Scott Caan, one of the former co-stars of “Hawaii Five-0,” has been cast in Netflix’s new film, the sequel to “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” set to begin filming this summer. This film will be one of Caan’s biggest since he mostly does TV shows. However, specifics about his role are unknown.
Meanwhile, Daniel Dae Kim’s Amazon Prime Video spy-thriller, “Butterfy,” will flutter in a streamer set to premiere Aug. 13. The former star of such TV faves like “Lost,” “Five-0,” and “The Good Doctor,” will have the lead role as David Jung, a former U.S. intelligence operative who emerges as a prime target, in the six-episode thriller adapted from a graphic novel from Arash Amel and Marguerite Bennett.
While Caan’s role has not yet be defined, he will be in Dave Fincher’s follow-upto Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 flick, which starred Brad Pitt as the stuntman Cliff Booth, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Pitt will return to the sequel, which also stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the fading movie star whose film double is Pitt. Margo Robbie will appear as Sharon Tate, whose stardom grows with the Manson Family lurking in the background.
Daniel Dae Kim headlines Prime Video’s “Butterfly” streamer, beginning Aug. 13.
The “Butterfly” project includes co-star Reina Hardesty as Rebecca, with Piper Perabo, Louis Landau, Kim Ji-hoon Park Hae-soo, Kim Tae-hee, Charles Parnell, Sean Dulake and Nayoon Kim also featured…
Father’s Day events
The Makaha Sons will headline a Father’s Day concert and buffet June 15 at Mango Street. Gail Mack and Gordon Kim will be the opening act.
The Makaha Sons perform Father’s Day at Mango Street Grill.
Doors open at 5 p.m. for the buffet dinner, which will be available from 5:15 to 6:45 p.m. The performances will follow.
Cost is $82 per person for adults, $41 for youths 3 to 9, and free for children 2 and younger. Pre-sales continue through June 12, at (808) 627-5451, for reserved seating. All sales are final.
Augie T and Andy Bumatai will entertain dads at Blue Note Hawaii.
Comedians Augie T and Andy Bumatai will be featured in a Father’s Day brunch show, at 1 p.m. June 15 at Blue Note Hawaii.
Doors open at 11 a.m. for beverage and food service.
Admission is $56.47 for premium seating, $45.70 for loge and bar area seating; the cost includes fees and tax.
There’s joy and jubilation aplenty, in Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” summertime hit.
Islanders flocking back to the cinema, to enjoy a bona fide treasure and pleasure, will realize this isn’t a kiddie film. It’s a dramady with laughs, with a positive script and appealing cartoon characters coming to life.
Surely, you must know someone in the film – a relative, a neighbor down the street, a hula dancer you’ve seen –so there’s plenty to applaud. Further, “L&S” appear to be this year’s smash hit, so clap like crazy. With its opening weekend gross last week topping $183 million domestically, it’s almost certain that a Disney sequel will be in the works in the distant future.
Stitch with Lilo (Maia Kealoha): Skipping streaming for the big screen.
For the record, Disney earlier pegged “Lilo & Stitch” as a streaming film via its Disney+. Luckily, somebody saw gold and plans swiftly changed. “L&S’s” performance – a live-action flick with cartoon roots — was No. 2 for the Mouse House for the first weekend — with “The Lion King” checking in at No. 1 with $171 million” in 2019 and “Beauty & the Beast” garnering $174 million in 2017.
Maia Kealoha
Clearly, the blue alien from the cartoon original is back and steals the picture. Stitch was naughty, two decades again, and he’s still unabashedly eager to create havoc, and he’s the key non-human (also known as 626, in his earlier life) we still adore. The cutie who steals the film is newcomer Maia Kealoha, who brings Lilo to life, but she’s still searching for a friend, still loving Elvis Presley on vinyl, and is unafraid to shove her hula halau smartie off the stage. She needs a companion badly, and this turns out to be Stitch, who resembles a dog or a koala bear, who’s blue, with a lot of teeth, has special powers, and well, becomes a pet and a companion in escapades that put both in trouble. Lilo names him Stitch, and he arrives from the heavens and they become best buddies. Message here: you take the friend that crashes in your troubled life.
Tia Carrere
Her sister Nani (Sydney Agudon) still frets about holding a job, finding another one, caring for Lilo, and dodges the social worker Mrs. Kekoa (Tia Carrere) who wants to split the family. But yes, Lilo and Stitch both know – family means ‘ohana, and no one gets left behind.
