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Wayne Brady is BIG on Improv

"It's what I have always done," said three-time Emmy Award winner Wayne Brady when asked why he had a passion for musical theater. Brady just completed a run as Lola in the Tony Award-winning "Kinky Boots" in March."A plumber doesn't have a passion for being a plumber; it's what they do well. I am a musical theater performer. It's something I've always done well. It's a childhood dream that has come true," he said.The comedian and TV personality returned to his first love in the Broadway production of "Chicago" in 2004, when he played lawyer Billy Flynn, and in 2010, when he performed as ...

ProArts offers finest farce to date in ‘Don’t Dress for Dinner’

Stage farce is a cousin of sorts to the sitcom. Despite well-known casts and clever premises, most sitcoms fail. The ones that do succeed seem to have accidently tapped into a perfect combination of character actors that display an instant, easy chemistry, usually with one previously unknown breakout performance that emerges. Farce has become a staple at the ProArts Playhouse in recent years, and "Don't Dress for Dinner" is its finest to date.Director Kristi Scott's tight-knit cast of six ably connects to Marc Camoletti's uproarious script, and in his Maui debut, James Abbott as Robert ...

The power of Suggestion

In 1953, sexologist Alfred Kinsey released his study "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female," and Hugh Hefner launched Playboy magazine. Hefner had liquidated everything he owned and borrowed $1,000 from his mother to fund the inaugural issue.It featured 1949 nude calendar shots of Marilyn Monroe and sold 50,000 copies in one month. In film, director Billy Wilder challenged the ominous Motion Picture Production Code with sex comedies like "The Seven Year Itch," "Some Like It Hot," "The Apartment" and "Irma La Douce," making playboys played by actors like Rock Hudson or Tony Curtis and ...

Evolution of a dance company

Since their debut almost four years ago at the opening of Seabury Hall's 'A'ali'ikuhonua Creative Arts Center, to their seminal piece, "Adaptations," presented at the Maui Fringe Theater Festival, Adaptations Dance Theater has always impressed me as the equal of a contemporary dance company from a much larger metropolitan community. Over the years, the troupe has grown from the trio of Vanessa Cerrito, Amelia Couture and Hallie Hunt, to an on-the-rise modern dance company with a passion to create a professional home for dancers on Maui."I'm an Upcountry girl at heart, the big city wasn't ...

Masterful moments

Four years ago, I began honoring Maui actors at Tony time with what a colleague of mine has dubbed "my imaginary Tonys." On Sunday, the American Theatre Wing will honor Broadway's best at the 70th annual Tony Awards, however, a considerable amount of suspense will not be present this year in what have been coined "the Hamiltonys.""Hamilton" received a record 16 nominations, though it may fall just shy of the 12-award record, since two of its cast members are nominated against each other in one category and three against each other in another. If any show should happen to steal a fraction ...

Alexander Academy takes dancers through ‘Adventures in Wonderland’

Just as each local theater company has its own unique personality and style, so do the many local dance companies. The Alexander Academy of Performing Arts has been flying under the radar for decades with a priority to serve the lower economic community.Amelia Couture, artistic director for Alexander Academy Performing Company's upcoming production of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," began studying with AAPA at the age of 10 in the early 1990s."We struggled with money. I don't think my mother ever paid more than $60 a month, and my sister and I attended about 10 classes per week," ...