If you happen to spot a Hollywood couple in Honolulu in the days and weeks ahead, it just might be Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.
Online buzz suggests that the award-winning actress and the award-winning country music singer hope to renew their wedding vows in our midst. The ceremony would indicate all is well in the couple’s relationship despite rumors that there has been see-sawing strain and tension in their marriage.
Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman: vow renewals in Hawaii?
And why Hawaii? Why not? Kidman was born here but her Australian parents — in the islands on student visas — left Honolulu for Down Under residency and she went on to be a globally known actress.
An insider admits, “They’re secretly organizing an intimate beach ceremony for this winter in Hawaii, where Nicole was born.” OK, she was born here but not on the beach. …
Marquee honorees
“Manoa Marquee,” set for March 26 at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, is the Manoa Valley Theatre’s annual fundraiser.
Honorees this year will be David Kennedy and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Jeffrey Portnoy and the Cades Foundation.
Individual tickets are $325, a hike from earlier gatherings, and premium tables are available at $10,000, $5,000 and $3,000.
During a preview performance of the holiday musical “Elf” Thursday night at Diamond Head Theatre, there was a blackout smack dab in the middle of the show, according to director Greg Zane. Friday’s premiere went on without incident. …
With the comeback of ABBA, the Swedish sensations whose tunes made “Mamma Mia” a Broadway and London retro dance party and a singing Meryl Street on film, Farrington High School is on track to be ahead of the curve in rebooting the audience-favorite musical. Director Miguel Cadoy III is helming the revival for six performances from Feb. 25 through March 6. …
“Broadway in Hawaii” today (Dec. 2) announced its first three-show season of shows for Hawaii residents. A fourth musical, earlier announced, is an “extra” outside of the premier season packaging.
The slate includes three island premieres led by the unprecedented blockbuster “Hamilton” and the hit-loaded “Beautiful — the Carole King Musical.” “Cats,” which is a venerable return visitor but still a popular title in the repertoire of the Broadway spectrum, is the third season attraction. The rescheduled “Jersey Boys” is not part of the season ticketing because it had to be rescheduled twice, with many tickets previously sold, but it will be its first staging in Honolulu.
Joseph Morales as Hamilton
But here’s a bit of secret behind-the-scenes drama: the touring “Hamilton” company is one dubbed “…and Peggy,” and the lead actor in this ensemble is Joseph Morales, our homegrown Broadway trouper. The producers will not announce cast, until just prior of the engagement, since actors can be juggled and routed to a different company. So I’ll go on record to press the decision-makers to be certain that Morales dons his Alexander Hamilton costume when the show lands here. It’ll be his “shot” that will memorable not only for him but also the local theater-goers. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed Morales is our Hamilton.
“The success of shows like ‘Wicked’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ clearly demonstrate that Honolulu deserves to be a regular stop for touring Broadway in North America,” said Magicspace COO Steve Boulay, the presenter, who has been a key player to book musicals at Blaisdell Concert Hall. “We are thrilled that the commitment of everyone at Blaisdell, the stagehands union and the city, together with the support of Broadway in Hawaii patrons, have come together to make this incredible season possible. We look forward to many more.”
Mayor Rick Blangiardi said in a statement, “The Hawaii debut of ‘Hamilton’ is a remarkable opportunity for our community. We are truly grateful to be able to welcome this marquee production to Honolulu without audience capacity limitations.”
Mr. Mayor is spot-on in welcoming the slate of Broadway in Hawaii shows. Audience support is vital, when these series set down anywhere, and this is the first time ever that a spectrum of four productions, one as a “special engagement,” will be staged here. In many other viable communities, six shows comprise a season, so we have a lot of work to do make this venture worth the producers’ effort by securing tickets.
