Sold-out show marks end of era at Diamond Head Theatre

A 70-year epoch in island theater came to an end Sunday with the final performance of Diamond Head Theatre’s season­-opening production of “Anything Goes.”

The show marked the last time the theater company performed in its longtime home, Ruger Theatre. The theater company will kick off 2023 in a new state-of-the-art facility next door with the staging of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical version of “Cinderella,” which opens Jan. 20.

For John Rampage, DHT artistic director since 1995, moving to the new facility is cause for mixed emotions. The old building holds countless memories of people he’s worked with and the shows they’ve done there.

“I always say it’s like kids,” Rampage said Wednesday when asked whether there were certain shows he considered especially memorable. “You love them all, and sometimes you love the ones that were the most difficult or succeeded the least. I’m incredibly proud of ‘Billy Elliot,’ that we pulled that off (in 2016), just because it’s such a very, very complicated show. ‘Titanic: The Musical’ (in 2012), of course, and ‘Mame’ with Shari Lynn (in 2002). That was one of my all-time favorites.”

Ruger Theatre, which is scheduled for demolition later this month, was built in 1932 as an amenity for the military personnel and families stationed at Fort Ruger, the military installation that occupied Diamond Head and adjoining areas. It was used primarily as a movie theater until 1952 when it became the home of Honolulu Community Theatre. The group had been founded as the Footlights in 1915 and was renamed the Honolulu Community Theatre in 1934; it became Diamond Head Theatre in 1990.

In 1952, national touring companies did not bring road-show productions of Broadway hits to Honolulu. Honolulu Community Theatre filled that gap with a production schedule of five Broadway musicals and one nonmusical “straight play” each year. It became the place for Hawaii residents interested in developing skills for a professional career in theater.

Actress and singer Bette Midler famously performed two shows there in the early 1960s before taking off for New York. Georgia Engel appeared in the Honolulu Community Theatre production of “Oklahoma!” in 1967 while she was studying theater at the University of Hawaii; she would go on to national success as a stage, film and television actor.

More recently, Rampage has celebrated the national success of Hawaii expats Greg Zane, Lolly Totero, Jason Tam, Aleks Pevec and Andrew Sakaguchi.

Sakaguchi gave a career-­best performance this season as Billy Crocker, the leading man in “Anything Goes.”

“I wouldn’t have been able to do the show without him,” Rampage said. “There was nobody who could do everything that that role requires. I called him, and it was just out of nowhere. I thought, ‘Well, he’s going to turn it down, but if I don’t at least ask, I’ll never know,’ and he gave me an answer immediately. He said, ‘I’d love to. I want to be part of the final show (in Ruger Theatre) because it’s where I grew up.’”