Categorized | Entertainment

‘Big River’ debuts Feb. 20 at Aloha Theatre

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Karin Stanton/Hawaii247.com Contributing Editor

Tyler Wood takes the stage Friday, Feb. 20 in his first leading role for an APAC production.

Wood, 19, stars Huckleberry Finn alongside Lee Vinson as the runaway slave Jim in the Broadway musical “Big River, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by William Hauptman and Roger “King of the Road” Miller. 

Wood, who in is his third year with the theatre company, has appeared in at least 15 productions before his run with Huck.

“I’ve been a serial killer, backup dancer, dweeb … actually I’ve been a dweeb a couple of times,” he said. “But I’ve never played a redneck until now.”

During the six-weeks of rehearsals, Wood said he has gained great experience in how a production comes together and has enjoyed digging into the role of Huck.

“I learned definitely that attendance is important and giving it 110 percent every day,” he said. “I like Huck a lot. He’s super deep – that’s been the hardest part. I didn’t think you could get that far down into it.”

Vinson, a former Las Vegas dancer and current teacher at West Hawaii Dance Academy, said he also learned much from his experience as a slave.

“It was kind of isolating and I found myself kind of taking that home,” he said. “But this is a really great play, Tyler is great in it and he really deserves this.” 

“Big River” debuted in 1985 on Broadway and won eight Tony awards, including best musical, best original score and best book.  The show, based on the iconic American novel by Mark Twain, is an amusing and moving account of Huck and Jim’s rafting adventure down the Mississippi, with Miller’s powerful and distinctly American music lifting the tale to epic status.

The play features APAC Artistic Director Jerry Tracy as Twain. Micah DeAguiar plays Tom Sawyer, and his pals include Alec Lugo, Elliott Jacobson, Billy Baker, Kyle Eng, Brad Klipper, Louis Jaeger, Jacob Simpson and Isaac Dwyer. 

Other local thespians appearing in the show include Paula Cornwell, Pamela Hicks, Peter Schonberg, Ken Ross, Joel Michaelson, Diego Rodriguez, Celia Frost, John Powell, Catherine Hansen and Chamika Fujioka.

Vinson serves as choreographer, with Tracy as director, Dale Ross as music director and Sue Boyum as choral director. David A. Payne is assistant choreographer and Tiffany Kutsunai is assistant director.

“Big River, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” runs Friday, Feb. 20 through Saturday, March 14 at Aloha Theatre. Show time is 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets are $18 and $15, and may be purchased at the box office beginning one hour prior to show time, by phone at 322-1648 or online at www.apachawaii.org. Thursdays are bargain nights, with all seats priced at $15.

For more information, call 322-9924.

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