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The Honolulu Advertiser
Upcoming MVT season fun and edgy | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper
Posted on: Sunday, June 24, 2007

Upcoming MVT season fun and edgy

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

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Writer John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt" won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2005. The play will be performed at the Manoa Valley Theatre from Jan. 16 to Feb. 3.

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For its 2007-08 season, Manoa Valley Theatre has assembled four musicals, one drama and a whodunit murder mystery-comedy, combining exploration and enjoyment with a bit of edge.

Four of the six shows are Hawai'i premieres, two are audience-favorite revivals.

The premieres include "The Musical of Musicals — The Musical," a pastiche of musicals done in the style of familiar composers, and "Plaid Tidings," a holiday-themed sequel to the perenially-popular period piece, "Forever Plaid."

The new drama to see will be "Doubt," with themes straight from the headlines, about paranoia and pedophilia within a Catholic school.

Returnees include "Rocky Horror Picture Show," the ribald rock musical, and "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," the popular musical revue about romantic relationships.

The details:

  • "The Musical of Musicals — The Musical," Sept. 5-23: A satirical look, and listen, at musical theater, with an ensemble enacting themed vignettes in the style of popular earlier forms created by Rodgers and Hammerstein ("Oklahoma!"), Stephen Sondheim ("Sweeney Todd"), Jerry Herman "Hello, Dolly," Andrew Lloyd Webber ("The Phantom of the Opera") and John Kander and Fred Ebb ("Chicago"). Featuring music by Eric Rockwell, lyrics by Joanne Bogard and book by Rockwell and Bogart.

  • "Plaid Tidings," Nov. 7-25: A musical sequel to "Forever Plaid," wrapped up in a holiday package, with heavenly carols, a tribute to Ed Sullivan's Christmas Spectaculars with the Rockettes, the Chipmunks and the Vienna Boys Choir, plus a Caribbean turn which puts "Day-O" in yuletide mode. A musical by Stuart Ross.

  • "Doubt," Jan. 16 to Feb. 3: A drama by John Patrick Shanley, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for drama and 2005 Best Play Tony Award winner, about paranoia and pedophilia in the Catholic church, set in a Bronx school in 1964.

    The sparks fly in a battle of wills between stern, absolutist Sister Aloysius and doctrinally flexible Father Flynn, centering on an alleged molestation of a boy in the school.

    Conflicting depictions of viewpoints and the tenuous nature of faith and the sometimes questionable value of justice raises doubts, even after the final curtain.

  • "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," March 5-23: A musical celebration of the mating game, tapping the truths and the myths of relationships. Act I explores the journey from dating and waiting to love and marriage; Act II examines the agonies and triumphs of in-laws, newborns, car trips and pickup techniques of the geriatric set. Featuring book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro, music by Jimmy Roberts.

  • "And Then There Were None," May 14-25: A mystery comedy by Agatha Christie, originally entitled "Ten Little Indians," involves 10 people, each with something to fear and conceal, who are lured into a mansion on Shipwreck Island by a host who surprisingly fails to appear.

    Secrets are shared; and one by one, characters succumb. It's billed as a whodunit with chills and laughs.

  • "Rocky Horror Picture Show," June 25 to July 13: A cult favorite by Richard O'Brien (book, music, lyrics), about a clean-cut couple who have tire trouble en route to visiting an old college prof. The pair encounters Dr. Frank N. Furter and his maniacal experiments amid fun, rock, transvestites and a motley crew of misfits.

    It's part theater, part audience participation (favorite bits include tossing toilet paper and other stuff on the stage), set to a theme of sci-fi gothic kitsch.

    Curtain times: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays.

    Season tickets: $145 for six-play package (one per play), now on sale; a $150 flex includes five admissions useable in any combination (one at one show, three at another, etc.).

    Single tickets: Varies. For "Musical of Musicals," "Plaid Tidings" and "Rocky Horror," $35 adults, $30 seniors and military personnel, $20 for patrons 25 and younger; admission includes one beverage in cabaret setting.

    For "Doubt" and "And Then There Were None," $25 adults, $20 seniors and military, $15 for 25 and younger. For "I Love You," $30 adults, $25 seniors and military, $15 for 25 and younger;

    Reservations: 988-6131, www.manoavalleytheatre.com.

    Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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