Page 13 - MidWeek - May 12, 2021

MAY 12, 2021 MIDWEEK 13
Hawai‘i’s premier young thespian Kailee Brandt appears perfectly suited for a life in the bright lights.
W hen Kailee Brandt was 3, she began tagging along with her dad on water skiing outings in upstate New York. Perched upon his shoulders, she would spend days on end skimming along smooth stretches of the trout-filled waters at Lake Ozonia. But rather than scream in fright or squeal in delight on these occasions, she would simply hold on to her father’s hair “as tightly as possible” and do the one thing that came
most naturally to her.
“I’d sing,” says Kailee. Fifteen years later, the
Well, “the weird kid” has grown up into something
Those are mighty big dreams indeed, but Kailee
“My dad was actually Mr. Musical Theater out of high
To her credit, Kailee refused to give up on her dream, and once her parents — which include mother
notes are still flowing from
SEE PAGE 20
her mouth. Whether it’s vo- calizing her favorite tunes from the movie Mamma Mia! or belting out melodies from Broadway musicals such as Wicked, Kailee is perfectly willing to sing at all times and in any setting — even while traveling down a lake at 35 mph.
quite wonderful — and not just as a singer, but as an actor, too. With more than a dozen musicals and 200 per- formances under her belt, this year’s winner of the Hawai‘i Thespians Festival Schol- arship for high schoolers is unquestionably the islands’ foremost young performer.
understands the chal- lenging road ahead.
Her father, Randy Brandt, is a regional
Emmy Award-win-
ning director and
writer who produced
the TV program Ha-
waiian Moving Co.
for 20 years and who currently works for shows such as Entertainment To- night, Good Morning Amer- ica and Dateline. As part of the entertainment industry for decades, he’s warned her in the past about the potential pitfalls of the profession.
“I was always considered the weird kid in school,” she admits with a chuckle. “I would always be singing — on the swings, at recess, ev- erywhere. People thought I was so crazy because I knew every single song to Wicked!”
Naturally, the teenager with the big voice has got big plans for the future — one that includes taking up per- manent residence in the city that never sleeps and even- tually basking in the bright lights of Broadway.
ee, a Punahou senior and cur- rent school thespian troupe president who will be matric- ulating at Syracuse Universi- ty in the fall and studying in its theater program.
Kailee Brandt’s “biggest supporters” are parents Nancy and Randy.
PHOTO COURTESY RANDY BRANDT
school and in college, and it’s actually kind of funny because he tried to talk me out of choosing this business when I first started thinking about pursuing theater. He knows the entertainment in- dustry is far from easy, so he was kind of hoping I would find a different passion and pursue that, ” explains Kail-