When Diamond Head Theatre’s production of “Cinderella” opens on Friday, it will mark the first show of the season in the brand-new, $23-million-dollar, 17,000-square-foot theater. It is also the first time that multi-Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner Paula Fuga has ever appeared in a theatrical production.
Fuga, who will play Cinderella’s benevolent Fairy Godmother, said she has always been a fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein, and this particular show resonates with her when she thinks about her own background.
“I was homeless on the beach, I lived in foster care, and so many times in my childhood growing up people were so unkind to me,” Fuga said backstage at the theater recently.
“Somehow I knew that if I would just be a good person that things would get better. Just like Cinderella. No matter what the circumstances were, she was still good and loving and kind, and all her wishes came true and more. So I see a similarity in my story. And I’m definitely honored and humbled. I’m here with an open heart and willingness to learn.”
Though Fuga is new to the stage as an actor, the audience might recognize other cast members who have appeared in previous DHT productions.
Actors Christine Kluvo and Nick Amador star as Cinderella and the Prince. DHT veteran Laurence Paxton is returning to play the King. Anna Young is the Queen. Other notables in the cast: Kyle Malis is the Royal Herald, and Lisa Konove is returning for another performance as the Wicked Stepmother; Konove originated the role at DHT in 1999.
DHT Artistic Director John Rampage, director and choreographer of the production, said opening the new theater with “Cinderella” makes sense for a few reasons.
“This is the fifth production in my 27 years,” Rampage said. “Normally we wait 10 years at least before I will repeat a production, but ‘Cinderella’ is an exception. It’s actually about six or seven years because there is always a new audience coming forward, bringing their children for the first time to live theater.”
Another reason for presenting “Cinderella” more frequently is that it is “a fairy tale, but not a kiddie show.”
“Because of the three televised versions over the years, it’s generational. People will bring their kids to the theater for the first time, but they may have first witnessed the show with the Brandy version (in 1997), or if it’s their grandparents they may have originally seen the Lesley Ann Warren version (in 1965), or if it’s their great great-grandparents, they possibly grew up with the Julie Andrews version (in 1957). The show is timeless; it’s one of the greatest scores that Rodgers and Hammerstein ever wrote.”
Amador, a self-described “huge musical theater nerd” who starred as Jack Kelly in DHT’s 2018 staging of “Newsies,” describes the production as an opportunity he couldn’t miss.
“I love anything Rodgers and Hammerstein, and I’ve wanted to do this show for a long time. So when I saw that it was happening, I knew I had to audition for it.”
Kluvo is enjoying her work in the production as well.
One of her favorite songs is “A Lovely Night” because it creates a unique scene in the show.
“The stepsisters and the stepmother are all together with Cinderella, and they’re all just kind of a big happy family. It’s the one time that that happens in the show, and I think that that’s such a special moment, especially just with the theme of the show, and the fact that Cinderella doesn’t necessarily feel like she has a family,” she said about the song. “That’s the one time that she feels connected with her stepmother and her stepsisters and they’re just genuinely having a great time wondering what it was like at the ball. And Cinderella is pretending that she’s just imagining what happened at the ball.”
Kluvo also praised her onstage stepmother, Lisa Konove.
“Lisa is amazing,” she said. “There’s this one part where she realizes what Cinderella has done — they’re all daydreaming and happy together — and she comes up to Cinderella and really gets in her face and says, ‘Pigpen!’ Lisa makes it a point to yell ‘Pigpen!’ every single time. She just looks straight into my eyes and it scares me to my core, and then we get offstage and she’s the nicest person ever.”
Young is having a great time working with the DHT old-timers.
“Larry (Paxton) is the best, we’re having the best time, and the choreography is so beautiful. I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a show that’s more entertaining, each moment is so great. It’s brilliantly directed. The costumes are gorgeous.”
The show has been one of Young’s favorites since her childhood.
“The first ‘Cinderella’ I saw was with Lesley Ann Warren. I watched it with my mother, and my grandmother loved it. We’ve always loved Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals so it has a lot of childhood memories. If my grandmother was still around, she would love this production.”
Of course, we all know how the story ends.
The Prince finds Cinderella. The shoe, er, glass slipper, fits. Cinderella marries the Prince. They live happily ever after.
While everything works out at the end, as Amador prepared for his role he was encouraged to consider his character’s background and how the Prince might have navigated the world.
“John (Rampage) keeps coming back to this idea that Cinderella saves the prince as much as he saves her,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot during my scenes. … (The Prince) has been groomed his whole life to lead, and gone to military school and stuff like that, and he encounters somebody that introduces him to a whole new way of thinking.”
Other actors have their own thoughts as well about how the story might continue.
“You know, like with any family, you’d have some growing pains and figuring out how to fit into a new structure,” Young speculated about Cinderella marrying into royalty. “Cinder- ella’s had a very different experience, but hopefully she’ll bring a breath of new fresh life into the royal family.”
“I think they have to go through some trials and tribulations,” Kluvo suggested about the newlyweds. “They met one night, and there’s a whole song about falling in love within 10 minutes, so I feel like they probably got to know each other. Hopefully they lived happily ever after. We would love to believe that.”
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“Cinderella”
>> Where: Diamond Head Theatre, 520 Makapuu Ave.
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Friday; continues 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 12. Also at 3 p.m. Jan. 28, Feb. 4 and Feb. 11.
>> Tickets: $27-$52
>> Info: diamondheadtheatre.com or 808-733-0274
>> Note: All opening weekend shows and numerous others are sold out.
