Loretta Ables Sayre, who endeared Island theater fans when she starred — twice — as the fame-hungry mother in "You Somebody" at Diamond Head Theatre, has been cast by New York's Lincoln Center Theater to portray "Bloody Mary" in a revival of the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic, "South Pacific," opening April 3. It will be Sayre's Broadway debut.

As Bloody Mary, the Tonkanese souvenir hypester in the mythical drama set in the South Seas, Ables Sayre will perform two of the musical's hit songs, "Bali Ha'i" and "Happy Talk" and demonstrate her facility with pidgin English for the Broadway crowd. She likely will redefine the part for a new generation of theatergoers who have not seen a Broadway version of the musical since its 1949 launch.

"You can't imagine how overwhelming this is," said Ables Sayre, 49, who had to earn a seal of approval from the heirs of Rodgers & Hammerstein. "It's an incredible honor. So many from Hawai'i have gone to New York, worked and worked towards realizing this dream — and here I'm given this golden ticket to do it."

"It couldn't have happened to a nicer person and a better performer," said John Rampage, artistic director at Diamond Head Theatre, where Ables Sayre played "Ma" Pua Lusa in Lee Cataluna's musical comedy hit, "You Somebody," in a summer revival this year as well as in the original production five years ago. "It's an incredible opportunity, and we're thrilled at Diamond Head Theatre to have had a role in a chain of events leading to her casting."

Randal Ask, a former DHT actor and now a New York resident, knows the show's musical conductor, Ted Sperling, and mentioned Ables Sayre as a potential candidate when East Coast auditions failed to uncover a suitable performer.

Sayre auditioned earlier this year in Honolulu at DHT. "They were so committed to find an actress who had a Polynesian, Hawaiian or Filipino background," said Rampage.

The new production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical will be directed by Barlett Sher, who earned a Tony nomination when he helmed Lincoln Center's "The Light in the Piazza" in 2005, and also will feature Kelli O'Hara as nurse Nellie Forbush; she also was Clara in "Piazza" and co-starred with Harry Connick Jr. in "Pajama Game." Brazilian opera singer Paulo Szot will be Emile DeBecque, the French plantation owner. Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza created the original roles.

Previews begin March 1 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, with the premiere set for April 3. The show has a limited run, through June, but an extension is possible.

Ables Sayre is a veteran Waikiki club performer, with a long history at five-diamond Halekulani hotel and the Kahala Mandarin Oriental (now The Kahala resort). Early in her career, she played Effie in a Tommy Aguilar-mounted "Dreamgirls" at the Hawai'i Theatre; more recently, she has played the recurring role of Aunty on Nickelodeon's "Beyond the Break" series filmed in the Islands.

"I was so overwhelmed by the greatness of Lincoln Center and Lincoln Center Theater when I visited in August," said Ables Sayre, who was summoned for a callback. "I walked on the grounds and saw huge banners of Yo-Yo Ma, Beverly Sills, Itzhak Perlman. I realized only the greatest people perform here."

She nearly didn't try out because she was in the midst of "You Somebody" rehearsals. "Maybe a half-hour before the (audition) process, I decided to go. I didn't want to not go and regret it later," she said.

She was extremely nervous at her first New York audition. "It was like that scene from 'Flashdance,' with a big conference table, everybody looking, you trying to prove yourself. Four men, a pianist, an accompanist, and a reader to read the men's part. I had the classic symptoms of panic — I couldn't breathe, I got sick, I had to take big breaths."

She expected a polite, "thank you very much, have a nice trip home," and cried over dinner with her husband, publicist David Sayre. "Next day, I felt a lot better," said Ables Sayre. "I thought I can only give them what I have inside of me, give them what I have. I would do my best, learn what I can learn, and think of what an honor it was to be in this position."

Ables Sayre said the revival — with a cast of 40, supported by an orchestra of 30 — will reinvent Bloody Mary, with character traits straight from James A. Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific," which inspired "South Pacific."

"There are earthy things about the character not in earlier productions or the movie," she said.

The role's pidgin dialogue will be retained — something Sayre finds comforting and manageable.

"They're allowing me to speak it and throw it in, with a little home court advantage," said Ables Sayre. "I was thrilled to learn that the director Sher had a Hawai'i connection. His parents were divorced, and his mother married a Hawaiian-Chinese local guy, so he spent several summers in Makiki.

"He's very aware of local women and ways, like when everybody leaves their shoes at the front door. We had good chuckles about this, when he knew I could handle pidgin."

She knows she faces lifestyle adjustments, living and working in New York for a couple of months, starting in late October.

"This has been something I've always wanted to do but never thought I'd have the chance," she said. "Dreams can come true, but not often in your time frame. I have been a short brown chick singer my whole life and that doesn't usually make me stand out.

"This has been too big to wrap my brain around, and I know there's a huge responsibility to make this character come alive in every way possibly. I'm scared, yes, but I'm totally ready and fully intend to make it work."

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.