Soap Stars Clean Up Act For ‘Showstoppers’

The name of this event, a gala benefit for the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre, is “Broadway Showstoppers.”

But at least two of the performers might be more accurately billed as “soap-opera showstoppers.”

The two guest emcees are Wallace Kurth and Rena Sofer, who are better known to millions of “General Hospital” fans as Ned Ashton and Lois Cerullo Ashton. They will be sharing the emcee duties with Jack Bannon and Ellen Travolta, veterans of the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre stage as well as many, many films and TV shows (“Lou Grant” and “Happy Days” to name just two).

Kurth and Sofer were lured here by Travolta (John’s big sister), who is also a “General Hospital” veteran. She plays Gloria Cerullo, the mother of Sofer’s character. Travolta used her best persuasive powers to convince her colleagues to lend their talents to Saturday night’s event. Apparently, it wasn’t too difficult.

“I’m a sucker for charity events,” said Kurth by phone from an L.A. set. “I’m always doing benefits. I’m the one who volunteered for this; I wanted to sing.”

He doesn’t get much chance to sing on “General Hospital,” but singing has always been one of his favorite things. Kurth’s first theater role was in high school in Billings, Mont., as the Artful Dodger in “Oliver.” Then his first big show-biz break came about 15 years ago when he was cast as the Pirate King in the long-running Broadway version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance.”

“I was the fifth and last Pirate King,” said Kurth, with a laugh. “Kevin Kline was the first, and Wally Kurth was the fifth.”

He will sing a song from “Company” in Saturday night’s show. Sofer won’t sing, but she will share the emceeing duties with Kurth in the second half of the show. She is his wife in real life as well as in soap-opera land.

“We started falling in love right at the same time the characters started falling in love,” said Kurth.

This naturally led to lots of talk in the soap-opera world, but Kurth said it wasn’t too hard to keep their sanity.

“We have done a pretty good job of keeping our private lives separate from our public lives,” he said. “Although we were on the cover of Soap Opera Digest.”

Kurth has been doing the soaps for 10 years, beginning with a four-year stint as Justin Kiriakis on the “The Days of Our Lives.” He has been on “General Hospital” for six years.

Most of Saturday’s show will feature an all-star cast of local performers who have graced the CDA Summer Theatre Stage over the years: Cheyenne Jackson, Dennis Craig, Tamara Schupman, Jennifer Niederloh, Frank Jewett, Suzannah Mars, Michael Muzatko, Eric Englund, Aletha Everett, Katherine Damiano and April Dawn Vogel.

They will be doing numbers from such musicals as “Oklahoma!” “West Side Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Camelot,” “The Sound of Music,” and “The King and I,” “My Fair Lady,” “Show Boat” and “Hello Dolly.”

The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre, also known as the Carrousel Players, opens its 30th season in July.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre’s “Broadway Showstoppers” will begin at 8 p.m. Saturday, with a reception at 7 p.m., in the Schuler Auditorium of North Idaho College. All seats are $30, reserved. Black tie is optional. To order tickets, call (800) 4-CDA-TIX or (208) 769-7780.