Surely you’ve participated in a school classroom or work office ritual called “Secret Santa” during the holidays.
I don’t have fond memories or success with this illogical tradition. I mean, there’s usually a price ceiling, like $5 for school kids and perhaps $10 for working adults.
You usually pick a name, from a proverbial hat, of a classmate or an office co-worker, and they’re not supposed to know who the Secret Santa is.
Argh! What if your recipient is someone you have little to do with?
Argh again! What can you buy and wrap on a trinket budget?
You can’t not participate, so either you purchase a boring item, say a couple of ball point pens, or seek out a sale item even you wouldn’t want to receive.
This whole process is supposed to enhance holiday goodwill and cheer. But does it?
Methinks it brings out the Grinch instead.
Presents should come with sincerity and admiration, from the givers. So if you have classmates or workmates, you usually enchange gifts with anyway, why can’t the angst of the Secret Santa process be nullified?
What memories, or nightmares, do you have of this Secret Santa thing?
With the airing earlier this week of the last of 10 episodes of “Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.,” it’s time to reflect on and endorse a second season for the Disney+ Hawaii-based, Hawaii-filmed show.
Without doubt, “Doogie” is the best thing to happen here since sliced pineapple.
It’s authentic, credible, consistent, groundbreaking and professional, from top to bottom.
OK, its inspiration is yesteryear’s Neil Patrick Harris medical sitcom, “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” reshaped and rebooted with a new spin – updated for today, wholly filmed here, boasting more local faces on camera and off whose presence glows and certifies the show as a bona fide Hawaii gem.
Simply, this one is a measuring rod and a model of execution for other filmed-in-the-islands productions to adopt. It’s got the visual integrity among its population of characters and actors, knowing looks matter more than the visitor-appealing customary sights and scenes of tropical Hawaii filling network series.
Poster for ‘Doogie’ series.
An unlikely lass named Lahela becomes a doctor at 16 and is conflicted with high school expections, so it’s simultaneously an homage to the original sitcom and a journey for modern times. Lahela has to deal with surgeries, as a certified medic, but she struggles to get her driver’s license and boyfriend decisions, too. Like, should he go pro as a paid surfer and leave his lovey-dovey at home? Domestic matters compete with hospital commitments, too, because mom Dr. Clara Hannon (played by Kathleen Rose Perkins) rules at home yet doubles as her hospital administrator. It’s a unique balancing act of tough, often hilarious, situations.
Peyton Elizabeth Lee portrays the titular character, and she’s perky, cute, charming and respectful, a lofty inspiration for aspirational kids. While she might look like the kid down the street, she is New York-born but her hapa looks fit the template of the show.
The “Doogie” cast, clockwise from left: Matt Sato, as Kai Kamealoha, Emma Meisdel, as Steph Denisco; Alan Aiono as Walter Camara; Peyton Elizabeth Lee, as Lahela Kamealoha; Kathleen Rose Perkins, as Dr. Clara Hannon; Jason Scott Lee, as Benny Kamealoha; and Wes Tian, as Brian Patrick Kamealoha.
Lahela’s world quickly becomes our world, a tropical paradise with sunny skies, verdant seas, and laced with teen issues and complications that intersect both her medical career and her peers.
Her family is our family – and this is the show’s strength and attraction: most of the actors playing real-life roles look like us. Asian, Hawaiian, haole, hapa. It’s a rainbow collection of normalcy for us folks in the islands.
The show, adapted by Hawaii-born Kourtney Kang, is based on the original series by collaborators Steven Bocho and David E. Kelley which aired on ABC for four seasons and made Harris a star from the get-go.
Jason Scott Lee, as Benny Kamealoha, operator of a shave ice and flower wagon:, has a winning smile.
Its localness surely was a draw for Jason Scott Lee, an actor somewhat semi-retired and residing on the Big Island, to return to active acting playing Benny Kamealoha, Lahela’s appealing and often off-center dad, who operates a shave ice-and-flowers wagon and proves to be the most natural and adorable pidgin-spouting cast member with a most congenial smile and laughter. Lee, who likely really didn’t need the work, must’ve sensed an opportunity to jump-start his on-and-off Hollywood credits. He played Bruce Lee in a biopic early in his career, portrayed the King of Siam in a London musical mounting of “The King and I,” and last was seen on the big screen as the antagonist Bori Kahn in Disney’s live-action “Mulan.”
The Kamealoha clan includes Matt Sato as the elder son, Kai Kamealoha; he is wickedly funny, with a head of wavy hair that attracts attention, and teen girls adore him. His roots are in Mililani, the westside Oahu community, and his occasional sibling friction with sister Lahela could be stuff your kids argue about.
Wes Tian as Brian Patrick Kamealoha, the youngest son/brother, is from Chicago but convincingly fits into the ohana. He brings a wry comedic spin to the plate.
Visitor-targeted scenics matter, as this Waimanalo beach scene with Lee, but looks of actors count, too.
Several secondary players – Alex Aiono, as Lahela’s boyfriend Walter Camara, from Phoenix; Emma Meisel, as Lahela’s BFF Steph Denisco, from Los Angeles; Mapuana Makia as nurse Noelani Hakayama , from Maui; and Ronny Chieng, as Dr. Lee, from Malaysia; and Jeffrey Boyer-Chapman, as nurse Charles, from Canada – complete the mixed plate inner circle of the show.
