Kahilu Theatre Presents: ‘South Pacific’

Celebrate Labor Day weekend at Kahilu Theatre with a celebratory production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific.

Directed by Kahilu Theatre’s Artistic Director, Chuck Gessert, with musical direction by Barbara Kopra, the iconic Broadway musical will feature a full pit orchestra and a fantastic cast including Larry Adams as Emile de Becque, Kat Reuss as Nellie Forbush, Angela Alforque as Bloody Mary and Hawaiian music star Makana as Lieutenant Joe Cable.

The ten-time Tony Award-winning classic was adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan. Pulling from Michener’s book, the creators wished to send a progressive message on tolerance. One story follows Nellie Forbush, a young Navy nurse who falls in love with a distinguished plantation owner, an expatriate and a widower. Intertwined with the looming danger of war and espionage of Japanese war ships, there is a secondary romance between Lt. Joe Cable and Liat, a young Tonkinese woman he meets on a neighboring island called Bali Ha’i.

In Kahilu Theatre’s production, the plantation owner is played by Larry Adams, a Chicago-based actor whose credits include The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, and The Hunchback Variations, Photo Op and Opening Night (with Jose Ferrer) at Lincoln Center. Adams was also in national tours of The Phantom of the Opera and Scrooge, The Musical (with Richard Chamberlin). Regional credits include the title roll in Sweeney Todd at the Fulton Theatre, The Merry Widow at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Julian Marsh in 42nd Street at Paramount Theatre, Capitan Von Trapp in The Sound of Music at Drury Lane and Peron in Evita at Marriott Theatre.

Kahilu’s South Pacific is sponsored by Randy Ripley and Keith Dane, Carol and Clive Davies, Conception S. and Irwin Federman, Karen Ferara-MBA, Realtor Elite Pacific Properties, Mimi and Brian Kerley, Live Aloha Realty, Jim and Susan Mori, Alan and Toni Pinn, Dale and Sandee Sebring, and Frank Snow/Puako in Motion.

Performances take place Friday, Aug. 31, and Saturday, Sept. 1, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 2 at 4 p.m.. Tickets are $68/$38/$28 and can be purchased online, by phone (808) 885-6868 or at the Kahilu Theatre Box Office located at 67-1186 Lindsey Road in Kamuela.