How “Tandy, Hawaii’s Greatest Opera Star” Came to Be
by Wayne Moniz

As the audience was leaving the theater after a performance of Children of the Turning Tide, my script about the Hawaiian Monarchy as teens, a member of the Maui Symphony approached me. “Wayne, you should write a play about Tandy MacKenzie, Maui’s greatest operatic tenor.”

I had no idea who Tandy MacKenzie was. However, like several other projects, my ignorance became a curiosity, my curiosity eventually became an obsession. I began my research and learned the life of a native son whose biography read like an operatic libretto.

I worked on that libretto “Tandy” hoping someone would collaborate with me on a play and the music, but it was not to be.

Despite my disappointment, “Tandy” lived on in my heart. I included it in the book of my three musicals. The interest in “Tandy” was revived by Guy Gaumont and Laurel Douglass of Maui Film and Research about perhaps filming a documentary on the subject. At the same time, Bob Mistysyn, my former high school buddy, returned to the islands. We decided to collaborate, I as a writer, he as director.

And so for a year and a half we collected photographs, newspaper clippings, and Kamehameha School and UH archival items from the collections of Jeanne MacKenzie, Tandy’s second wife. The result is the documentary “Tandy MacKenzie, Hawaii’s Greatest Opera Star.”

On behalf of Bob Mistysyn, Guy Gaumont, and Maui Film and Research, we hope you enjoy “Tandy MacKenzie, Hawaii’s Greatest Opera Star.”