Aloha Performing Arts Company recently kicked off its 27th production season with its 21st annual Original Play Festival, which featured staged readings of seven new, unpublished, unproduced plays in four days. The main stage season of fully produced shows begins in October, with the Gothic musical thriller “Jekyll and Hyde.” This moody, evocative tale is loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story about a brilliant doctor whose experiments with human personality create a murderous counterpart. With book and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and music by Frank Wildhorn, the show runs Oct. 10 through Nov. 2.
December brings John van Druten’s supernatural comedy “Bell, Book, and Candle,” in which beautiful young witch Gillian Holroyd casts a spell over an unattached publisher, Shepherd Henderson. He falls head over heels for her, but unfortunately witches cannot fall in love. Ultimately, she denounces her powers and opts for normal, human love. Dick Hershberger guest directs this lighthearted farce, which plays Dec. 5 through 21.
In February and March, the “snowbird” show is Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s beloved musical “Evita,” which brings to the stage the dynamic, larger-than-life persona of Eva Peron. The sung-through musical is narrated by Che Guevara. Production dates are Feb. 13 through March 15. On the same set, on March 21, Aloha Performing Arts Company will present its annual fundraising gala, this year entitled “Around the World with APAC.”
The homespun American classic “Our Town,” by Thornton Wilder, comes to our town April 17 through May 3. The play, guest directed by Felicity Johnson and featuring APAC artistic director Jerry Tracy in the role of the stage manager, follows the small town of Grover’s Corners through three acts: “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage,” and “Death and Eternity.”
June will bring “Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr.” to the stage, under the direction of Aloha Teen Theatre adviser Roxanne Fox, and featuring a cast of young people all age 18 and under. In New York City in 1922, young Millie Dillmount has just arrived in search of a new life. The city is full of intrigue and jazz, in a time when women were entering the workforce and the rules of love and social behavior were changing. With book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan, new music by Jeanine Tesori, and new lyrics by Dick Scanlan, the show will run June 12 to 21.
Aloha Performing Arts Company will close it 2014-2015 season with the 2013 Tony Award winner for best play, “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.” Middle aged siblings Vanya and Sonia share the family home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where they bicker and complain about their lives. Suddenly, their famous movie star sister, Masha, swoops in with her new boy toy, Spike. Old resentments flare up, leading to threats to sell the house. Also in the mix are the sassy maid Cassandra, who can predict the future, and Nina, a lovely young aspiring actress who idolizes Masha. No knowledge of Chekhov is necessary to appreciate this satirical comic masterpiece by Christopher Durang, which will run July 17 through Aug. 2. All performances are presented at Aloha Theatre in Kainaliu. Season tickets are available at AlohaTheatre.com or by phone from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at 322-9924.