Here’s one to add to your upcoming holiday agenda:
Keali’i Reichel (pictured below), one of Hawaii’s foremost singers and kumu hula, will return to Waikiki for fall performances at Blue Note Waikiki at the Outrigger Waikiki resort.
Reichel’s mele, enhanced with hula by his dancing entourage, provide a spectrum of tuneful melodies, many with Hawaiian roots, some with contemporary seasoning. He is best known for his first hit tune, “Kawaipunahele,” but his compositions and recordings over the decades have become part of the soundtrack of island life.
Reichel will star in a five-show, four-night gig, as follows:
Nov. 16, 6:30 p.m.
Nov. 17, 6:30 p.m.
Nov. 18, 6:30 and 9 p.m.
Nov. 19, 6:30 p.m
Doors open at 5 p.m. all nights and 8:30 p.m. for Saturday’s second show..
Tickets: $125 for premium seating, $85 for loge seating and the bar zone; available at www.bluenotehawaii.com or (808) 777-4890.
Others heading for the Blue Note
Holiday season attractions on the Blue Note calendar include:
Anuhea headlines a Thanksgiving two-nighter, at 6:30 and 9 p.m. Nov. 24 and 25. Tickets: $45 and $35.-
Frank DeLima stages a holiday brunch show at 1 p.m. Dec. 3 Tickets: $45 and $35.
Don McLean serves his “Amerian Pie” at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 2 and 3. Tickets: $125 and $65.
Henry Kapono & Friends’ holiday show, themed “Merry Christmas to You,” unwraps at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Dec. 5. Tickets: $45 and $35.
Wayne Newton (pictured right) makes his Blue Note debut with a four-night schedule, at 6:30 and 9 p.m. Dec. 7 through 10. Tickets: $125 and $85.
Kimie Miner & Friends take the stage at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Dec. 15 and 16. Tickets: $45 and $35.
“Ho‘okena for the Holidays” is the group’s yuletide show, at 4 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 17. Tickets: $45 and $35.
Raiatea Helm has a one-nighter at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 18.Tickets: $45 and $35.
Paula Fuga will presents her “Home for the Holidays” pre-Christmas star at 6:30 and 9 p.m. Dec. 22 and 23. Tickets: $45 and $35. …
Streetlight Cadence, the alt-rock band Hawaii adores, is brighter than ever with unparalleled artistic fervor. The expanded group of 10 — assembled in what was described as a reunion gig — returned to Blue Note Hawaii Friday night (Nov. 3) delivering an astounding one-nighter, attracting a nearly full house which saw a stunning performance that ran for 2 hours and 10 minutes and even included a couple of hana hou treats. Whew!
Streetlight has been known for its busking on the sidewalks and its “Will Work for Food” motto to gain free meals and perhaps a couch for a night’s sleep.
Jonathan Franklin, on violin, and Jesse Shiroma, on accordion.
Well, the group – currently a small trio – is led by Jonathan Franklin whose calls to former mates to reunite succeeded. Franklin developed a production worthy of showrooms not sidewalks.
Ten take-aways from the one-nighter:
1 — Franklin is an indefatigable emcee. He is a genial host and a wonderful storyteller, and he plays an electric violin, often shelving the bow and plucking and strumming his instrument like an ukulele. How cool is that?
2 – The assembled instruments included the violin, along with two cellos, an accordion, two guitars, a bass, a drum, a banjo and a piano. Impressive!
3 – Two women – Clara Stegall on guitar and vocals and Maia Wolfe on cello – bring a rich warmth to the show. Hooray!
Usually a trio now, Streelight Cadence had 10 musicians for its first reunion show at Blue Note Hawaii. Pictured from left, Mariconda, Wolfe, Shiroma, Webb, Franklin, Stegall, Chai, Arashiro and Umamoto.
