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2022 ALOHA RUN WILL BE THE FINALE

The 2022 Great Aloha Run will be the 38th and final one.

So says event founder Carole Kai Onouye, in a Facebook posting to the GAR family and friends.

“It will be ‘Aloha’ to the Stadium,” said Kai. “It’ll be fun and sad at the same time.”

Carole Kai Onouye

For nearly four decades, the fun run, or walk for those who prefer not to run, has raised more than $15 million for 150 non-profit charitable organizations.

So to be part of a historic finale, mark your calendars – for February 2022, frequently a Presidents Day holiday event but a specific date has not yet been announced. …

Life in the fast Zane

Had lunch with Greg Zane, the busy director-choreographer of  “A Chorus Line,” earlier today at Zippy’s Kahala  and he shared some tidbits about his tenure at Diamond Head Theatre, where the show runs for the last times tonight (Thursday, Aug. 5 through. Sunday Aug. 8 ), which includes the extension dates.

Greg Zane

He revealed:

  • He’s likely to remain in town, at his family’s Hawaii Kai home, since  he’s committed to direct DHT’s holiday show, Dec. 3 to 19.  He’s retained his New York apartment for obvious reasons: rent is impossibly high, and you’ve got a pad, you’re mad  to  vacate  it.
  • Yes, he owns a gold top hat once worn by Tommy Aguilar, his mentor from way back, who played Paul San Marco in the Broadway production as well as originating that role in the London launch. “I don’t know where she got it, but (actress) Devon Guard gave me the hat,” he said, uncertain how she actually acquired the hat, since it had been auctioned off here earlier. And of course, Zane cherishes the costume piece (kept at the family home here) and is hoping to some day locate a jacket the late Aguilar donned.
  • He managed to convince DHT management that his cast warranted an opening night bubbly party on stage and was prepared to pay for the champagne himself, till the theater OK’d the toasting.
  • He downloaded the playbill data and assembled the pages (as suggested in this space some weeks back) so his mother would have her own playbill while watching the show. DHT has abolished the customary take-home program during the pandemic; it is the lone keepsake for his cast of singers and dancers once the final curtain is drawn.
  • Yes, while the orchestrations sound live and crisp at the performances, the music is pre-recorded which is why you don’t see conductor Melina Lillios and her musicians in the vacant orchestral spot at the right of the stage. … 

Up and about

Jeff Peterson

Jeff Peterson, a magician on guitar, gives two concerts at 5 and 8 p.m. Saturday (Aug. 7) at the Manoa Valley Theatre.

Peterson is a beloved Hawaiian music advocate and is a passionate award-winning ki ho‘alu artist, deeply involved with the traditions of the island style strumming. He’s also at home with jazz and classical music.

Tickets are $30, available at www.manoavalley.com, with social distancing protocols in place…

‘Oliver!’ auditions at DHT

Diamond Head Theatre will conduct auditions this weekend for “Oliver!,” its first show of the 2021-2022 season.

Tryouts will be at 7 p.m. Friday (Aug. 6) and 2 p.m. Saturday (Aug. 7) at the theater. Pre-selected time slots, in five-minute increments, must be obtained to participate; walk-ins are not permitted. To seek a time, visit https://www.cognitoforms.com/CrossMediaHawaii/DHTAuditionAppointmentRequestForm

Those with appointment times should arrive 5 minutes early but wait in vehicles at the back entrance of the theater, to be summoned. Facemasks are required and worn, except when singing.

“Oliver!” will run Sept. 24 through Oct. 10, with a potential extension through Oct. 17.

John Rampage will direct and choreograph, with Phil Hidalgo as musical director.

Key roles are for Oliver, a child 10 to 12, for the title role of an orphan workhouse boy; Fagin, a wily adult who operates a training academy for young pickpockets; the Artful Dodger, a child/teen who is Fagin’s brightest pupil; Bill Sikes, a villainous role; and Nancy, an adult female who also is a Fagin graduate.

The show boasts such hit tunes as “Consider Yourself,” “I’d Do. Anything,” “As Long as He Needs Me,” and  “Where Is Love.” And “Who Will Buy?” …

And that’s “Show Biz.” …

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ALOHA AND MAHALO, CHORUS LINERS

To bid you best wishes, as “A Chorus Line” closes this weekend at Diamond Head Theatre, I created a limited number of these “A Chorus Feline” cards to wish you a mahalo and aloha. Wish I had enough cards for each one of you.

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HOKU AWARDS 2021 : LIVE AND VIRTUAL

The Hawaii Academy of Performing Arts will go live, then virtual , for its 44th annual Na Hoku Hanohano Awards event.

It’s set for Sept. 11 as a “live” event filmed for telecast Oct. 7 via KFVE.

There will be an array of entertainment and entertainers, clad in finery like the customary awards evening, with a bento part of the Hawaii Theatre proceedings.

“Ho‘ala Hou — A New Awakening” is the theme for the proceedings.

