Do It: Tom Green, ‘Spitfire Grill,’ ‘Mu Lan,’ Bamboo Ridge

FRIDAY-SATURDAY

>> Tom Green to get nuts at Blue Note Hawaii

Comedian Tom Green, known for his outlandish pranks and absurd humor, drops into the Blue Note for a two-night gig this week.

Green got his break in 1999 when MTV picked up “The Tom Green Show,” which was then being aired on a public-access channel in Canada. It became a showcase for antics like commandeering the intercom at a department store, pretending to have sex with a dead moose and conducting ambush interviews in which he purposely tried to annoy people. His parents were frequent targets of his pranks — he sprayed them with a fire extinguisher in the middle of the night, and painted a sex scene on their car.

Green pokes fun at himself, too. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2000, but he responded by establishing Tom Green’s Nuts Cancer Fund for cancer research. When his 2001 film “Freddy Got Fingered” won five Golden Raspberry Awards, which recognize the worst in movies, he went to the awards ceremony. (Other film credits include a role in the “Charlie’s Angels” movie, which led to a six-month marriage to co-star Drew Barrymore.)

Don’t be surprised if he has some tough words for President Trump, even though Green is Canadian. Trump “fired” him during Season 8 of “The Apprentice.”

FRIDAY-SEPT. 24

>> ‘Spitfire Grill’ knows quiet moments trump bombast

Kennedy Theatre opens the season this weekend with “The Spitfire Grill: The Musical,” a story about a small town that is thrown into turmoil when a young woman, just released from prison, comes to town and, overcoming the objections of local people and her own inexperience, is given control over the town’s ramshackle diner.

The musical should have a particular resonance in Friday’s turbulent times. The original production premiered off-Broadway just four days before the 9/11 attacks, and its heartwarming story appealed to New York critics. “If after the events of recent weeks you need any reason at all to embrace life again, the musical you’ve been waiting for has arrived,” wrote Matthew Murray of talkinbroadway.com.

The music has been described as a mixture of country, bluegrass and Broadway ballads, sprinkled with moments of calm. Wrote Billboard, “In a genre known for being big and brassy, it’s always a pleasure to come across a musical that revels in its quiet moments. That’s why ‘The Spitfire Grill’ is like a breath of fresh country air.”

Jorin Young stars as Percy, the former prisoner who makes people see beyond the surface. Rachael Uyeno is Shelby, who gives Percy support and guidance. UH theater professor Lurana Donnels O’Malley directs.

SATURDAY

>> HTY puts pay-what-you-can performances on its stage schedule

Families need not go without theatrical entertainment with Honolulu Theatre for Youth’s “HTY for Every Family” program. Admission will be on a pay-what-you-can basis for five dates spread throughout the nine-month season. Tickets are normally $10-$20.

“Honolulu Theatre for Youth wants to make sure that every family that wants to come see our shows is able to, regardless of their economic circumstances,” said HTY artistic director Eric Johnson. “Stimulating creativity and imagination in all children will make our community stronger.”

The first discounted show will be the 11 a.m. Saturday staging of “The Ballad of Mu Lan,” based on a Chinese legend about a girl who dresses as a boy to take her father’s place in the military. HTY’s production combines traditional Chinese theater techniques with contemporary music.

Other discounted shows are “Masters of the Currents,” a play about the different cultures of Oceania, at 7 p.m. Oct. 14; “Extraordinary Stories From an Ordinary Ohana,” a new comedy from Star-Advertiser columnist Lee Cataluna, at 11 a.m. Dec. 9; “The Red Balloon,” a story about bullying based on the Academy Award-winning film, at 11 a.m. Jan. 27; and “Shocka: The Story of Energy in Hawaii,” a new musical, at 11 a.m. May 5.

TUESDAY

>> Benefit at MVT to feature poetry about Massie Affair

Give a lift to your local literary lights at the Bamboo Ridge Press fundraiser “Wine & Words” at the Manoa Valley Theatre on Tuesday.

The evening will feature a reading of “What We Must Remember,” a book-length work of poetry about the notorious Massie Affair, during which a Hawaiian man was falsely accused of rape and later murdered, while his Caucasian killers, though convicted of manslaughter, had their sentences commuted.

“There’s still so much interest in the case,” said Joy Kobayashi-Cintron, managing editor of Bamboo Ridge Press. “I think one of the poems was written around the time of Ferguson (Mo., in 2014), and the demonstrations that happened there. It does strike a chord with people today.”

The book’s four authors – from top right, Christy Passion, Ann Inoshita, Juliet S. Kono and Jean Yamasaki Toyoma – wrote the book in linked style, in which one author writes a poem and the next author takes the last line of that poem and turns it into the first line or the title of the next poem. “It’s kind of magical,” Kobayashi-Cintron said.