KABUKI: The Grand Kabuki of Japan, appearing...

KABUKI: The Grand Kabuki of Japan, appearing this weekend at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, survives in part because of Faubion Bowers, one-time secretary to Gen. Douglas MacArthur. . . . Bowers tried to persuade the general to lift the ban on Kabuki in postwar Japan, “but he was a cultural numskull. He never went to a concert, never went to a play, never read a book--except the Bible. ‘Kabuki?’ he said. ‘What’s that?’ ”