Lin-Manuel Miranda will star as King Arthur and Hawaii’s Ruthie Ann Miles will be Nimue in “Camelot,” a one-night-only benefit at and for Lincoln Center Theater, at 6:30 p.m. March 4 in New York.
Miranda is the wunderkind creator of “Hamilton,” the Tony Award-winning musical which remains the No. 1 ticket on Broadway. Miles earned a Tony for her portrayal of Lady Thiang in Lincoln Center’s award-winning “The King and I;” the Nimue character is perhaps better known as the Lady of the Lake in the enduring Arthurian legacy.
Bartlett Sher, the Tony-winning director (“South Pacific,” “The King and I”), will helm the production. The cast features Solea Pfeiffer as Guenevere, Julie White as Morgan Le Fay, Jordan Donica as Sir Lancelot, Dakin Matthews as Merlyn, and Ethan Slater as Mordred.
The Alan Jay Lerner-Frederick Loewe musical boasts such tuneful signatures as “If Ever I Would Leave You,” “What Do the Simple Folk Do,” and “Camelot.” It is based on T.H. White’s novel “The Once and Future King.”
Benefit tickets are pricey (they start at $2,500, including dinner), but a lottery for $30 seats will also be available. Wish I could be there. …
BUSY WEEK FOR SHARI
Entertainer-educator Shari Lynn will be honored by the Honolulu Chorale at its “Jubilate” fundraiser, from 5 p.m. Saturday at the Honolulu Country Club in Salt Lake. Lynn, who has earned 10 Po‘okela Awards for her acting prowess, will receive the Joe McAlister Award, for achievement in a multitude of genres — jazz singer, La Pietra – Hawaii School for Girls music teacher, community theater actor, vocal coach, master-class presenter and nightlife entertainer — for nearly four decades.
Her “Forbidden Broadway” colleagues Kip Wilborn, Buz Tennent and Annie Renick, supported by keyboardist Don Conover, will entertain. Tickets: $65, at honoluluchorale.org. …
Lynn has been a staple at Blue Note Hawaii at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort and at Medici’s at Manoa Marketplace. At the latter, she’ll appear with the Shari Lynn Trio (with pianist Jim Howard and bassist John Kolivas), from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Friday. Dinner buffet from 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $20 advance, $25 at the door (medicismanoa.com or 351-0901). …
KAPONO WOW-WOW-WOWS
Henry Kapono’s just-out “Welcome 2 My Paradise” CD (Kapono Records) is a feel-good, sounds-good antidote to these contentious, divisive and uncertain times. His 10 originals boast abundant joy and happiness, radiating with Kapono’s adoration of life, family, faith and friends and reflect his work treks to New York, L.A. and more. Kapono will share some of these newbies when he visits Blue Note Hawaii at 7 p.m. Wednesday. …
STAGE SHORTS
A cue: Manoa Valley Theatre’s “Avenue Q” musical — repeatedly extended — concludes a seven-week run Feb. 24; there’s a 4 p.m. matinee Sunday, with absolute final add-on performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 4 p.m. Feb. 24. A genuinely agile and accomplished ensemble of actors, who also must be puppeteers, hits all the right notes and moves in a madcap marriage of naughty and nice. Kudos to Chev-Vaughn Lum (Princeton), Jody Bill (Kate Monster), Aiko Schick (Christmas Eve), Bailey Barnes (Gary Coleman), Sage Foi (Trekkie Monster), Kyle McNamara (Nicky) and Pedro Armando Haro (Rod) who demonstrate purpose with poise. It’s an astounding achievement of coordination and concentration, with the actors singing and dancing, with expressive facial and body language, a syncopation of puppetry and pageantry. …
Director Karen Meyer is assembling youngsters from the fifth through eighth grades from the Castle Complex campuses, to stage “Legally Blonde the Musical Jr.,” based on the hit movie, at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 3 p.m. Feb. 24 at the Ron Bright Theatre on the Kaneohe campus. The Castle Performing Arts KidStart program features Scout Hutchinson as Elle Woods and Teruboy Wakabayashi as Bruiser Woods. Tickets: $12 adults, $10 students, seniors and military, at showtix4u.com and 233-5626. …
And that’s “Show Biz.”
Wayne Harada is a veteran entertainment columnist. Reach him at 266-0926 or wayneharada@gmail.com.
