Hawaii’s Jason Tam will be among the cast of "If/Then," the newest musical by the creative team of "Next to Normal," which begins preview performances Nov. 5 en route to a Nov. 24-Dec. 8 run at the National Theatre in Washington D.C. A Broadway run follows next spring.
Tam is the local boy who played Paul San Marco in Broadway’s last revival of "A Chorus Line" and the short-lived "Lysistrata Jones." He is the son of James and Linda Tam.
The cast is topped by the Tony Award-winning Idina Menzel of "Wicked" and "Rent," playing a 40-ish woman returning to New York for a new life. A star-studded ensemble of Broadway actors is featured: Jerry Dixon ("tick, tock, BOOM!"), Jen Colella ("Chaplin"), Tamika Sonya Lawrence ("Matilda"), Anthony Rapp ("Rent’), LaChanze ("The Color Purple") and James Snyder ("Cry-Baby").
The Tony-winning team of Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics) also are uniting with director Michael Greif, with Broadway previews beginning March 4 and the premiere set for March 27 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. …
CAT’S MEOW: Entertainer Audy Kimura spent three hours last week rescuing four 1-month-old kittens, each weighing a pound, that had been abandoned in a backyard swimming pool overgrown with vines. "They had eye infections, so I had to get treatment (to prevent) the loss of the eyes," he said. "Foliage in the yard was up to 8 feet high, and I ended up crawling under vines to get them."
The kittens will be placed in foster care, then put up for adoption when they gain a pound, said the singer-composer. Kimura is busy promoting his reissued "The Good Life" CD, which introduced "Lovers and Friends." The new CD, which marks the disc’s 30th anniversary, features a bonus acoustic version of the song. The newbie is the cat’s meow: robust, romantic, reverent and refreshing, Kimura recorded the track live in his home studio in "one take, no computer editing, no auto-tune pitch correction, no punch-ins or fixes," he said. The sound of purrfection, for sure. …
TAKING A CHAN-CE: Steve Fredrick, the historian of Steve’s Tours and Films, has jump-started "The Charlie Chan Mystery Tour" in Chinatown and downtown environs this month. The remaining four-hour treks, 3 p.m. today, Saturday and Aug. 25 and 31, tap into Honolulu police detective Chang Apana’s life, the inspiration of Earl Derr Biggers’ Chinese-Hawaiian sleuth Charlie Chan, who was the subject of old-time Hollywood flicks. Tours are $40 ($30 military); call 395-0674 or go to filmguy54@hotmail.com.
Kumu Kahua is, coincidentally, staging a Chan drama — Nancy Moss‘ "Will the Real Charlie Chan Please Stand Up?" — to launch the 2013-14 season Thursday through Sept. 29 at its downtown theater. Fredrick had his first-ever theatrical audition this summer, reading for the title character, but he wasn’t cast. …
SHORTS OF SORTS: Nick Jonas of The Jonas Brothers will guest-star as a computer hacker in a "Hawaii Five-0" episode this season. He oughta sing, having been in "Les Misérables" as Gavroche when he was a child and as Marius as a young adult in 2010, but he likely won’t use his pipes. Jonas joins a growing roster of guests heading this-a-way: Carol Burnett, Chi McBride, Tim Daly, Henry Ian Cusic, Rebecca De Mornay, Rumer Willis, Jorge Garcia, Terry O’Quinn and Taryn Manning. Some will recur in story arcs. …
That Joy Abbott-Betty Loo Taylor jazz show, slated in September at the Arcadia Retirement Residence, has been canceled. …
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.
