"South Pacific" opened on Broadway last Thursday and, by Saturday, was extended from the safe three-month booking to a bullish run through January 2009. In reality, the show will run longer than that. That's just how they're managing ticket sales. The initial run of performances through June is all but sold out. Rave reviews have poured in from all corners, and there is already buzz about Tony nominations.

Loretta Ables Sayre is a star. But then, she's always been. It's just that now, more people know about her talent.

She came up the real way, with years of paying dues, showing up for gigs when she didn't feel good, giving herself over to all those local commercials, graciously taking song requests from patrons who were well past the two-drink minimum. She went to Broadway tested. She is tried and true.

What I know of her personally is from working on a show for Diamond Head Theatre, myself as a writer, Loretta as the star.

Every night, tears shone in her eyes when she sang the lyrics Keola Beamer wrote about a mother watching her kids grow away from her:

"I don't know where the time goes/ Lately I'm starting to see/ Daughters and sons are growing up and I must set them free/ Won't it wait until another day?"

She cried not because she knew some sort of acting trick, but because every single night she felt that ache of passing time.

Backstage, she was mother hen to a bunch of spirited child actors who might have irked a less gracious soul. She brought snacks and gifts for everyone and good-naturedly rolled with the goofy pranks and monkey shines that come with a large community theater cast.

Outside the theater, her husband would stand behind a little table during intermission and sell Loretta's CD. David Sayre is the kind of guy who is always smiling, always steady.

Bless her heart, she has been e-mailing all her theater buddies back home, including the kids who shared that DHT stage, and thanking them for their aloha.

Loretta and her husband have this sweet tradition of spending Thanksgiving Day curled up in front of the TV watching the Macy's parade go down Broadway. One year, David surprised her with tickets to New York so they could watch the floats go by in person. This year, who knows? She could be singing from the top of a South Pacific float.

Loretta herself says she can't believe her good fortune. She is many soulful things, including grateful and humble. Lucky break? Overnight success? No, this was earned the hard way.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.