4 – The gents are all over the place: The players include Jesse Shiroma on accordion, Ben Chai on banjo, Brian Webb on cello, Chaz Umamoto on bass, Matt Mariconda on piano, and Evan Arashiro on drums. They jump, twirl, leap, demonstrating energy and mobility, and on one tune, two dudes – think they were Chai and Umamoto – were lying, back-to-back on the stage floor, and singing. Jiminy Cricket!
5 –Every tune delivered was an original, mostly composed by Franklin (with Stegall serving up one of her songs). There are no “covers” on the Streetlight jukebox!
6—However, a few songs are somewhat structurally repetitive, beginning with calm, and building up to a furious storm…but there’s no lack of communication and interplay when the troupers jam and get the juice flowing, with constant interplay, like partnering in cadence.
7—It’s not easy to categorize the Streetlighters’ music. Yes, primarily, alt-rockers, but flavored with a savory mix of folk, country, hard rock, and in one tune, rap. The mood is like a jam, a hootenanny, a contagious crossover of many genres of music.
8— Franklin opened up a window to his soul and heart; clearly, he’s had issues, which are resolved in a song, notably about his longtime conflict with a sister in Japan, reflected in an honest, revealing, and soulful apologetic letter of sorts, on “Learn to Love.” Sounded like a diary admission of making up to heal wounds.
9—The audience was a peculiar but homogenous mix of young, old, mostly locals; they are not always fully familiar to the Streetlight repertoire (me included) but they’re loyal and addictive to the party on stage, perhaps attracted to the personalities, happily clapping along and offering an impromptu standing ovation at the end, and yes, howling “hana hou,” not fully satisfied with the earlier non-stop 2-hour-plus music fest. Geez!
10– With this kind of performance – pure, revealing, engaging – Blue Note ought to book the band again, which means Franklin will have to start convincing the ex-members to come back to Hawaii for a second annual reunion. Hana hou!
Rob Duval (pictured below) has been named artistic director at Manoa Valley Theatre, following the recent resignation of executive director Kip Wilborn.
The position is somewhat new to MVT, where Duval has been serving as production manager.
Attorney Jeff Portnoy, a veteran MVT board member and many times the group’s board chair, said, “For some time, Mānoa Valley Theatre has been considering the appointment of an artistic director. With the hiring of Rob Duval, that decision was easy. He brings decades of theater experience in this community, as an actor, director, teacher, administrator, and producer, and working hand in hand with our new executive director, Kathleen Young, this team is ready to take MVT to new heights.”
Duval is a veteran director and actor, with credits at MVT and Diamond Head Theatre. He helmed such MVT hits as “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” “The Rocky Horror Show,” “The Who’s Tommy,” “The 39 Steps” and “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery.” At DHT, he directed “Guys and Dolls,” “Lend Me a Tenor,” “Noises Off,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and “The Mousetrap.”
As an actor, he starred in “To Kill a Mockingbird” at DHT, “The House of Blue Leaves” at Hawaii Pacific University, and “The Elephant Man” at MVT.
He’ll be seen as a Snobby Tourist in Disney+’s live action feature, “Lilo & Stitch,” based on the popular animated series.
He also has been a teacher at Iolani School. …
Readers Theatre nestles at TAG
The Windward Readers Theatre has found a comfy city home – TAG, aka The Actors group at Dole Cannery in Iwilei — for its ongoing series of shows.
Next up: “About Time,” a warm dissertation of aging between a couple struggling with life and love as they face mortality, at 7:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday (Nov. 27, 28, 29).
The piece, by Tom Cole, will be directed by stage veteran Vanita Rae Smith, who has tapped a pair of theatrical vets — retirees Dwight Martin and Joyce Maltby (pictured here) –to portray the couple facing challenges of aging.
Performances are in the Brad Powell Theatre.
Tickets: $20, available at https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/tag/items/486451/calendar/2023/11/ …
On the road again…
Entrepreneur Jack Cione (pictured below) is on the road again. Well, on the high seas again.
