Roslyn “Roz” Catracchia has a rich history in Hawaii theater, spanning a productive and varied 35 years. She is a composer of musicals, a musical director, an orchestrator of stage music, and a stage director.
Like Christmas trees, Catracchia lights up and twinkles during the holidays. Her latest endeavor happens to be the Christmas-themed original, “Piney Needlesmith and the Road Less Traveled,” for which she collaborated on book, music and lyrics with award-winning orchestrator Peter Seibert — teamwork was the buzzword. The holiday spectacle receives its world premiere Nov. 21 at the Diamond Head Theatre and already has been extended through Dec. 13.
The new show also welcomes the directorial debut of Joseph Morales, who has previous ties with the adored pidgin works of Catracchia and late Lisa Matsumoto. His presence and role are somewhat of a gift from Santa, a homegrown actor linked to Broadway’s Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit shows. The island actor, who’s been in the room where it happened, has gained national acclaim appearing in two trademark Miranda musical hits, “In the Heights” and “Hamilton,” succeeding his mentor in the leading roles in both national tours.
“Holiday musicals are scarce, particularly family shows,” says Catracchia, who discovered the joy of Christmas as a child. “Christmas has always been my favorite time of year; Christmas Eve in particular, not even Christmas Day.”
Her late mother, the legendary Beebe Freitas, would haul her and her brother to every service their accompanist mom played at, and the yuletide services became “so meaningful and magical to me,” she says.
Turns out Catracchia’s become quite a Mother of Christmas this season, because she’s not only involved in “Piney” at DHT, her handprints are on two other holiday events this December:
— “The Year Christmas Was Almost Cancelled,” Dec. 5 through 22, at Sacred Hearts Academy as part of Mo‘olele Studio’s Christmas; she did the music and lyrics, and Kyle Kakuno did the book; the musical is in its third season now.
— “The Christmas Gift of Aloha,” featuring DHT’s “Shooting Stars,” Dec. 16 and 17 at DHT. She also did the music and lyrics, with book by Matsumoto.
Catracchia has the inherent goodwill in bonding and collaborating with fellow artists. Constantly.
“Piney” has roots two years ago, while Catracchia was playing music for “Tootsie” in the pit at DHT. She was musical director, Seibert was keyboarder, and they sowed the seeds to plant “Piney” together for this season.
“We wanted to write something for our friends, to make them laugh,” says Catracchia.
“What started out as a 20-minute mini-musical quickly turned into a full-length new musical, which we were working on during the days and in between shows.”
One evening, John Rampage (DHT artistic director) came over to the orchestra pit to say hi and he said, ‘You know, Roz, I’ve been telling you for years that we could use a new Christmas musical in the world; there are only so many to go around.’ And I said ‘Funny you should say that! Pete and I are working on one right now!’
A quick reading of Act 1 prompted a green light signal from Trevor Tamashiro, DHT executive director, to proceed. So “Piney” arrives with plenty of aloha.
For director, she invited actor Morales, a friend and colleague from her pidgin musicals era with Matsumoto, who also appeared in the duo’s last collaboration, “On Dragonfly Wings,” an emotional piece with real life implications – based on the life of Alana Dung, whose death inspired a massive bone marrow drive in Hawaii.
The overlaps and collaborations have been plentiful.
“I’m at a point in my life where I only want to work on projects that inspire me, with people I enjoy working with,” says Morales, who had perhaps 10 per cent hesitation since this was a massive undertaking. “Some of that is because I was fortunate to be a part of Lin’s (Lin-Manuel Miranda’s) shows, but most of it is age,” he says. “Creating with purpose is deeply consuming. It has to feel worth it. There’s always a tradeoff, no matter how incredible the opportunity is.”
Morales adds, “I think directing is definitely part of my next chapter. Every actor should try directing. It is transformative and humbling, to say the least. My favorite artists do both. Generally speaking, my favorite actors have a director’s eye. And my favorite directors know what it’s like on the inside.”
“I pay attention to the projects that I’m eager to put the work in for. If it feels like homework, it’s usually not for me. But sometimes you have to do things just to stay in shape. It’s part of the long game. It’s also important to lean into the things that scare you. Sometimes it’s hard to decipher between the two. You really just never know. That’s where putting the work in comes into play. If I’m in, I’m all in,” says Morales.
