Entertainer Shoji Tabuchi 8/12 | 100 Most Inspiring Asian Americans

Asian American Profiles

KING OF BRANSON

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     It was another three or four months before the two saw each other again, this time in Branson. Dorothy had come to see another performer and happened to run into Tabuchi.

     "Third time was the one," recalls Tabuchi with a grin. "We really started talking." By then, he says, he had been separated from MaryJo for some time. On another occasion he contradicts himself by saying that he had separated for only three years before his 1986 divorce. He firmly denies that Dorothy played a role in the separation.

     After the third meeting the relationship progressed rapidly. "[We were] married very quick," says Tabuchi. "1982 or last part of 1981." One can't help wondering how that could be when he says he wasn't divorced from MaryJo until 1986.

     In any case, by 1981 Tabuchi seems to have left MaryJo and his home in Bossier City in favor of Branson. His original six-month commitment to headline in the Starlite Theater turned into four years. Tabuchi earned a flat salary of a little over $100,000 for each six-month season.

     In 1985 he began a three-year stint headlining at Country Music World. By 1988, his final season there, he was earning a salary of something under $150,000 a year. During the six-month off-season he augmented his income by performing elsewhere.

     While at the Country Music World Tabuchi discovered that his new wife had a talent for show production when, as an unpaid volunteer, she produced a segment of a benefit show for the Muscular Distrophy Association.

     "She did a wonderful job," says Tabuchi, ever effusive about Dorothy's talents. "I knew she had good ear and she knows much about music business. I knew she had great talent producing. It was a hit."

     In early 1989 Tabuchi decided he was tired of making money for other people. He joined with two partners -- whom he refuses to name -- to raise $3.5 million and buy a 20,000-square-foot building on a 21-acre lot which had been an antique car museum and convert it into a theater. In addition to his third of the capital and time, Tabuchi brought to the partnership his willingness to lease the new theater to put on his own show. "I was owner and lessor," he explains. "I was wearing two hats."

     He entrusted Dorothy with the task of producing a show around himself. In its first season it was profitable enough to allow Tabuchi to put up around $1 million to get a bank loan to finance the construction of the present 30,000-square-foot, 2,000-seat theater along Sheperd of the Hills Expressway. "I hate to discuss monetary things, but I will say it was kind of scary."

     The Shoji Tabuchi Theater is the first to come to the Sheperd of the Hills Expressway. Now no more frontage lots are available. It was completed in time to kick off the May opening of the 1990 season. Before long it was filling with busloads of tourists visiting Branson on packaged tours and carloads of families cruising in from neighboring states.

     The Tabuchis show real flair for wooing tour buses. Visitors alighting from their buses are tickled to step onto a big red carpet that stretches all the way to the lobby's main entrance -- one of Dorothy's touches. The richness of the red and mauve lobby is enough to confirm the suspicion that royal treat is in store. During the 15-minute intermission that breaks up each three-hour show, fans get to crowd the star for autographs. After the end of every show they are warmed to see Tabuchi striding out in a dazzling white jacket to bid each busload a homey farewell. The Tabuchis' service-oriented philosophy is also evident in touches like the "cry-room", a sound-proof enclosure at the rear of the theater with a glass window so harried mothers can enjoy the show without developing a persecution complex.

     It didn't take long for word to spread among tour operators that no Branson tour is complete without a stop at the Shoji Tabuchi Theater. Ask any gas station attendant or Wendy's counterperson about the town's top stars and Tabuchi is sure to be mentioned. "Shoji's been here in Branson for, God, over ten years now," says a local merchant. "He's surely one of the old-timers."

     The success of the new Shoji Tabuchi Theater has made its 100% owner the undisputed King of Branson. No other performer, no matter how nationally famous, can claim a theater as big, lavishly appointed and well-packed. Consider that Willie Nelson now headlines at the much smaller theater on Highway 76, Branson's main strip, once used by Tabuchi for a season. The backstage area of the SJT was expanded to accommodate extravaganza-scale productions. To address complaints of long lines, the lobby was expanded to accommodate five ticket windows instead of three. From a visitor's standpoint the most spectacular expansion was the doubling of the ladies room. Its lounge was turned into a showcase of feminine excess, including an enormous chandelier, gold-plated faucets, plush furnishings and several brands of premium perfumes. The ladies' room is so spectacular that a gaggle of curious men are given a guided tour after each evening show. One awed woman even snapped photos and had them published on the front page of her local newspaper.

CONTINUED BELOW

Already the theater is three-quarters the size of a football field, but another 11,000 square feet are being added, including a new men's room that will be even more impressive than the current ladies'. A second story will be added to the front of the theater to house new offices for Dorothy, Shoji and a classroom for Christina, Tabuchi's stepdaughter. The most important reason for the expansion is to provide more space for the backstage area to facilitate the staging of grander shows. Tabuchi talks as though he won't be satisfied until his shows rival the spectacles of the big Las Vegas hotels.

With its 16-piece Shoji Tabuchi Orchestra and a troupe of a dozen dancers and singers, the show is already bigger than anything in Branson. "Violinist Tabuchi's variety show, perhaps the most popular in town, downplays country and goes heavy on glitz," observed Time in an August 1991 article on the Branson boom. For the regular 1992 season the big opening number was "Everything's Coming Up Roses" from the Broadway hit Gypsy. That was followed by a country music medley accompanied by dancing. Christina sang "Dream to Dream" from Fievel Goes West, "I'm Flying" from Peter Pan, "Under the Sea" and "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid and the theme song from Beauty and the Beast. The second act opened with a 50s and 60s medley followed by a tap number led by Christina. PAGE 9

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