So here’s the rundown:
“Beautiful – The Carole King Musical,” April 19 to 24, 2022. This is a stupendous biographical musical that tracks the ups and downs of prolific rock/pop composers Carole King and her husband Gerry Goffin and collaborators Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, who have written tunes for a myriad of acts in rock history, including The Shirelles, Little Eva, and Neil Sedaka.
“Hamilton,” Dec. 8 to 14, 2022, for subscribers only and Dec. 15, 2022 to Jan. 29, 2023 for other patrons. This is the blockbuster by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the book, music and lyrics, in a hip-hop rendering of the life and times of Alexander Hamilton, a founding father of America, based on the biography by Ron Chernow. It’s been a revolutionary musical and winner of nearly all the prizes available, the Tony, the Grammy, the Olivier, plus the Pulitzer Prize and KennedyTheatre Honors.
“Cats,” June 13 to 18, 2023, The is the Andrew Lloyd Webber creation, inspired by the poetry of T. S. Eliot, that is best known for its “Memory” signature song and is the only musical set in a junkyard. Everyone knows a cat has nine lives, and this show begins a new run for the furry creatures, with updated sound design, choreography and director for a new generation of viewers.
“Jersey Boys,” Sept. 13 to 25, 2022. This is considered a “special engagement,” considering its previous on-again, off-again setback. The show is not part of the three-title season. It is the biography musical of the Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, and boasts a soundtrack of trademark toe-tapping hits like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” and “Walk Like a Man. Season tickets are available at www.BroadwayInHawaii.com and here are the price ranges, by seat locations:
Update: sad to report that beloved Fran Kirk died earlier today (Nov. 29). Prayers and thoughts to the Kirk ohana. Stay tuned for details.
Fran Kirk, the veteran entrepreneur who brought the Society of Seven to Hawaii as the group’s manager and mentor, is under hospice care in an Arizona facility.
Kirk, who also served as entertainment director of the Main Showroom of the Outrigger Waikiki where the SOS group was anchored for decades before it became Blue Note Hawaii, has been coping with Alzheimer’s and other health issues, according to her son, Mike Kirk, a resident of Chandler, AZ.
Frannie, he said, is at a care facility and is in a peaceful sleep. However, the doctors say she may not linger for more than two days.
“I know she can hear me and her body language changes when I give her a kiss,” said Mike.
Frannie had been residing in Las Vegas for several years. An avid golfer, her Hawaii friends would periodically visit and they’d golf together.
She also visited Honolulu somewhat regularly, for doctor visits and personal business, but she hasn’t been the Frannie we all know.
“I moved to Las Vegas to be with and caregive her,” said Mike. “But I moved her to Phoenix July 25, but my home was two stories and we needed a single-floor place.”
Frannie Kirk
In recent days and weeks, Frannie devised a strategy to conceal her loss of memory. “She would tell callers that she had something to tend to, to call back,” a means to cut short her conversations to hide her search for a word or respond to questions.
She eventually was placed in a facility that has been providing valuable and personal care.
Earlier, she suffered a fall and broke her femur and complicated her well-being, but received good care at the hospital. But X-rays showed she had spots on her kidney, an indication of cancer, and Mike said when she was still able to speak, she had complained of pain in the vicinity of her kidney.
“She did not like the rehab that followed,” he said.
And that began her decline in health and awareness.
On her Facebook page, Mike posted this:
“She is not doing well and she may not see Christmas. We did celebrate her 84th Bday and she enjoyed Roast Duck, Char Siu Chow Fun and Baby Bok Choi. She is comfortable and the Doc believes she is at peace.”
Friends can post a message on Facebook or dial her cellphone at (808) 271-3330 and “and I will read them to her daily,” said Mike. “I believe she can still hear, so. friends may call her.”
“The doctors think she will not last two more days; she is not eating and is not on IV.
He remembered a pivotal incident recently:
“There was one moment, when she looked up in air like she was speaking to someone,” said Mike.
“The Joy Luck Club,” now playing at Manoa Valley Theatre, resonates with island audiences because it deals with relatable cultural issues. If you’re Asian, you know the power of familial values and traditions, explored in this play.
