Category: Stage

If ever there was an evergreen musical with just about everything, it just might be Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes,” now playing through Sept. 25 at Diamond Head Theatre.

Consider:

• Tap dancing , Act 1: You could leave at intermission, when the title tune gets a spirited boost,  as energetic tappers click their shoes and sing and dance their hearts out, as if this was the finale. You’d get your money’s worth and feel fulfilled.
• Tap-dancing, Act 2: The closing tapper, which brings down the curtain, also is rich with voices and shoes tapping, and yep, might trigger your animated trek to your car. Disclosure: there’s another awesome show-stopper  (won’t reveal it) when you’ll momentarily feel like you’re seeing “42^nd Street” and “A Chorus Line.”
• Career-best performances, from the romantic leads: Jody Bill, as nightclub singer Reno Sweeney, has the pipes and verve and vocalize with skill, and is a knock-out dancer, as well. Andrew Sakaguchi, as stowaway Billy Crocker, is a triple-threat, singer, actor and dancer with batteries that don’t need recharging. He certainly, and deservedly, carries the flag as an API trouper  and a poster boy for blind casting that works.
• The rich and everlasting score by Porter still connects:  his words and music  are part of the DNA of the Great American Songbook.

• Splendid direction and choreography:  John Rampage, who is the unseen skipper of the SS American, the setting for this shipboard, steers through one of his favorite musicals of all time, in what will be the final production in the “old,” soon to be retired Ruger Theatre, which also has been a playhouse earlier known as the Honolulu Community Theatre, and now Diamond Head Theatre; with additional kudos to Caryn Yee, whose tap choreography is a joy to experience (for performers and spectators), with solo, couple, and ensemble units joyfully tapping, tap-tap-tap.
• Glorious, colorful and costumes: Karen G. Wolfe has outdone herself with a mountain of wardrobe styles and hues, brightening the needs of scenes involving a diverse lot, from sailors to captains, from angels to devils, from clerics to whomever. Her creations could proudly fill a boutique.
• Appealing depth in the secondary roles: Mathew Pedersen, as Moonface Martin; Akiko Schick, as Evangeline Harcourt, mother of Christine Kluvo’s Hope Harcourt; Ahnya Chang, as Erma.
• Stage and lighting design: Dawn Oshima’s shipboard set, complete with occasional suites, are inventive yet essential, to address the multi-moods of  the time-tested rom-com treasure.

Further, there’s support and efficiency in the other realms of staging a huge musical; like hair and make up by Aiko Schick, and orchestral melodics helmed by Jenny Shiroma, who also is keyboardist, with four colleagues who sound like a band double its size.

 Ensemble excellence prevails – the  cast of 30 is huge – so their unity and output reflect dedication and generosity, from the show leads to the gallery ensemble folks, who perform with a feeling of genuine team pride. It’s also a thrill to remember young actors making progress and living the joy of theater. I point out the likes off Shane Nishimura, who is part of the ensemble principally as a singing-dancing sailor, but I remember him as a youngster portraying Gavroche in a “Les Miserables” in the past.

Performance schedule: 7:30 p.m.  Thursdays through Saturdays, at 3 p.m. Saturdays and at 4 p.m. Sundays (no Saturday matinee Sept. 10), through Sept. 25.

Tickets: $25-$35, available at www.diamondheadtheatre.com or (808) 733-0274.

And that’s Show Biz. …

Dear “Edwina” cast and crew: you’re a winnah, with so much heart and soul.

“Dear Edwina Jr.” – staged over two weekends, due to the cloud of COVID-19 which shut down performances after one show July 15 – returned with a vengeance, so to speak, at Paliku Theatre, Windward Community College. The remaining three shows (one on Friday night, two on Saturday afternoon) challenged the cast to wear face masks, an action not taken by any other theater cast here.

An ensemble of nearly 50 youngsters, who learned or improved their acting, singing and dancing skills in a summertime I’m A Bright Kid Foundation theater arts sessions, also discovered that the show cannot always go on as scheduled. In this case, the potential threat was the pandemic, which affected some kids and a few adult backstagers. Hence, there were other lessons learned.

The show, about a teen broadcast dispenser of advice for an audience of youths with a bundle of growing-up issues, radically did a turn-around, with the final three performances requiring the kids to don face masks for the safety of all, with only brief instances of unmasked solo singing.