“Musicals really are team efforts,” Seibert agrees. “As far as divvying up chores, we went into this splitting the creative tasks down the center. The story and the characters came out of many, many discussions. We also know that when we are laughing and having a good time — those scenes and songs become the scenes that really work on stage. It’s been fun to see where our strengths are as a team — it’s different with every collaboration! And this collaboration has led very quickly to a premiere, which says that something is working!”
Seifert adds, “Music has always come naturally, and lyrics by extension. I’ve always loved writing, too. I think music is wildly important to a film. And the industry knows this, otherwise they wouldn’t reserve so much of the budget to hire whole teams of composers, orchestrators, and the best musicians in the world to record the scores. Probably most people watching a movie don’t realize quite how much it affects their experience … but if you’ve ever watched a movie without the music … you realize very quickly you are missing that roller coaster of emotion.”
He also worked with a team of composers under Mark Mothersbaugh for the “Thor: Ragnarok” score and also had the opportunity to join Pinar Toprak’s team on “Captain Marvel,” with some contributions heard in “Avengers: Endgame” as well.
Catracchia was a pioneer with the Honolulu Theatre for Youth in 1990, earning her first composition contract, and is best known as a beloved collaborator of pidgin English musicals and parodies with Matsumoto, staging fractured fairy tale characters singing and uttering pidgin English dialogue to the delight of local audiences.
Over the decades, she has logged 40 productions and earned seven Po‘okela Awards, the now defunct island version of the Tonys.
Catracchia cherishes the Matsumoto alliance, and in 2007, was a participant in the ASCAP/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop for “On Dragonfly Wings” as composer-lyricist of the creation with a sentimental theme, based on the true story of a Hawaiian child with leukemia.
As for “Piney,” it is not your usual musical. Its title figure is a girl, but she’s not a Disney princess and is kind of a misfit at the North Pole, where she can’t quite figure out her place and pace. She discovers a heartbreaking letter from a disillusioned child named Tim, and goes on a journey to trigger his holiday spirit. She goes down the road less traveled, and has to dodge avalanches and bottomless pits and the Great Inspector Agatha.
The lesson learned is logical: a truly perfect Christmas can only happen with unity and bonding.
Morales’ heritage enabled him to become the first Asian American to star as Alexander Hamilton; he was anchored as the title character in the Chicago company, and also performed extensively on subsequent national tours until the pandemic halted touring shows.
Morales now is at the crosswords to consider his new off-stage options. He says that Miranda, his mentor, is innovative with his color blind casting in “Hamilton,” which enables New York theater to “move in the right direction, but we’ve still a long way to go,” he says. “Entertainment should reflect the world we live in and we are still far from that. A big reason for wanting to direct is to have more of an influence on who is invited to play. It starts from the top: producers, directors, writers, casting directors. It requires intention. And it requires that the work be universal and actually good.”
Morales is somewhat of a walking mini–United Nations. “My mom is half-Japanese, and a mix of German/Irish; my dad is Mexican,” he says.
He’s still charmed by and loves the isles where he grew up. “I’m so grateful to the theater community in Hawaii,” he says. “The love and inspiration I felt doing shows in Hawaii as a teen is the same love and inspiration I’m still chasing over 20 years later. And it’s the same love I’m experiencing now. There’s nothing like it. Great art can be made with love, and Hawaii is the proof.”
And that’s Show Biz…
‘Piney Needlesmith and the Road Less Traveled’
What: An original new Christmas musical, directed by Joseph Morales, with book, music and lyrics by Roslyn Catracchio and Peter Seibert; it’s making its world premiere here
Where: Diamond Head Theatre
When: Opens Nov. 21 and extended through Dec. 13
Cast: Vanessa Manuel Mazzullo is Piney Needlesmith, Maleko McDonald is Santa, Leslie Goldman is Agatha
Set design by Patrick Fujioka
Choreography by Chandler Converse
Costume design by Hugh Hanson
Hair and makeup design by Aiko Schick
Props by Kyle Conner
Lighting design by Steven Clear
Sound design by Jericho Sombrio
Tickets: $43 to $54, at (808) 733-0274