He’s leaving today (Thursday, Nov. 2) on a 25-day Norwegian cruise, initially taking another ‘round the neighbor islands trek, with Tahiti and the South Seas as his final destination.
Cione, an Arcadia resident, will utilize the journey to tweak his script entitled, “Sweet Leilani,”
hoping to eventually find a venue for the show.
“I have to get away,” he said of his frequent ocean vacations, because he no longer can fly on long trips without a stopover.
He also has logged a string of staycations, monitoring Waikiki room rates. The last was at the Kahala Resort. …
Broadway grosses for week ending Oct. 22
It was pretty much a replay of last week: the leaders still lead. The lion still is king of the Broadway jungle, but the witchery of “Wicked” – celebrating its 20th anniversary – could join the million dollar club next week.
The Top 10:
1 –“The Lion King,” $2,064 million.
2—“Wicked,” $1,922 million.
3—“Merrily, We Roll Along,” $1,840 million.
4—“Hamilton,” $1,767 million.
5—“Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” $1,583 million.
6—“MJ the Musical,” $1,579 million.
7—“Aladdin,” $1,264 million.
8—“Moulin Rouge: the Musical,” $1,118 million.
9—“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” $1,113 million.
10 –“Back to the Future the Musical,”$1,055 million.
My Christmas card this year is like any another year — the same concept for decades — but I tweaked the design this year.
Some time ago, I fashioned this three-tier Christmas tree design, utilizing Hawaiian-print paper as the thrust of the card. It was festive, it said “aloha” and it was an easily doable project.
Thus, the creation is somewhat of a classic, and since each card is created separately, every card can be considered an original.
However, the scale is smaller this year (not an inflation issue, just so happened I had vellum white cards which were tinier than years past), but perfect for the project.
Simply, the three levels of the tree design had to be squished a skosh, to retain a star atop the tree, with the bottom base “holding” the tree, also minimalized.
It still works for me. I simply cut and assemble the three sectors and still give the creation a little twinkle with a yarn thread between the sections, which creates a luminous glow when light shines on the card.
And because I hand-cut a variety of Hawaiian-print wrapping paper, the card continues to say “aloha” or “Mele Kalikimaka,” without actually saying it.
So, here I’m sharing six specimens from the 36 cards I assembled over a couple of hours a few mornings ago. Hope it’ll be enough for holiday mailings this year.
To finish it off, I sign my signature since a fellow artist told me four decades ago that it was prudent to “sign” each card or anything you create, for identity purposes. It’s akin to a painter putting his/her John Hancock on a canvas on a grander scale.
For me and a dwindling audience, mailing cards still matter when you want to say, “Merry Christmas.” Emails are swift but don’t do the job.
Yes, Hallmark peddles their lovely gems and I occasionally peruse the racks and make a purchase, since I often find inspiration to hatch an idea to concoct my version.
Nearly three years ago, Jesse Shiroma left Streetlight Cadence and put aside his accordion to begin a new chapter in his career path, becoming a degree candidate in the University of Hawaii’s Library and Information Science program.
He is graduating this fall but this weekend, he rejoins his Streetlight musicians in a one-night reunion at 7 p.m. Friday (Nov. 3) at Blue Note Hawaii.
Even before he graduates, he already has a job. “I count myself incredibly lucky to have fallen into a steady and secure position as an archivist at the Hawaii State Archives where I am helping to lead the build-out of our new Hawaiian Music Collection,” said Shiroma. “This entails the handling, indexing and digitization of over 15,000 individual phonodiscs from three collections, including (the collection of) the legendary Harry B. Soria Jr. of ‘Territorial Airwaves’ fame.”
Long story short, Shiroma said he feels blessed to “still play with music on a regular basis, ha-ha.”
As an archivist, Shiroma is tasked with the broad responsibilities of assisting patrons who may have a range of inquiries with genealogical, land rights, and historical consideration.