Based on the novel by Amy Tan, and scripted by Susan Kim for the stage, the dramady involes four Chinese women who migrate to the U.S. and their four American-born daughters.
It was adapted in 1993 for a movie that featured a widely Asian American cast, a rarity of that period, and that casting concept makes the MVT effort one with a mostly Asian American cast, too.
Set in San Francisco’s fabled Chinatown, the thrust of the play involves memories and reflections of the four-family ensembles. There’s a number of adoring laughs but core is the bond of the traditions not to be forgotten in a family.
Like mahjong tiles that click and clack, there’s a lot of chatter and patter and a yin and yang volley of dichotomous benchmarks : mothers and daughters, sadness and gladness, achievements and disappointments, praise and criticism, doubt and confidence and secrets and confessions flow like hot tea.
For director Reiko Ho, the challenge is to pace the shifting tides of highs and lows, and she utilizes the cramped and smallish MVT staging on multi-platforms and stairways to good advantage, again with dichotomous exits and entrances, from MVT’s doorways on the left and right.
The cast of Manoa Valley Theatre’s “The Joy Luck Club.”
For the spectator, the lack of a printed playbill provides some frustration in identifying characters and actors. You could download a 38-page online version, if you can find it (I believe you need to purchase tickets to get access, or you’ll be unable to peek at the contents). But at a performance, an usher may ask if you want to download the QR code onto your cellphone. But try to access that during the show? No can do; you’re supposed to put your phone on airline mode. Further, the light from your phone will be a major disruption, since all devices must be turned off — house rules. To peruse, you have to wait till intermission, or simply review it at home later. But I digress. I firmly believe, with normalcy returning, theaters should commit to provide a playbill, not just for spectators, but as a measure of gratitude and respect to the cast and crew, a validation of the entire team effort.
The narrator Jing-Mei Woo (Jennifer Stierli) assembles with her three aunties — who were mahjong players with her late mother Suyuan Woo (Rebekah Fu) – for a reunion. The pack includes a mixture of personalities: Lindo Jong (Kat Nakano), An-Mei Hsu (Denise-Aiko Chinen), and Ying-Ying St. Clair (Lisa Ann Katagiri Bright).
The other daughters are Rose Hsu Jordan (Alana Eagle), Waverly Jong (Lacey Chu) and Lena St. Clair (Miki Yamamoto).
What a chop suey lot, these women. American-born daughters, of course, dodge off the conflicts with their native Chinese moms, who can’t understand why they don’t conform to the standards of the older generation. So there are generational friction and wounds.
The men are afterthoughts, with little to do. Canning Woo (Dann Seki) is the patriarch who has a few good lines, and Tin Jong (Devin Nekoba) might best remembered for his feigned but credible hunched trots across the stage .
These are the take-away messages of “Tick, Tick … Boom!,” which marks Lin-Manuel Miranda’s debut as a film director, paying a stunning homage to the late Jonathan Larson.
The biopic currently is streaming on Netflix.
This is a rare, rousing and resourceful adaptation of an autobiographical musical by Larson that no one ever saw, because the composer just couldn’t find a producer to buy into it. It is highly targeted to the Broadway community, with a number of familiar names and some vague faces that appear in cameos that provide somewhat of a sideshow – a guessing game to name all the Broadway elites that appear in brief sightings.
“Superbia” was Larson’s unknown quest to make the big time in the Broadway of the 1990s, and clearly, he gave his heart and soul into the project, notably struggling to complete a key tune in what he hoped would be the selling point of his show.
The film also is a revelation of how difficult it is to make art; an anguished Larson feels like a failure because he’s pushing 30 and he can’t reel in the greenlight for someone to produce his work. He muses that Stephen Sondheim, an iconic composer, had his first show produced at age 27. Hence, his clock is tick-ticking away.
