MAPA cast performances lead ‘Next to Normal’ to new heights

February 5, 2015

Broadway musicals have distinct eras and trends. For well over a decade, that trend has been light fare based upon a familiar story. "Next to Normal" bears no resemblance to that, and should a new dramatic shift emerge in the future, it might be credited to "Next to Normal."The greatest strength of this truly original American musical is its painfully poignant score by composer Tom Kitt and lyricist Brian Yorkey. Director David Johnston had to find the actor/singers capable of taking on this demanding piece, but he did, and the marvelous cast heightened the quality of this Pulitzer ...

The murderous tale of Lizzie Borden

January 29, 2015

Lizzie Borden took an axAnd gave her mother forty whacksWhen she saw what she had doneShe gave her father forty-oneStarting Friday night, the students of King Kekaulike High School will present a gruesome true tale of two murders and the subsequent "trial of the century" of Lizzie Borden. The grim children's rhyme got a few of the facts wrong, though. The Falls River, Mass., coroner concluded in 1892 that Abby Borden, Lizzie's stepmother, was killed by 19 blows with a hatchet. Andrew Borden received either 10 or 11 much more ghastly blows on the head, completely destroying his ...

Next to Normal

January 22, 2015

There is no dysfunction in a Norman Rockwell painting, unless you count the kid who didn't want a haircut. My great-grandmother was a Rockwell. Her brother was diagnosed with mental disabilities and was given electroshock therapy and a lobotomy in the 1940s. So were the sisters of Tennessee Williams and John F. Kennedy. All of that was hidden behind a curtain. A great deal of "Next To Normal" is about what families let you see. What is on the surface appears to be normal."What is normal?" asks David Johnston, the director of "Next To Normal." "Does anyone have a normal life?" he adds.In ...

Theater on the edge

January 15, 2015

Frequent readers of Backstage are aware that in addition to writing about theater, I moonlight working in theater. The event that is the most rewarding for me is the Maui Fringe Theater Festival. Five years ago, I thought I'd help get the festival started and someone else would come along to take on booking the acts. Said person has not yet arrived, but in the meanwhile I love seeking out lesser-known touring productions that want to bring their shows to Maui.So what is Fringe? It's exactly what the word implies: on the edge, border or outside. Today, there are more than 100 Fringe ...

New Shanghai Circus

January 8, 2015

What do porcelain, paper, gunpowder, spaghetti and acrobatics have in common? If you said they were all invented in China, pass go and collect $200.In the first century, Chinese people were the earliest to witness acrobats and jugglers. Shanghai circus acrobatics, with all the amazing skills of strength and balance that we know today, developed out of annual harvest celebrations, similar to Hawaiian Makahiki festivals. Farmers, with relatively nothing to do over the long winters, attempted to improve their social standing by becoming acrobats.With little money to spare, peasant families ...

2015 ushers in eclectic theater lineup

January 1, 2015

Every year on Maui, a new crop of shows is announced around the holidays. The end-of-year lull will soon come to a close, to be followed by a sudden swell of eclectic performing arts productions, 18 over the next two months to be exact, with even more to come in spring.The highly skilled, rigorously trained and multitalented acrobats of the Shanghai Circus return this month to enthrall you as they bend and twist with graceful movements to form living sculptures. Matched with innovative choreography, radiant lighting, enchanting scenery and powerful music, this beautifully orchestrated ...