Entertainer Shoji Tabuchi 11/12 | 100 Most Inspiring Asian Americans

Asian American Profiles

KING OF BRANSON

PAGE 11 OF 12

     Mondays, when the theater closes, are the only days when the three can be together as a family instead of as performers. "We try not to talk business when the three of us are together," says Tabuchi. "We take Monday off for sure without talking business."

     Since that is the one day of leisure for the family during nine months of the year, not to mention two or three dozen out-of-town shows during the off-season, Tabuchi seldom makes it to church despite his professed Christianity. "We try to go every chance we get, but it's not so easy."

     Tabuchi has been Christina's father since she was one and the two are extremely close. Oddly, however, there are few signs of intimacy between them in the several father-daughter numbers they perform together on the Christmas show I watched.

     "I guess we didn't put it in the show that way," he says. "Some of the songs [during the regular season] we do sing together, then you might see that.

     "Christina -- she's like me all over," beams Tabuchi. "Her character -- she has quick wit."

     "I don't push her, but shoot, if I'm gone, this place -- if I'm still in the music business -- you know, she can have this. She's got the talent to do it. She's only just turned 12-years-old. Sometimes parents will say, 'Oh my daughter is great.' You know, that's natural. Take that element away, she's still a great singer."

     "Dorothy listens to music all the time. She reads up on music, she watches TV or video. So [Christina's] been listening to music from yay big. Three years old she started singing. Six years old, I knew she had something so I put her on the stage.

     "I encouraged her to do that because I knew the potential." He is reluctant to take responsibility for pushing Christina into show business, but Tabuchi admits he would be disappointed if she decided not to follow in his footsteps.

     "Of course, if she can make it in the music business that would be great. Then she can use this facility and she can keep the tradition, but it will be a long time before I can retire anyway. I still love what I am doing."

     One reason he has been grooming Christina may be the ambitions he and Dorothy harbor for their entertainment business. The sheer scale of their plans needs an heir apparent to benefit from and perpetuate the kingdom. Mention the Walt Disney empire and Tabuchi's eyes light up. "That operation is immaculate," he raves. Jewell has confided to me that Tabuchi holds up Disney as the kind of company he would like to emulate. "There's not a speck of dust anywhere. I admire their operation. Dorothy is more particular than I am. She's a perfectionist. I am in a way, but not of the scale of perfectionism. She's by far more. This is why I think our show is a success -- that type of organization around me."

     Beyond the ongoing expansion of the theater, Tabuchi has already bought land, at inflated prices, for a theater that can seat 3,000 and house an even more elaborate stage. "That's the next phase in the near future," he admits after some initial hesitation. "Next theater I build will be [a] state of the art theater. It will have a hotel and a restaurant complex." Ito has already approached him about opening a Japanese restaurant to which Tabuchi is willing to lend his name and capital. Tabuchi can see the potential for a large teppanyaki-style Japanese restaurant adjacent to his theater. He doesn't yet know how much the projected hotel will cost. The going rate for a Branson hotel room, he says, is now about $40 a night. Since the theater boom real estate values have skyrocketed. "Our [lot] on 76 Highway -- which isn't [for sale] -- but a front square foot goes from $2,000 to $2,500."

     Tabuchi is more excited about the lavish productions the new theater will permit than about the additional thousand seats. "Dorothy, even more than I, [feels] we must do thing nobody else is doing. We are succeeding. When you see our show next year, it will be totally awesome." Tabuchi admits that in part he is motivated by the need to build his show up to Las Vegas scale to prepare for the expected competition from Wayne Newton's announced theater, but adds, "We're competing against ourselves." He believes that Newton's arrival will be a boon to his own theater by drawing an even broader audience to Branson. At the same time, he is concerned about preserving a family-oriented show.

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     "We are squeaky clean. Every production number of every production, we do not have even one bad word in it. We have dancers, about 15 or 16 dancers, but we never show a bellybutton. We don't have to. I believe I can take this band and this crew right now and [if] somebody bets me $200,000 or $300,000, I can go to Las Vegas and I can make a go without belly dancing." One gets the distinct impression that Las Vegas has a place in Tabuchi's future ambitions despite his professed aversion to gambling and the other non-family elements the city harbors.

     "People are people. In Vegas they see nudity, they don't see [it] in Branson. Still, we can take this clean show to Vegas." Tabuchi says the show he would ultimately like to produce would be a cross between Broadway and the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. His dreams have clearly outgrown Branson's traditional country music focus and he's ready for a bigger arena. Shoji Entertainment is working on a cable TV project that would dramatically expand Tabuchi's audience.

     "It's not definite, so I cannot say. I never like to say if I'm not sure. I don't want [people to say], 'He's blowing it up', or 'He's just bragging.'" One hint of the nature of the project is Tabuchi's assertion that Dorothy would make a great host for a TV variety show. It doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to see Tabuchi's show, hosted by Dorothy a là Dolly Parton and garnished with celebrity guests, being televised to pay-per-view audiences.

     Tabuchi recognizes the need to court the kind of national fame on which such a project must be premised. But he expects his Branson following to take him further than some people might imagine. PAGE 12

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