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Reminder of the past

As a history buff, I can't help seeing political similarities from century to century. From 1861 to 1933 only three Democrats occupied the White House totaling 19 years. One was President Grover Cleveland.Cleveland was one of the few bachelor president in addition to being the only president elected to non-consecutive terms. Labeled as a draft dodger for hiring an Irish immigrant to serve in his place during the Civil War, and a deadbeat dad and philanderer by the Republican Party, Cleveland was depicted in a well-circulated political cartoon as a wealthy man strolling down a New York ...

For the love of theater

Many Maui theatergoers are surprised to discover that nearly everyone in community theater is a volunteer. The follow-up question is always why anyone would donate hundreds of hours of their time annually. The best analogy I can offer is that very few surfers and golfers get paid, yet there are thousands of surfers and golfers on Maui.Maui OnStage board member and actress Erin McCargar and her 10-year-old daughter, Emily, have been active in theater for the past 18 months. I asked Erin how she juggles single-mom duties and a full-time job at Monkeypod Kitchen with donating time to ...

Season Preview

A new theater season is beginning on Broadway, yet "Hamilton" remains the toast of the town with sold-out houses deep into 2017 and tickets running well over $1,000 apiece.A few of the anticipated new Broadway shows for 2016-17 include revivals of "The Front Page" starring Nathan Lane and John Goodman, and "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" starring Liev Schreiber. Original musicals include an adaptation of "A Bronx Tale," book by Chazz Palminteri, music by Alan Menken and co-directed by Robert De Niro and Jerry Zaks; "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," book by David Greig, music and lyrics by ...

Free Range Comedy

In Chicago in the late 1920s, Viola Spolin developed a new approach to teaching acting to young people based on the idea that they would enjoy learning the craft if it were presented as a series of games.Thirty years later, her son, Paul Sills, built on his mother's work as the driving force in improvisational theater at the University of Chicago. On one snowy night in December 1959, a handful of Chicago students opened the doors of their new improv comedy home, naming the group The Second City. Its earliest members included Sills, Alan Arkin, Roger Bowen, Hamilton Camp, Del Close, ...

‘12 Angry Jurors’: Fresh approaches used to tackle dicey topics

The early summer shows on Maui delivered unbridled silliness and rampant hilarity. Moving into the dog days of summer, a shift toward weighty theater is now in play.In "12 Angry Jurors," it's late in the afternoon on a swelteringly hot August day in the mid-1950s. The jurors, five women and seven men, file sluggishly into the jury room of a New York City courthouse to determine the fate of a teenager accused of stabbing his father to death. Should they find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the mandatory sentence will be execution.At the outset, the forewoman (Ute Finch) polls the ...

In ‘Jekyll & Hyde,’ dark themes reign

Two distinct motifs have emerged in musicals on Broadway over the past half century. One genre is the lighter American musical-comedy, mostly attributed to the 1950s and '60s, which re-emerged in the late 1990s, and the other is rooted in European opera, such as the massive 1980s hits like "Phantom of the Opera," and "Les Miserables." With the recent popularity of heavier dramas and the epical hit "Hamilton," perhaps the current American trend is shifting toward meatier theater.Humorously, David C. Johnston, director of the current Maui production of "Jekyll & Hyde The Musical" ...