The idea is to enable nominees and the retinue of performers the chance to celebrate in person – social distancing has not been factored in, at this time – to maintain the aura of an awards celebration, considering the nearly two years of lockdowns and the rebirth of live entertainment around town, with HARA carrying the banner to uplift the musical community with –what else — music.

Though 40 awards categories are at stake, attendees will have to wait for the announcement of winners in a prime-time show from 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 7 on KFVE, with an encore presentation in the same time slot on KGMB.

HARA members will have first dibs at tickets, so if you’re an industry participant, you should receive details and protocols via a link provided in an email.

At the Hawaii Theatre, doors will open at 4 p.m. for no-host refreshments outside of the theater, fronting the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park. Tickets include boxed bentos from Kuhio Avenue Food Halls, available from 4 to 6:30 p.m.

Pre-show festivities will begin at 5:30 p.m., with footage filmed for Facebook and aired prior to the show. The broadcast at 7 p.m. will include presenters and performances, with possible pauses for re-takes, if necessary. The experience will be akin to be being in a studio where a show is being taped.

Tickets are $65 to $110 (plus $9.50 for ticketing fee, benefitting the Hawaii Theatre). HARA members will be first to sign up; public sales will begin next week, and members are asked not to share the HARA link with non-members.

COVID-19 mandates will be in place, with attendance requiring a valid vaccination card or a FDA-EAU negative test result 48 hours prior to the event. …

No Po‘okela Awards this year

The Hawaii State Theatre Council is shelving its Po‘okela Awards this season, largely due to the pandemic but also because it is reexamining and bolstering its awards evening, celebrating excellence in theater.

‘Play/Write’ competition under way

Kumu Kahua Theatre and BambooRidge are partnering to launch “Go Try Play/Write,” a monthly playwriting competition.

Entrants must write/create a five-page monologue or a 10-page scene, based on a monthly prompt.

Every month, Kumu Kahua’s artistic director Harry Wong II will provide a prompt to define a scene.

The contest starts at the first of the month and concludes the last day of the month.

The August prompt is a monologue or scene depicting a confrontation between a person and a cockroach. A monthly winner will be selected and receive $20 and a subscription to Bamboo Ridge Press. There is no cost to enter; for details, call 536-4441 or visit kumukahua.org

Entries must be submitted at https://www.kumukahua.org/gotryplaywrite

 And that’s “Show Biz.”

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LATE-NIGHT NOSHING JOINTS ARE NIL

Auwe. It’s 10 p.m., you’ve just exited the movie theater, and you’re hungry for a late night snack. So where to go?

Home, probably.

The abundance of wee-hour restaurants – some 24/7, others serving till midnight – is history.

In the old days, you could hele on to Pier 7 at the Ilikai. Or a neighborhood saimin stand.

Or a pancake house, like the one on Ala Moana Boulevard (whose name I can’t recall) across the Ilikai, if you were seeking a platter of flapjacks with sides of egg and Spam.

And yes, Kau Kau Korner at Kapiolani and Kalakaua, at the entrance of Waikiki, was a shrine of sorts and a symbol of a destination for ono kau kau. After work, after movie, after doing a show in Waikiki. It was also the home of Coco’s … until the Hard Rock Café settled in there. All gone now.

Coco’s, at the entryway to Waikiki on Kalakaua Avenue, was a favorite 24/7 place.

Other sites, like Wailana, at the corner of Ala Moana and Ena Road, served us well.  It was a place where we all gathered, after the first round of going out, and finished the evening with local chow, frequently of singers and musicians we had seen earlier.

There was hope for a meal, too, if you slipped into a booth at Columbia Inn, before the midnight hour, where dinner, snack or breakfast options awaited. Maybe even at the counter-service at the Liliha Bakery, on Kuakini Street.

Wailana Coffee House was a go-to place for late-nighters.

No can do. Not anymore. Nada.

Restaurants cut back schedules even before the pandemic, but the lockdown punctuated  the disappearance of late-night dining. Maybe folks lost their thirst of night outings, and understandably, the hunger for late-night noshing, too.

Flash forward to the present times. You have to be in an eatery probably by 9:30 at the latest, to get table service. At M.A.C. 24/7 at the Hilton Waikiki Beach resort (the former Prince Kuhio Hotel) on Kuhio Avenue, business hours are 6 a.m. to midnight.

Both locations of the venerable Side Street Inn (Hopaka St., Kapahulu Ave.) have clipped hours, too, shutting down at 9 p.m.

Two former 24/7 brands also have abbreviated timetables: Anna Miller’s at Pearlridge and IHOP locations

The places that used to welcome night owls back in the day now close by 10 p.m.: 

  • Sorabol, on Keeaumoku Street.
  • Zippy’s  locations with dine-in options.

Conclusion: If you’re hungry late at night or in the wee hours, scout your fridge for leftovers or get the frying pan on the stove to whip out an omelet. Cup-a-Noodle just doesn’t cut it.

But the memories linger:  where did you go for your night noshes back in the day?