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The Kaimuki Performing Arts Center is dedicating this weekend’s final performances of the musical “Hairspray” to Kaimuki High School graduate Ruthie Ann Miles, the Broadway star who lost her 5-year-old daughter in a freak accident Monday on the streets of New York.
“Some of us were talking and saying we gotta do something,” said M.J. Matsushita, the production’s producer and set designer.
Matsushita, who taught Miles, a 2001 graduate, when she was a Kaimuki student, said the original plan was to donate a portion of ticket sales to Miles’ medical bills, but she learned Friday that state Department of Education rules require all such proceeds to go to the school.
Those who want to donate to the family will be able to do so at the concession stand, she said.
Miles, who is seven months pregnant, is in stable condition after losing her daughter, Abigail. They were in a crosswalk with a friend whose 1-year-old son was also killed after a car ran through a red light and plowed into the group.
Kaimuki’s version of the Broadway musical “Hairspray” features a cast of 36 students from Kaimuki High School and other public schools around the island. Members of the production team include director Michael Ng, a classmate of Miles’, and musical director Nanilisa Pascua, who was musical director when Miles played a leading role in “Flower Drum Song” in her senior year.
Miles, who is married to Jonathan Blumenstein, was active in performing arts at Kaimuki. Matsushita said she is not surprised by the actress’s Tony Award- winning success on Broadway.
“It was pretty obvious,” she said. “She commanded the stage. Her talent was amazing.”
While at Kaimuki, Miles was involved in four theater productions. After leaving Hawaii and making her Broadway debut, she played Lady Thiang opposite Ken Watanabe and Kelli O’Hara in “The King & I” at Lincoln Center and received the 2015 Tony Award for best featured actress in a musical.
Miles was later inducted into the Kaimuki High School Foundation Hall of Honor.
There are plenty of tickets available for performances at 7:30 p.m. today and 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15 ($10 for students, military and seniors with ID). The box office opens one hour before each performance. Kaimuki High School is at 2705 Kaimuki Ave.
Those who can’t make it to the high school production can contribute at gofundme.com/ruthie-ann-miles-fund. More than $411,000 had been raised in that campaign as of Friday.
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