Loretta Ables Sayre sang at Waikiki’s finest venues — and many Japanese weddings — for nearly 30 years, then earned a Tony Award nomination at age 50 in her Broadway debut.

She is still busy, but happy to be spending more time at home … finally.

The 1976 Radford High graduate and husband David Sayre, founder of Sayre Public Relations, celebrate their 25th anniversary next year.

A year after they bought their house in Mililani, there was a local tryout for the role of Bloody Mary in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific.”

Ables Sayre thought, “This is ridiculous, why waste my time?”

Sayre insisted she go.

Three days later, she was called to New York.

Over the next decade, she spent a total of four years in their house. The rest was on Broadway and in the United Kingdom with “South Pacific,” then regional theater and other work on the mainland. The couple had an agreement they wouldn’t be apart for more than two weeks at a time, so Sayre wasn’t home a whole lot either.

Now they spend much more time at home, where Ables Sayre is a self-­described homebody who loves cooking, sewing, gardening and nesting in her “happy place.”

At 66, her other happy place now is doing TV work in Hawaii.

“I like television. It’s fun, it’s creative. It’s fast work,” she said. “I would love to do more movies too if there was an opportunity to do that. But you have to wait for things to come here.”

Her early TV work included “Beyond The Break,” “Hawaii,” “North Shore,” “Baywatch Hawaii” and “Byrds of Paradise,” along with local theater productions. There have also been a few movies, such as “Sex and the City 2,” “dress” and last year’s “Next Goal Wins.”

Her most recent TV gigs included “Magnum P.I.,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “The White Lotus” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Last year, she flew back and forth to New York for the HBO reboot of “Pretty Little Liars.”

Now she has added to her resume “Rescue: HI-Surf,” set on the North Shore and produced by John Wells, who was involved in “The West Wing” and “ER.”

The pandemic helped her make the decision not to travel when it closed down theaters and concerts. But Ables Sayre had already been thinking about coming home.

“Is the money that you’re going to be making worth the time that you’re going to be away from your family and away from my husband and my home?” she asked. “Is it worth it? And if it isn’t really worth it, then I’d rather say no because when you’re gone, people that you love are dying and moving away and life is changing.”

She’s willing to work on the mainland in “short spurts,” as she did in “Fiddler on the Roof” in Michigan and Philadelphia in 2022, drawn in part by its multiracial casting. She will go again in December when the “South Pacific” cast reunites for a concert at Lincoln Center directed by Bartlett Sher, to celebrate the 75th year of the iconic classic.

It is full circle for a little girl born in Stockton, Calif., to a Filipino father and mother of Filipino and Spanish descent. She moved to Hawaii almost 60 years ago, already in love with music.

Ables Sayre never took a singing or acting lesson, but her passion for the arts — especially singing jazz standards — and the direction and devotion of folks like Radford drama teacher Patrick Dickson, Keola and Kapono Beamer and Andy Bumatai kept her busy, and grateful.

Soon after high school, she began working day and night at places like the Reef Hotel’s Ocean Showroom, Royal Hawaiian’s Monarch Room, and Hawaii and Diamond Head theaters. Then, for nearly 20 years, she sang at Lewers Lounge at Halekulani Hotel and The Veranda at Kahala Hotel. In between, she released the CD “Dreamy” and opened for the Four Tops, James Brown, the Beach Boys and Kenny Loggins.

Ables Sayre called herself a “chick singer” back then, but her indelible performance in “South Pacific” — “the first time in my life I only had one job” — blew that out of the ocean.

“I did it, and I did it with this caliber of people that I still love, that are still in my life,” she said. “I learned more there than I learned in any other job.

“And it made me expect more of what I give as a performer and gave me something to share with younger performers too, … to try to share with them to raise your own personal expectations and to expect to work with the finest people. But in order to do that, you have to give the finest that you have too.”

Her unique take on the character of Bloody Mary, and memorable solos “Happy Talk” and “Bali Hai,” caught everyone’s attention and led to her Tony nomination.

What does Ables Sayre remember most about her astonishing career?

A note from Tom Hanks, calling her his “peer.” Visits in her Broadway dressing room from fellow Radford grad Bette Midler, James Taylor, Hillary Clinton, Stephen Sondheim and many others. All came to honor her. She thanked them for the impact they had on her life.

What makes her happiest when she looks back?

“I had this dream that came true in the biggest, grandest, most beautiful way possible,” she said. “Doing a classic Broadway show, written by the most prolific Broadway composing team, at Lincoln Center, with some of the top Broadway performers of their time.

“It was like getting paid to take a master class from the masters in every way.”