Category: Updates

‘MAMMA MIA!,” at the Joseph Rider Farrington Auditorium at Farrington High School, is fun and inspiring, brimming with love and loaded with character.

It ends a two-weekend run, with final shows at 7:30 p.m. today (Saturday, March 5) and 2 p.m. tomorrow (Sunday, March 6). Go if you can.

It’s a production lean on resources but keen on desire and pride. Led by director Miguel Cadoy III, a music teacher who also oversees an eight-member live orchestra, the show readily radiates and resonates with energy and purpose as, if you’ll pardon me, the adored Castle High School Performing Arts Center agenda launched by the late Ronald Bright, over the decades of his illustrious career. He was a mentor of Cadoy, who’s carrying on that spirit, planting seeds as he goes, but yes there are some rough edges here. No matter; “Mamma” exudes with personality and community vibes, indicative of the growth, acceptance and progress on this Kalihi campus.

Yo, Mamma! Many performers are first-timers to the FPAC stage, including Kaupali Aipoalani-Wong, who portrays Donna Sheridan (impressive, with a commanding voice and take-charge attitude), the mother who is the centrifugal force in this popular stage musical that has provided two films including a sequel.

However, its plot is razor-thin, involving daughter Sophie Sheridan (Janice Galiciano, also making her FPAC debut, and delightful with energy to spare), who is a bride-to-be who discovers mom’s diary containing info that one of three of her three suitors 20 years ago, just might be her dad. So natch, she secretly invites the daddy candidates to the Greek island site of the wedding, where all hell breaks loose.

The melodies are memorable pop and disco fodder composed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (with some tunes with Stig Anderson), the pillars of the ABBA discography and legacy, and yep, the urge to sing along and dance is constant. Infectious is the operative word.

Some critics of “Mamma Mia!” have been unnecessarily cruel, simply because the show is lightweight in character development but loaded with familiar songs generally described as a jukebox musical. But so what? Many know and can sing or hum along to such titles as “Dancing Queen,” “Super Trouper,” “Take a Chance on Me,” “Money, Money, Money,” “Mamma Mia!.” Audiences are wholly engaged in the phenom of ABBA, and we all know this isn’t Rodgers and Hammerstein and the “Sound of Music.”

Thus, a review of this production has to include a mention of the devoted audience, dominantly Kalihi-centric (school peers, family and friends, constant cheering and applauding for a favored performer or song, extending howls and hoots normally restricted to super stars. You’d think Meryl Streep was onstage.

Then again, several cast members – like Keith Kryzzler Cabbab as Harry Bright, Bernielle Isidro as Bill Austin, and Isaac Liu as Sam Carmichael, the trio of the possible father – generate isolated hurrahs for their musical numbers. That they have this kind of rapport and trust of spectators is amazing.

It’s a joy to spot budding talent in the lineup. Like Axle Munoz, as Eddie, an eighth grader at Kalakaua Middle School down the street from Farrington. He’s a charmer and focused in his supporting role, but displays dancing as well acting skills. You’ll recognize him, since he’s the shortest in the cast, and you’ll recognize his ability and agility, the kind of esprit that will enable him continue to grow and lead to major roles as he matures.

As a production staged in the era of the pandemic, it’s also worthy to note that the cast has a challenging accessory while on stage: the face mask. Everyone wears a plastic mask, clearly a safety measure, but  this provides another layer of safety for all. From the audience, there’s another reaction: the plastic masks often reflect a shiny brightness due to the stage lighting.

It’s possible this is the first all-masked cast on any stage. So bravo, FPACers, for being pacemakers.

Justin Garde is musical director of the ork, located centerstage in the back, and yes, live is better than pre-recorded tracks, so give the company a bonus point. Aubrey Lee Staley is choreographer, with the arduous task to make non-dancers dance. Costumes by Nadia Amian, Rachelle Ramirez and Jade Glover reflect Hawaii on occasion (think surfing shorts) and the ABBA-style gear (scalloped bell bottoms, oversized capes); slim budgeting disallows more of the kind of elegant and vintage costumes inspired by the Swedish group.

The set – two structures with stucco-style Mediterranean architecture — provide a warm suggestion of sun-kissed Greece. And it works, though shuffling a bed on and off stage is no easy chore. These are minor issues considering the outpouring of joy from the stage and the aloha extending to the stage, even from way up in the back of the auditorium.

