Hawaii’s Amanda Schull will be dancing with the stars of the New York City Ballet in Ballet Hawaii’s production of "Nutcracker" at Blaisdell Concert Hall, Dec. 20-22. The New Yorkers include Megan Fairchild, Joaquin De Luz, Andrew Veyette, Amar Ramasar and Sterling Hyltin. What’s more, Carolina Ballet’s Lilyan Vigo Ellis and Timour Bourtasenkov are in the production, as is the star of the Australian Ballet, Steven Heathcote, Broadway star and Twyla Tharpe Dance veteran John Selya and Rick Hoffman, star of the USA Network series "Suits." The Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ann Krinitsky, will be playing Tchaikovsky’s "The Nutcracker" score. That’s not all: This big production has the Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus and more than 185 young dancers from across the state in the cast. Performance times are 7:30 p.m. Dec. 20 and 21 and 2 p.m. Dec. 22. Tickets are on sale by phone at 800-745-3000, at the Blaisdell Box Office or online at ticketmaster.com …
ACTOR Paul Walker, 40, who was killed Saturday in a car crash in Los Angeles, made frequent visits to Hawaii because his daughter, Meadow Walker, 15, lived most of her life in Honolulu with her mom, Rebecca McBrain. Walker and McBrain never married. Meadow was living with her dad at the time of his death …
THE TRIO of Carol Lin, her daughter Jeanjean Bower and daughter-in-law Florence Chong are throwing a Christmas holiday luncheon today at the Halekulani’s Hau Terrace for 100 of their wahine friends. The party is called Fifty Shades of Red …
NICE! On Saturday and Sunday, Hard Rock Cafe in Waikiki will host a Hungerthon event featuring live performances by several different bands to support the "Imagine There’s No Hunger Campaign." The music will run from 11 a.m. to closing around midnight on both days. Guests can enjoy live music on Saturday by the Papakole‘a Kids, Elyssa Joy, Mike Piranha, Analog and Mark Prados and the Enablers.On Sunday, Ryan Nakagawa, Johnny Helm, the VeJJs, Discord, Rye and more will be rocking. Entry is free, but a $5 donation or a nonperishable food donation for the Hawaii Food Bank will be appreciated …
ROSS’ APPLIANCES & Furniture owner Tyler Palmer donated a $475 washer and dryer to Castle High School’s Ronald Bright Theatre. When he saw performing and visual arts teacher Karen Meyer‘s Wish List on SupportMyClass.org asking for a heavy-duty washer-dryer for costume cleaning, Palmer sprang into action. "We’ve been using donated secondhand ones for decades, and the current ones aren’t working anymore," Meyer said. "Without the donation, we wouldn’t be able to have clean costumes for our performances. Our costumes play a big part in our shows.Without the donation, the show would go on but we wouldn’t look good" …
Ben Wood, who sold newspapers on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things. Email him at bwood@staradvertiser.com.