For the out-of-town crews, both on and off camera, onetime Hollywood producer Chris Lee, has served as a consulting producer, to provide kokua and guidance from his decades-long savvy in film production. So a shout-out to Lee, who helps make wrongs right in his oversight.
The John A. Burns School of Medicine, an actual University of Hawaii working “campus” for future doctors in training at Kewalo Basin, has a key role weekly on “Doogie Kamealoha.” The show’s hospital wing utilizes available space at JABSOM, which occasionally shows off the glories of the Pacific Ocean and Diamond Head in overhead or distance shots.
The show’s concluding chapter, episode 10, was as good as it gets – capped by the last of three guest-role appearances of the late Al Harrington, who played Uncle John. He died several weeks ago, after completing his guest spots, and a closing acknowledgement of his passing was a noble send-off. And the oooh-oooh voicing of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole singing his iconic version of “Over th Rainbow,” was a defining moment that demonstrated the show’s prowess and power of a lingering episodic comedy.
A final observation: Lahela’s monologue at the concluding moments of each show — where she composes and spouts observations of life and love, speaking from the heart for her online blog – serves as a flashpoint of humanity and honesty, akin to the family dinners of “Blue Bloods,” where the day’s or week’s concerns are discussed and resolved with truth and inspiration.
Hope Lahela continues this tradition…in the not-yet-announced second season. …
“Be More Chill,” finally out of the lockdown freezer and live and chilling on the Manoa Valley Theatre stage, reflects the flavor of the Broadway musical genre that is evolving with regularity, if not consistency.
As directed and choreographed by Andrew Sakaguchi, “Chill” is hip, loud, ludicrous at times, and now. Meaning it has youth appeal, its intended audience, not so much for graying oldsters; it’s a bit like “Dear Evan Hansen,” with its focus on technology and social media, and “The Prom,” with its high school momentum involving kids in their own weird whirl (like in most musicals about high schoolers).
So there exists a great divide: parents and adults are not exactly tuned in on the same sci-fi electronic waves as the youths.
In this one, Jeremy (Darian Keanu Ruis Aquino) is an outsider trying to be an insider, who lacks confidence while yearning to be the beau of Chistine (Alanna Poelzing), his fellow drama student united by a production, and her lack of focus is emblematic of many kids today. He’s mighty likeable and mobile, with a voice that is as powerful as his dance moves; she’s the stand-offish picture of sweet indecision, trying to find her heart.
Darian Keanu Ruiz Aquino (Jeremy) and Alanna Poelzing (Christine), in MVT’s “Be More Chill>”
The musical, written by Joe Iconis (music and lyrics) and Joe Tracz (book), is set in a suburban New Jersey high school, where Halloween looms and a costumed song and bewitching tune makes this a timely arrival. So tricks and treats loom in the playout.
The key characters in Jeremy’s ‘hood include the Squip (Brandon Caban), an avatar in black costume festooned with neon green lights, an invasive alien supposedly a Keanu Reeves look-alike (not!) with powers to guide Jeremy in life and girlfriend issues; and Jeremy’s best buddy Michael (Moku Durant), who also is a geek with loyalty who gets locked in a bathroom; and Jeremy’s dad (Devon Nekoba), who hasn’t worn pants his wife left home.
Thus, the score includes such weirdo tunes as “Michael in the Bathroom” and “The Pants Song,” not relevant outside of the show but expressive and essential in defining some of the issues in the storytelling.
And among the ensemble, Bailey Barnes as Jenna is a multi-threat, as singer and dancer who projects and delivers on cue, and Melani Carrie as Chloe, whose seductive vocal and moves provide precise tension at the right moment.
The tale is based on Ned Vizzini’s novel with the same title, and the show began as an off-Broadway hit that transferred to the Broadway stage. It suits the MVT space well, thanks to Michelle Bisbee’s lean, clean and inventive set that includes numerous stairways and playing platforms, plus turntable wall panels that spin and display backstage mirror and sink, a small cluster of lockers, and even a pair of urinals … all smartly illuminated by Janine Myers’ precise lighting design.
Ticketing advisory: Your preordered reserved seats might have changed since you placed your order (mine did), so it’s advisable to arrive early and resolve seating issues, if any. MVT had to modify seating for social distancing, since protocols changed the rules after sales had started.
In year two of the pandemic, should kids trick-or-treat?
Last year, Halloween was a washout because of coronavirus.
Trick-or-treating: A go or no?
Though it’s safer now than a year ago, should island keiki (high schoolers included) roam the streets with the Halloween masks or pandemic masks to gather candy and other treats even if they likely won’t eat anyway?
This is not your older sibling’s Halloween, when kids not only had a bag for treats, but carried a jack-o-lantern (with candle, years ago; with batteries, in more recent times). Do you remember jack-o-lanterns?
There still remains that magic number 10 for outdoor gatherings and there are clusters of dozens in costumes parading down the streets, often in clusters larger than 10, to collect the sweets.
So what’s your plan? Keep the kids at home? Don’t hand out treats?