Facemasks are required and usual admission protocols remain; vaccination cards and picture ID. Seating is assigned as you enter, with social distancing spacing.

Tickets: $10 adults, $5 students 5 to 17, $3 Farrington students with ID; available at the door at showtime or in advance at SHOWTIX4U.COM

And that’s Show Biz. …

Love makes the world go ’round…

Love is a many-splendored thing…

What the world needs now is love…

Puppy love…

True love..

Seasons of love…

Whatever your favorite song, this is the time to sing or hum it!

“Desperate Measures,” which is running at Manoa Valley Theatre through Feb. 6, is a delightful pleasure and a theatrical treasure, with Shakespearean origins but updated and set in an 1800s Wild West saloon loaded with likable critters.

This one had been on the MVT shelf for more than two years; it was scheduled to run in 2019 but was pushed back because of the pandemic crisis, and also scooted off the 2020-21 season, too. Considering the fact that this was dubbed a “problematic” play by The Bard himself back in the day, when “the play’s the thing” was the quote of the era, one wonders, was it jinxed?

In 2022, the playout’s the thing. The show’s Hawaii premiere ultimately is a jolly jewel.

A modest musical by David Friedman and Peter Kellogg, it is mounted with sprightly direction and choreography by Miles Phillips. He has corralled a lively, lovely and luminous cast, clearly enjoying the see-sawing pendulum of silliness and sentiment involving a handsome Johnny Blood (Drew Niles, conniving and raucous but contagiously delightful), jailed for allegedly killing Big Swede, which he insists was self-defense, but could be hanged for the crime. The local sheriff Martin Green (Garrett Taketa, exuding sympathetic logic) tries to help Blood’s  nun of a sister, Sister Mary Jo, aka Susanna (Christine Kluvo, possessing a sweet voice and an honest demeanor), who’s trying to overturn the hanging by requesting leniency from the Germanic Governor von Richterhenkenpflichtgetruber (enacted by an effectively sleazy Garrett Hols).

Of course, there are complications galore.

A saloon fave, Bella Rose (Alexandria Zinov, a charmer in looks, sexiness, and shenanigans), is talked into becoming a stand-in for Mary Jo to have sex with the Gov, to use that as a wedge for undoing Johnny Blood’s hanging. The victim was her boyfriend.

While the Gov tries to woo Mary Jo, she becomes smitten — Lord willing — with the Sheriff. Meanwhile, Johnny Blood also has the hots for Bella and she’s open to a new beau.

There are expected gags, with chastity and fidelity as core issues; the real Mary Jo and the faux one have dance moments and also engage in a mirror routine, wearing identical wedding white dress wear, and borrowing the Marx Brothers’ classic mirror gimmick from the classic “Duck Soup” film, enacting reflective movements to foil the Gov. It’s a bit crude, but an effective gag.

When the German-accented Gov utters he wants to “Make Arizona Great Again,” there’s a ring of current familiarity and wonderment of slogan ownership.

Andrew Doan’s single saloon set, with a bar and walkway to a second level of brothels, creates the right atmosphere for the period piece; the four-piece house band, led by Jenny Shiroma, is stationed just inside the theater’s entrance/exit. A simple desk is the Gov’s office on the opposite side, with window panes alternating projection views of the outdoors or a church’s stain glass. A movable jail cell – where the imprisoned Johnny Blood spends most of his time with a drunken priest — is wheeled in when needed.

Jennifer Hart’s and Kimmerie Jones’ costumes, notably the frou-frou of the saloon dames, reflect an element of the Wild West, and Lisa Ponce de Leon’s hair and makeup define the era. Lighting by Jonah Bobilin and sound design by Lock Lynch brighten and enhance the visual and audible experience.

Some of the dialogue is delivered in couplets, but understandable to modern audiences unlike Shakespearean times; there’s a cadre of plot-moving tunes in the score by Kellogg and Friedman, but nothing hummable on the way home..

The show earned  the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Musical and for Outstanding Lyrics, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, and Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical.  These accolades are warranted, by any measure. If you’re searching for a funfest, you’ll embrace “Desperate Measures.”

And that’s Show Biz. …

The year of the tiger is around the corner; so Kung Hee Fat Choy! The new lunar calendar year starts Feb. 1…so wishing you a Happy Year of the Tiger.