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‘Elf: The Musical’

There are several "back by popular demand" events on Maui every year. Margaret Cho's return engagement was sold out, Bill Maher's annual New Year's Day show is a perennial sellout, and should Diana Ross return to Maui, I have no doubt her concerts will sell out as well. Due to popular demand, combined with "Elf: The Musical" being the biggest box-office hit in the Historic Iao Theater's 87-year history, Buddy the Elf is back.Last December, I described the Maui OnStage "Elf" production as "a truly great Christmas show" and suggested that you would need to get tickets immediately if you ...

Louie Anderson

There is a short list of Hollywood nice guys. Louie Anderson belongs near the top of that list and the longtime Maui visitor will be performing here Nov. 28 for the first time ever. I spoke with Anderson by phone last week and he shared his comedy beginnings."I did it (standup comedy) on a dare in 1978," he said. "There was a bar that had a comedy night, and I said to my friend, 'I don't think they're very funny.' He gave me a hard time and said, 'If you think you're so funny, you try it.' The next week I did. I loved comedy and loved watching comedians on 'The Tonight Show," but I never ...

Twist on ‘Twelfth Night’

November will be a jam-packed month of theater on Maui. A bevy of plays and musicals will be in performance over the next two weekends, with even more shows to come for Thanksgiving, and that doesn't include ongoing productions of "An Evening with Mark Twain," "Na Lio," "Ulalena" and "Burn'n Love."Regarding love, everybody "Wants Somebody to Love" in William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." Director Todd Van Amburgh's modern-dress production at Seabury Hall sets the play in the late 1960s, costumed vibrantly by Andre Morissette and Vanessa Cerrito. When the shipwrecked Viola (Camille ...

Making a classic pop!

The popularity of Amy Heckerling's 1995 film, "Clueless," based on "Emma" by Jane Austen, may have led to a pop-culture resurgence of Austen's early-19th-century novels. In 1996, Gwyneth Paltrow starred as "Emma" in the critically praised historical film. In 2011, "Jane Austen's Emma: A Musical Romantic Comedy" debuted at Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, and last year, "Emma! A Pop Musical" had its world premiere at a high school in Michigan, and a made-for-TV movie version is in pre-production. Until it pops up on cable, you can see the fresh teen musical live this weekend at Kamehameha ...

Breaking barriers

It takes years to become an overnight sensation in stand-up comedy. "Mentorship is part of the comedy art form," says Margaret Cho, who will be in performance at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Nov. 7. Once a comic reaches headliner status, most need to remain in the public eye via the media to fuel stand-up comedy ticket sales. Cho rarely appears on sitcoms, talk shows or in film cameos, yet she is regarded as one of the most prominent comedians in the world.I suggested that George Carlin was the only comedian I knew of who was able to accomplish a vast fan base without the aid ...

Reprising history

I first met Maui actor Rick Scheideman three years ago as he was preparing to present "Sam Clemens and the Real Mark Twain" at the Historic Iao Theater. At the time, I suggested that it was possible that Twain stayed a few blocks away in Wailuku in 1866 when he visited Maui. In 2012, I had no idea that Twain was a guest in a home owned by the Baldwin family, now the offices of Maui Architectural Group Inc. on Main Street.Over the past three years, Scheideman, who I describe as Lon Chaney-esque, has portrayed Twain, C.S. Lewis, Albert Einstein and Sitting Bull. In each performance, he is ...