On a more intriguing and cultural note, Shiroma may have left the ranks of the popular recording and busking band, Streetlight Cadence (whose motto in earlier years was, “Will play for Food,” which evolved into a TV series), but has brought his skills and his accordion to the ranks of the four-piece Uchinaanchu band, Yuttai Kwattai, performing and perpetuating original and traditional Ryukyuan folk music, in the indigenous language of Okinawa.
“We are a four-piece (group) including Brandon Ufugusuku Ing (led vox and guitar), Derek Fujio (sanshin, flute, oboe and saxophone), Noah Kutaka (bass) and myself on accordion,” said Shiroma.
The group has a widening following, with its fresh, contemporary arrangements of Ryukyuan folk tunes, performed in the native tongue at the local Okinawan Festival, bon dances, and private events.
“Our goal is to increase the visibility of our native tongue and inspire Okinawans in Hawaii and elsewhere to embrace their heritage whether through the creative arts or otherwise.”
Shiroma is eager to reunite with his colleagues, who have experienced numerous membership changes in recent months. “If it’s feasible, we’ve definitely entertained the idea of an annual get-together to make a bunch of noise with the entire gang,” he said. In recent months, membership has been steady with three, compared with four, in the recent heyday of Streetlight success.
“I love how the sound of the band never got ‘better’ or ‘worse,’ but rather gracefully changed in texture and tone as members came and went,” he said. “That said, it’s going to be a blast with Jonathan (Franklin), Ben (Chai), Clara (Stegall) Brian (Webb) Chaz (Umamoto), Maia (Wolfe), Matt (Mariconda), and two Evans (surnames not available) and myself on stage all at once.”
Once an accordionist, always an accordionist, for Shiroma. “Busking is a blast and I still occasionally find myself hitting the streets if I feel the need to bother others with some accordion tunes, ba-ha-ha. That said, I couldn’t be surer that this decision to further my academic career was the right call. The balance it has brought to my life has invigorated my spirit and even encouraged greater creative work in my art!”
He treasures the memories with Streetlight Cadence “and will always wish them well. While I do not foresee myself rejoining for any significant period of time, I hope we continue to find these little sparks of reunion where we can enjoy the love of music and adventure that initially brought us together.”…
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Streetlight Cadence
When: 7 p.m. Friday (Nov. 3)
Where: Blue Note Hawaii at the Outrigger Waikiki resort
Zare Anguay (pictured), a former Bright Kid, is in the midst of his Broadway debut, as a swing actor in Disney’s “Aladdin,” at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Swing actors understudy several ensemble roles, so if you attend a performance, you may not easily spot him in the cast.
But in the final curtain bow, you just might spot Anguay as the audiences shout and cheer.
You’ll need to have sharp eyes because he likely will be in the same Arabic costumes with his fellow actors. So look for the actor, flashing a quick shaka sign. Local performers often do this, as part of their hometime pride. …
Yemun Chung celebration of life Nov. 13
A Celebration of Life for the late Yemun Chung (pictured), best known as the manager of TheKrush, will be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 13 at the New Hope Sanctuary at Sand Island. Doors open at 5:45 p.m.
He died at age 78 of an apparent heart attack on Sept. 11 at a Las Vegas hospital.
Chung was a popular talent manager and an entrepreneur extraordinaire. He was engaged in a myriad of projects, including recording production, show promotion, and
Chung and his wife Gloria were former Honolulans who migrated to Las Vegas 13 ½ years ago, to help raise her grandchildren.
Thus, he had to abandon a legacy of celebrity management, recording production, and show production, in an era when managers often had p.r. appeal.
Chung was a reporter and producer in the 1970s at KGO Radio in San Francisco, but ventured to make his mark in Hawaii, rubbing shoulders and elbows with some of Hawaii’s celebrity managers and recording icons beginning in the 1980s and eventually evolved into one of the most active talent-touting managers himself through the early 2000s.
Following his gig with The Krush, Chung collaborated with such show biz icons as TomMoffatt and Jack Cione, before relocating to Las Vegas. …
