When Lilly White Heart’s daddy dies suddenly, leaving the naive and drop-dead gorgeous girl penniless and potentially homeless, her good-natured, whisky-tipping Granny tells her, “We all start out innocent, but life has other plans.” Add one misguided reverend, a lecherous
When Lilly White Heart’s daddy dies suddenly, leaving the naive and drop-dead gorgeous girl penniless and potentially homeless, her good-natured, whisky-tipping Granny tells her, “We all start out innocent, but life has other plans.”
Add one misguided reverend, a lecherous lawyer in pursuit of Lilly’s hand in marriage, a well-intentioned hooker, and what you have is “Sugar! Oh, Sugar!” a Hawaiian melodrama written by Kaua‘i playwright Wil Welsh.
Kaua‘i Community Players presents, “Sugar! Oh, Sugar!” opening at 7 p.m. tonight at KAPA Theatre Warehouse in Puhi.
Set during the height of plantation days on Kaua‘i, Welsh described the story line as having a universal appeal with the predictable villain, hero and sweet innocent as primary characters. Add to that a cast of Kaua‘i’s most talented actors and singers and “Sugar! Oh, Sugar!” has what it takes to make a memorable musical with the legs to carry it far beyond Kaua‘i’s sandy shore.
This production boasts two off-Broadway actors (Gregg Nickerson as the villainous Dudley Fartsworth and Jacyn Fain as Lilly White Heart) plus a score of theatre veterans: Jeff Marshall as Smokey, Morgan Liddell as the Pastor, Delia Valentin as the lovable, if not inebriated, Granny; Dottie Bekeart as the ebullient Madame Rosey Lips and love interest/hero, Ralph Guest as Doug Deeper and musical director, Sam Alfiler.
This may be Welsh’s third musical set in the islands but only a sample of the many feats for the writer.
“I’ve written in every genre you can think of,” said the 40-year Kaua‘i resident, whom many know for his roles on stage or auditory presence as Calvin the Dog on the “Russell the Rooster” show. “I thought wouldn’t it be fun to make a Hawai‘i melodrama. When an idea intrigues me, if it doesn’t go away I have to do it.”
But the crafting of a musical, compared to the many plays he’s written for Kaua‘i audiences, is a task of monumental proportions. In short, it takes a village to make a musical.
“It’s five times harder. One song has over 300 hours into it,” he said.
Enter stage left, computer wizard/composer Ed Dato and Emmy Award winning composer, Jerome Gilmer. With the script — accompanied only by notes on possible placement of songs — Welsh joined the two musicians to collaborate.
“Just from my notes Ed was able to write the lyrics and the sheet music for the song, “What I Want In a Woman” in an afternoon,” Welsh said.
At first Welsh thought there’d only be six songs in the show, but working with the two composers, that number doubled.
“Things began to snowball when Ed and Jerome got involved,” he said.
Honky-tonk and ragtime music interspersed with melodic duets are set to the choreography of Brenda Biehler (of South Pacific), often with hilarious results. “Woe, Woe, Woe,” a fugue featuring four actors, each singing independent melodies, was the most complicated composition and one skillfully orchestrated by Nickerson, Liddell, Valentin and Fain.
Last year “Sugar! Oh, Sugar!” premiered at the Santa Maria Civic Theatre in Central California. The show received excellent reviews. Welsh foresees even greater appreciation from Kaua‘i audiences who will recognize language specific to Hawai‘i like “buffo,” “okole” and the use of pidgin by Smokey (Jeff Marshall).
Welsh describes the musical as a “tongue-in-cheek, good-timey, old-fashioned meller-dramer, with the theatrical tradition of booing the villain, cheering the hero and crying for the innocent heroine.” As the play bill puts it, “This is sugar with a whole lot of spice,” and appropriate for youth over 14.
“Sugar! Oh, Sugar!” will run today through June 14. Show times are 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 4 p.m. Sundays with just one 7 p.m. Thursday show June 4. KAPA Theatre Warehouse seats 40 so space is limited and reservations required. Call 245-7700.
Tickets are $20, adults; $15, seniors, KCP members and students. The theatre is located in Puhi across the street from Kaua‘i Community College and 100 yards behind the Harley Davidson Store.
Want to ride
the sugar train?
What: KCP production of ‘Sugar! Oh, Sugar!’
When: 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through June 13; 4 p.m. Sundays; one 7 p.m. Thursday show June 4
Where: KAPA Theatre Warehouse, Puhi
For reservations call: 245-7700
Cost: $20, adults; $15, seniors, KCP members and students
Sugar Plantation Rag
Plantation Days!
When you worked all day in the heat of the sun.
Oh sugar days!
And the cane fires kept the rats on the run.
Plantation Days!
Acres and acres of cane!
… Then you stop your work to wipe your sweat,
And lift your eyes to the sky
Sunlight shines through the tasseled cane
A rainbow shimmers in the rain drops!
By Jerome Gilmer
• Pam Woolway, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 257) or pwoolway@kauaipubco.com