I don’t recall any other local group hitting the stage with full cast masking during the pandemic, so the IABK gang outdid itself with an energetic booster shot of desire and determination, earning a deserved standing ovation at the finale I attended.

Bravo!

The show, set in Michigan with music by Zina Goldrich and lyrics and book by Marcy Heisler, was a “junior” edition, meaning a curtailed production for a youth or junior cast. Edwina Spoonapple (Cleonice Hamm, splendid and  stunning), solicits letters from youths and shares her growing-up wisdom, like a teen Dear Abby. The formula embraces vibrant musical numbers – song and dance productions, the heartbeat of the show – tackling simple topics as where the silverware is placed in a dinner setting and matters of the heart.

Kids of all ages, looks and sizes converts “Edwina” into an island rainbow of talent, singing, somersaulting, radiating joyous pride, particularly in the “chorus” of line-ups, like a piggy number where many not just singing through their facemasks, but donning piggy wears, snout and tail. Oink!

A sane and simple tune, prior to the final curtain, reflects the IABK pulse:  “Sing Your Own Song” advocates the notion that everyone has a voice and should use it. “Don’t let them take away the music you’re made of,” is a thematic line, which reflects the core of believing in yourself and it’s OK to move to your own drumbeat, a teaching and learning point of the late director-teacher Ron Bright, who inspired this spirit in his quest to share and shape the notion that everyone matters.

Surely, these youths have heard about and learned theories of Mr. B, as he was known, and his fingerprints continue to live through his followers, backstage and onstage. Before each show, there’s a circle of prayer to unify and inspire; at the final curtain bow, all performers point upwards to the heavens to acknowledge the mentor and his impact.

A Bright tradition – a family member almost always exists in a Bright show – continues, with grandson Drew Bright (persistently cute, in voice and in manner) playing Scott Kunkle, a teen with his eyes on Edwina.  

Jade Stice, who directed the show, was a Bright kid growing up, continues to reflect Mr. B’s ways. The adult circle of educators involved include Moku Durant, music director; David Boyd, vocal director; and Alex Durrant, Lisa Herlinger-Thompson, and Annie Yoshida, choreographers; DeAnne Kennedy, set designer; Danielle Mizuta, costume coordinator; Chris Gouveia, lighting designer; Kingsley Kalohelani, sound engineer; and Allan Lau, production manager. Indeed, their collective skills and savvy helped create and shape this genuinely collaborative powerhouse of a kid musical. The staging is akin to a “graduation show.”

The summer program—which attracted youths from all over the islands– was supported in part by a grant from the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation.  “Edwina Jr.” was the first IABK live theatrical endeavor since the pandemic outbreak in 2019. …

And that’s Show Biz. …

Jeffrey Seller, four-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer, says that the outlook finally feels ripe and ready for fans and actors to congregate and celebrate theater.

Though the crippling pandemic that made life uneasy and challenging for nearly three years, “we who make our living in live entertainment are back, and  happy,” he said.

Seller, the producer of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” blockbuster, is in town to formally announce the launch of single ticket sales starting tomorrow (July 21) in Honolulu, in an unprecedented eight-week residency at Blaisdell Concert Hall.

Speaking by phone from his Halekulani Hotel room earlier today (July 20), Seller is hosting a press conference this afternoon at Blaisdell, interviewing two of the musical’s stars, Morgan Anita Wood (Angelica Schuyler) and DeAundré Woods (Alexander Hamilton) for the local media.

He said the “Hamilton” run, from Dec. 7 to Jan. 29, 2023, reflects a commitment to enable show-hungry islanders to see the iconic show and be “in the room where it happens,” to quote a moment in the show.

“It’s a big commitment, but we are doing what Hawaii deserves –a long stop to share our show with the many folks in Hawaii,” said Seller. “Honolulu has a million people and is the 11^th largest city (of the U.S.) and our show is special, the kind that comes around only once a decade, like a ‘Lion King’ and a ‘Wicked.’”

“The pandemic was horrendous for all of us,” said Seller. “We who make our living in live entertainment were in a coma for 18 months, and that included everyone, from stage hands, to office crews,  costumers to artisans who make all that stuff. But the Federal government came through for us in live entertainment, to keep live entertainment alive.”

