Jim Nabors.

---

Jim Nabors
returns

He'll perform with
the symphony at Christmas

By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

Entertainer Jim Nabors will take the Hawaii Theatre stage in December for "A Merry Christmas with Friends and Nabors" with the Honolulu Symphony.

Nabors will headline the two-hour production Dec. 5 and 6 with island entertainers Emma Veary, Karen Keawehawai'i, the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble, the Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus' Na Leo Kuhookahi and Diamond Head Theatre's Shooting Stars -- part of the theater's youth performing arts academy.

Nabors, symphony and theater officials will make the announcement today. The performances will be Nabors' first in Hawaii since his liver transplant in 1994, although he has been performing on the mainland.

"A Merry Christmas with Friends and Nabors," the first joint venture between the symphony and Hawaii Theatre, is being produced by Nabor's company, Naborly Productions.

Organizers hope to make the shows an annual Christmas event with daily performances at the restored 1,400-seat theater for seven to 10 days, sources said. Plans are to make the shows similar in style to what Radio City Music Hall does in New York City during the holidays.

Tom Hansen, who directed Nabors' show at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and several of his mainland nightclub shows, has been hired as theatrical director for the island production.

"This is not simply a concert, but a theatrical production," Hansen said from his California home.

If this year's show is successful, organizers plan to market the event with tour and other visitor operators as a focal point for visits to Hawaii during the holidays.

Nabors was star of "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," a television show that ran from 1964 to '69. After 300 episodes of "Gomer Pyle," Nabors began singing with symphonies throughout the United States.

He won a gold record for "The Lord's Prayer," but it was his haunting "The Impossible Dream" that set Nabors, who has recorded 28 albums -- five gold and one platinum -- on a new career from comedy to singer.

A Merry Christmas
with Friends and Nabors

Performances: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5 and 6; 2:30 p.m. Dec. 6
Tickets: About $40 to $50, with discounts for symphony and theater subscribers, and children, to be sold at the theater.
Call: 528-0506