Andrew Garfield plays the anguished Jonathon Larson in “Tick, Tick…Boom!”
But like the highwire act in a circus, who falls but eventually redeems himself by hitting the tightwires again, Larson eventually accepted his first failure by making a second impression, creating the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning “Rent,” a hit among the Bohemian crowd of the era. But reality provided added drama in the Larson legacy: he died on the eve of the premiere of the show, and never was able to enjoy his eventual success and the impact “Rent” made in the annals of Broadway history.
Garfield, a star of film and stage, projects the empathy and embodies the energy of a conflicted Larson and gets into the skin of the composer, providing a powerful voice and a convincing presence on the keyboards. He had never sung publicly till he took on this film. It’s a performance worthy of Oscar consideration.
Alexandra Shipp plays Larson’s girlfriend Susan and becomes part of the tension in a problematic relationship. Other key secondary characters are Vanessa Hudgens as singer Karessa Johnson workshopping the show and Robin de Jesus as Michael, Larson’s best friend and ex-actor roommate.
With Miranda at the helm, the cast is peopled with high-caliber actors. The man behind two huge Tony-winning Broadway hits, the earlier “In the Heights” and “Hamilton,” is unashamed to appear in cameos himself in his own films, so it’s no surprise that he has a brief scene — ditto, his real-life father, Luis Miranda Jr.– here.
But look for a galaxy of Broadway greats:
—Judith Light portrays Larson’s agent, whose advice is to write about what you know.
— Bradley Whitford is Sondheim, looking convincingly like the real deal. While Sondheim does not actually appear in the film himself, it’s his real voice in the scene where Larson listens to the message that his show is a no-go but provides the challenging advice of encouragement to move on and keep working on his craft.
— Joel Grey is best known for his Oscar-winning role as the emcee in the film version of the musical, “Cabaret.”
— Phylicia Rashad is a Tony winner for “A Raisin in the Sun” but best known for playing Clair Huxtable on “The Cosby Show.”
— Brian Stokes Mitchell is a Tony winner for “Kiss Me Kate” and other musicals like “Ragtime.”
— Andre-DeShields earned a Tony as Hermes in “Hadestown.”
— A cluster of Miranda’s colleagues from “Hamilton,” including Phillipa Soo, who originated the role of Eliza; Renee Elise Goldsberry, who won a Tony for her Angelica role; and Christopher Jackson, who played George Washington in “Hamilton,” and now co-stars in the TV drama, “Bull.”
— Bebe Neuwirth is a Tony winner for “Chicago” and “Sweet Charity,” also is remembered for TV’s “Cheers” and for playing Morticia Addams” in Broadway’s “The Addams Family.”
— Chita Rivera is a 10-time Tony nominee and three-time Tony winner, known for her portrayal of Anita in “West Side Story” and Velma in “Chicago.”
— Bernadette Peters, who originated roles in Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park With George” and “Into the Woods,” is a prolific actress in such hits as “Follies,” “Gypsy,” “A Little Night Music,” “Annie Get Your Gun” and “Hello, Dolly!”
— Beth Malone is a Tony nominee for “Fun Home.”
— A trio of original cast members from “Rent,” including Adam Pascal (Roger), Daphne Rubin-Vegas (Mimi) and Wilson Jermaine Heredia (Angel) are recognizable.
— Stephen Schwartz is the prolific composer and lyricist of a string of Broadway hits, including “Wicked,” “Pippin” and “Godspell.”
“Sunday,” the pivotal tune inspired by the Sondheim hit “Sunday in the Park With George,” is one of the key scenes in the film, set in the Moondance Diner enabling most of the aforementioned Broadway luminaries to assemble and reflect in Steven Levenson’s script to party hearty as Larson’s clock is ticking.
Actual footage of Larson performing at the keyboards during the end credits validates the concept and scope of his art-making magnified throughout the film in Garfield’s performance.