The return, last September, was a little bumpy, with second-outbreaks of COVID 19, “and our new normal still includes a couple of COVID cases very day. But we’re prepared in New York, and  now all our shows are jammed, with full houses, and the business is coming back in all the cities we play across the country,” said Seller.

“I believe we all want to congregate, get together in live entertainment, and see a show, to laugh, clap together. It’s been so gratifying.”

Seller said that social distancing never was tried in the theater realm, “and there was no strong evidence that it would work. Masks were mandatory till the end of June,  with Broadway adopting the optional policy last July 1, “which seems to be operating smoothly, like the airline policy.”

The casualty of the pandemic is that no one is permitted (other than authorized cast and staff) backstage anymore. Fans waiting at the stage door now are greeted by some cast heading home, autographing, Playbills like the old days, some dodging the practice.

“Outside, things are a little bit more normal,” he added.

“Everybody has to handle themselves in these unique times, in the life of the Earth,” said Seller. “There’s panic in all four corners of the Earth, and from Europe to the West Coast, there have been the largest heat wave.”

Seller has logged an impressive career in the past 21 years. Now an independent producer, he was partnering with Hawaii native Kevin McCollum, in producing such properties as “Rent,” “Avenue Q,” and “In the Heights,” musicals that have earned Tony Awards. In the process, he befriended Jonathan Larson, the composer and book writer for “Rent,” a musical that earned four Tonys (Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book, Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1996). Their collaboration in 2003 on “Avenue Q” resulted in three Tonys, for Best Musical, Book and Score in 2004.

When staging “Rent,”  he felt that tickets should be accessible for the young, and less affluent theater-goer, so he introduced “rush” tickets for the rock musical about Bohemian life in New York, with $20 tickets available for youths, sold through a lottery, for the first two rows of the Nederland Theater.

So when “Hamilton” came along, producer Seller and composer-performer Miranda wanted to rewrite the book on rush seats with Miranda pushing a $10 ticket (one Hamilton bill) in 2015, with flocks of 2,000 vying for 35 lottery seats at the reduced  cost at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.

“Those were bedrock moments for me,” said Seller, because “everyone should get a ticket regardless of economic standing.”

So what and who comes first, the show or the producer?

“My decision to do a show is simply consequential,”  he said. “I do a show when I have to. In my career, it’s all about the pleasure of nurturing and fortifying and cheerleading a product that hits me on a visceral, emotional level.”

Like, it’s got to be inspirational, perhaps innovative, with something to say about life.

“Hamilton” fit the bill, because like its predecessor, “In the Heights,
 it featured hip-hop that spoke a new language to a new audience, and focused on language and rhythms of folks not commonly the centerpiece of a Broadway show, like Puerto Ricans and other Hispanics. Consequently, Seller is happily the show’s best salesman-seller, a hearty supporter of the needs and deeds of the show, and perhaps is the kind of booster shots every show needs. A caring, charismatic and committed producer.

So what and who comes first, the show or the producer?

“My decision to do a show is simply consequential,”  he said. “I do a show when I have to. In my career, it’s all about the pleasure of nurturing and fortifying and cheerleading a product that hits me on a visceral, emotional level.”

Like, it’s got to be inspirational, perhaps innovative, with someone with something to say about life. In short: there’s no manual on producing a show.

He said he’ll know when to shut down “Hamilton.”  “When it stops making money, we’ll close. When expenses are larger than income, it’s end of the business, like a restaurant.”

Seller has a project ahead he can’t mention yet, but his next production will be a new musical, “Only Gold,” with a score by Kate Nash and Andy Blankenbuehler ( from “Hamilton”) will direct; “It’s a dance musical, and a real passion project for Andy and myself,” he said.

Broadway, like any business, is all about making money.

“It’s all about capitalism, with supply and demand driving it, but in recent years, bots and computer programs have been able buy tickets quickly, and resold at (scalping) prices,” said Seller. …

Broadway grosses, for weekend ending July 17

As “Hamilton” tickets go on sale in Hawaii this week, it’s good to note that the show is the No. 2 grossing show last week on Broadway, with a tally of $2,255 million, with “The Music Man” still at No, 1, with $3.062 million; and No. 3 was “The Lion King,: with $2.130 million.”

The numbers are for the week ending July 17, courtesy The Broadway League:

And that’s Show Biz…