people are finding it fun to go back and revisit those times."