Local girl Ann Harada (no relation), a Punahou grad, continues to pop up on TV and on Broadway. She’s done nine episodes, including last week’s two-hour season two premiere, of NBC’s "Smash," the reality show-like drama about the fictional mounting/making of a Broadway musical called "Bombshell." Harada plays the stage manager, Linda, as she did in season one. …
With "Smash" already under her belt, she’s moved on to originate the role of Charlotte, one of the stepsisters, in a new "Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella" based on the 1957 TV special, now in previews at the Broadway Theatre in New York, heading for a March 3 premiere.
Harada is the rare Asian-American actress who’s never done "Miss Saigon" or "Flower Drum Song," but manages to land gigs despite being a minority. She created the Christmas Eve character in the original Tony-winning "Avenue Q,"and has performed in the short-lived "9 to 5" Dolly Parton musical and the Madame Thenardier role in the last revival of "Les Misérables," all of which I’ve seen in NYC. …
Speaking of "Les Miz": Expect the DVD and Blu-ray release of the Academy Award-nominated hit film on March 19, with all the music intact, unlike the No. 1 "highlights" soundtrack CD recently released — with half the music omitted. …
GAMESMANSHIP: Looks like Hawaii will be the site for additional "Hunger Games: Catching Fire" shooting in March.
Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Katniss Everdeen, let it slip that more filming is scheduled here after the Feb. 24 Oscars, where she is a best-actress nominee for "Silver Linings Playbook."
Lionsgate officials and the Hawaii Film Office are mum, but the U.K.’s Daily Mail quoted star Lawrence as saying that Hawaii will be the destination. The crew was here late last year and had wrapped up filming in December.
Rumors hinted that New Jersey, where crews also previously filmed, might pick up the work; you’ll know "Games" ishere when you see the caravan of movie vans and dressing-room trailers. …
HULAVILLE: Kumu hula Mapuana de Silva’s 2013 Holomua Ka No‘eau will be staged at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Hawaii Theatre. Themed "Those Darn Traditionalists!," the Halau Mohala ‘Ilima event will corral many of the 26 kumu hula trained by de Silva over the past 37 years, carrying on the tradition set by the incomparable Maiki Aiu Lake. "The teaching came through the hula masters to and through me to my kumu, and now to their students," she said. "We call it repetition over the generations." Tickets: $25 and $35; call 528-0506. …
And, wow — "Hula 2" (Mountain Apple Co.), Robert Cazimero‘s solo vocal venture with piano accompaniment, provides easy, breezy enchantment for hula dancers and Hawaiian music fans alike. The signature Cazimero tradition — vocal precision and enunciation dynamics — nicely prevails on the stunning "Ka Pua Kiele," a song he co-composed, and on a sumptuous version of "Koke‘e," the Dennis Kamakahi gem. Cazimero is another student of the aforementioned Lake. …
SIGHT ‘EMS: Actress Sigourney Weaver and her husband, Jim Simpson, artistic director and founder of The Flea Theatre in New York, visited his mom, Ann Simpson, at Arcadia a few days ago. Mom has been spending her senior years at the Punahou area retirement residence. …
And that’s "Show Biz." …
Wayne Harada is a veteran entertainment columnist; reach him at 266-0926 or wayneharada@gmail.com; read his Show and Tell Hawaii blog at www.staradvertiser.com.
