Author: Wayne Harada

Does the world need another “Pinocchio” revival?

Methinks not. Let’s face it: Disney’s classic animated feature, treasured by old and young alike, suffices. It’s the beloved version everyone adores and knows. Older generations, for sure, and the current younger folks.

Yet there’s a new 2022 version, a peculiar mashup with live actors and animated figures, with Tom Hanks, of all people, as Geppetto, the elderly clockmaker of tick-tocking clocks. He is sad and lonely in his cottage after the loss of his son.

So he pursues a project – a wooden son?

The revival begins with good intentions and motives, and even includes  — why not? – the cartoon film’s anthem, “When You Wish Upon a Star,” the signature of the Disney franchise and theme parks. But why not? Familiarity sells.

“Pinocchio,” directed by Robert Zemeckis, betrays the concept and intentions of the tale of a clockmaker creating, and giving life (without the strings), to a wooden a puppet doll. This Pinocchio goes to school, where he is bullied and maligned, and even goes to a theme park (not a Disney complex), where he becomes emotionally bruised. Reason: he has no conscience and is poised to be someone who seeks to be famous, a journey that thrusts him into a Pleasure Island of threatening horrors.

The bottom line: Pinocchio wants to be real and in fairy tales, that’s a logical wish. Your nose shouldn’t get long if you have this wish; it’s an acceptable goal, after all. As for Hanks, bewigged and bewildered, he visually fills the bill. But the story is the problem.

The script, by director Zemeckis and co-writer Chris Weitz, is quite a mess with a mission gone astray. It should be family-friendly, but it is often frightening; it should be terrific, but it is terrifying in spots. Not a version or vision for the very young,

Jiminy Cricket is aboard,  in animation, and voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt,  and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, voiced Pinocchio. Cynthia Erivo, appearing as the Blue Fairy, renders the famous “Wish” ditty in live action, so this is a fantasy within a fantasy, and her version is stunning—she has the wand that will make the wooden boy/toy “real.” Her presence is a good intro/promo when she co-stars in the planned film version of  “Wicked.”

But be warned: Whether you like or dislike revivals, be informed that Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion version of “Pinocchio,” will debut Oct. 15 at the BFI London Film Festival, then destined to have a theatrical premiere in November, followed by a Netflix kickoff Dec. 9. Online previews suggest a dark, perhaps grotesque, rendering is ahead. 

Too many, too often? …

And that’s Show Biz. …

It’s not easy to forget Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles and Joel Grey as the Emcee, in the iconic movie version of “Cabaret,” which remains the benchmark for many folks familiar with the musical. And director-choreograph Bob Fosse’s fingerprints are everywhere.

“Cabaret” also has been a revival classic on Broadway, famously securing a perch on the must-see list, especially when Michelle Williams and Alan Cumming topped the cast.

Even the Manoa Valley Theatre’s reboot, with Marisa Noelle as Sally and Gage Thomas as the Emcee, will attract a crowd of rooters. When the material’s solid — and make no mistake, “Cabaret” still has wattage — it’s always gratifying to shout out, “Come to the ‘Cabaret,’ ol’ chum,” to quote a line in the show’s title number.

The basics remain –- music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, the set-in-Germany plot based on the play by John Van Druten, from the book by Joe Masteroff and inspired by stories by Christopher Isherwood. The story is about optimism and survival, amid the politics of Germany’s evolving growth of Nazism, circa 1930s.

MTV’s sleek rendering is ensconced in the tiny theater that has been reimagined as the Kit Kat Klub, “where everything is beautiful.” The spartan but impressive set, by Willie Sabel, is essentially a functioning scalloped curtain framed by bulbs like in a backstage mirror, but magnified in size, with six smaller frames of lights. Seating with tables and chairs (sofas, for premium seats) is augmented by service by waitstaff to deliver drinks and nibbles before the show, and during intermission. The nine-member orch, large for MVT and conducted by Maika‘i Nash, is situated on a platform above the last three or four rows of seats, so yes, it’s quite a clubby experience.

The show  boasts tunes of romance and yearning, and sexual advances as well as sexual ambiguity are constant.

From the get-go, when the Emcee welcomes the audience into his world, you leave your troubles outside. Thomas has a seductive voice, a sweet gay presence, befitting the club of dreams and hopes, where singer-dancer Sally warbles with passion and seeks a relationship with an American writer Cliff Bradshaw (Nick Amador, charming, sincere)  detained in Germany to teach English. The couple’s “Perfectly Marvelous” is an early highlight in the string of familiar tunes from the Kander-Ebb jukebox.

Along the way, Fraulein Schneider (Susan Hawes, loving and honest), who rents a room to Cliff, discovers  Herr Schultz (Mo Madke, distinguished and gentlemanly loyal, who’ll be remembered as the fruit man, including pineapple). They share two sweet duets, “If Couldn’t Please Me More” and “Married,” devoid of the raunchy energy inside the Kit Kat.

The cast also includes Ernst Ludwig (Rob Duval, Cliff’s supportive friend) and Fraulein Kost (Sally Swanson, with a luminous voice), who duet on “Tomorrow  Belongs to Me.”

The swagger and the seductive tone of the nightclub is demonstrated in the frisky and sensual advances of the Kit Kat female dancers, Frenchie (Alexandria Zinov), Lulu (Emily North), Rosie (Asha DuMonthier), and Texas (Chloe Tower), and gents Bobby (Marcus Stranger), Victor (Eriq James), and Max (Sean Kaya).  Choreographer Dwayne Sakaguchi managed to orchestrate movement efficiently, despite different body types and skills, on that tiny stage space.

Director Alex Munro pulls all the right strings to make the club feel genuine. And Janine Myers’ lighting design and Lock Lynch’s sound design bring out the twinkle of the production. Costumes by Mailee Speetjens project the vital sexual aura of the Kit Kat-ers, but Sally is often donned with a white shirt,  understating and clouding her world of glitter. Lisa Ponce de Leon’s hair and makeup appear suitable for the era.
Not sure if all the Germanic accent is on target, and some cast members do better than others.

So willkommen; order drinks; tip well.

“Cabaret” playdates:  now through Sept. 25, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays,  with 3 p.m. matinees Saturdays and Sundays.

Tickets: $42 for adults,  $37 for seniors and military, and $24 for youths 25 and younger, available at www.manoavalleytheatre.com or at (808) 988-6131.

And that’s Show Biz. …