‘Twas the mantra then, and it still works now. If you don’t abandon hope.
Ksipo Dudoit
Kaipo Dudoit, appearing as David Kawena in his feature film debut, has a crush on Nani, and is a neighbor of Lilo and Nani. Off camera, he dances hula with Robert Cazimero’s Merrie Monarch-winning Halau Na Kamalei O Lililehua, occasionally sings with his father’s group Ho‘okena, plays the violin, and is a massage therapist. Reviewers are calling him a hunk! He boasts a fit body, and he’s got trendy, Hawaiian tattoos.
Amy Hill
And how can you resist Tutu (Amy Hill), the caring surrogate grandmother to Lilo and Stitch and a neighborhood pal anyone would want and comes to your rescue. She voiced a fruit seller in the animated cartoon, but in the flesh, she’s precious. Looks the part, talks the part, and has the heart of a beloved tutu wahine.
Heard, but not seen – the enthusiastic and engaging Kamehameha Schools Children Chorus (directed by Lynette K. Bright – performing the charismatic “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride,” this time with American Idol winner Iam Tongi plus Mark Keali‘i Ho‘omalu joining in. That tune, plus “He Mele No Lilo,” are back for another serenade, with links to the first animated “Lilo & Stitch” film. They were good luck charms then, and lovely sounds of aloha now, like great friends reunited again.
Chris Kekaniokalani Bright
There’s more off-camera camaraderie in the screenwriter role. Chris KekaniokalaniBright co-wrote the movie with Mike Van Waes. Chris’s mom is Lynelle Bright, Kamehameha Schools Children Chorus, and as a child, Chris became friends with Dean Dubois and Chris Sanders, original screenplay writers of the first “L&S” cartoon feature, sharing cultural and island history then. Sanders directed the cartoon and voiced Stitch, and leaves everyone in stitches in the live-action update. However, the director here is Dean Fleischer Camp, known for his precious “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On,” who masterly nurtured the spirit of Hawaii and delivered the right touches and sentiments dealing with woman/female issues of life challenges. Lilo is a little princess, but this is not your customary princess adventure.
Locals also know that Chris’ father Clarke Bright is now bandmaster of the Royal Hawaiian Band, and conductor of the orchestra at all I’m a Bright Kid Foundation musicals, and his grandmother is Mo Bright and late grandfather was Ronald B. Bright, legendary director and drama teacher at Castle High School.
Clooney drama will air live before Tonys
George Clooney’s “Good Night and Good Luck” continues to sit atop Broadway’s weekly box office grosses, for the week ending May 25. The play has set records, now in the lofty $4 million club; it is vying for five Tony Awards, including Clooney’s Best Actor in a Drama nomination in the June 8 event. The show will air live in an unprecedented screening at 7 p.m. ET (1 p.m. Hawaii time) the day before, June 7.
There are three elements in Diamond Head Theatre’s “Man of La Mancha” that elevate, fascinate and thrill audiences:
The pair of lead voices of Buz Tennent as Miguel de Cervantes /Alonso Quijano/Don Quixote and Anna Young as Prisoner/Aldonza/Dulcinea bring power and finesse to their roles. Note the slashes (/) between the character names; they’re plentiful in this show.
The inspirational and immortal tune, “The Impossible Dream,” is the exit song audiences sing or hum en route home. And Tennent owns this one, each time he sings it. He projects, perfects, and protects the integrity of the power ballad that is the essence of hope and conquest.
Deanne Kennedy’s set design, with arches, is formidable and functional.A walkway, right, descends to provide entry and exit in two scenes. Brandon Miyagi photos, courtesy Diamond Head Theatre.
Deanne Kennedy’s impressive single set, comprising eye-filling arches beneath which all the action takes place, is formidable and smartly functional. There are smaller arches reflected in the window designs, and this single three-in-one set disavows noisy movements of smaller set pieces shoved on and off stage, a problematic quest for DHT since its new theater opened. The set is challenged only by a metallic staircase that unexpectedly drops from the heavens, sort of, to provide a dramatic entrance and exit in two scenes in the show. Smoothly and quietly.
The musical, written by Dale Wasserman (book), Mitch Leigh (music) and Joe Darion (lyrics), is a tangle of hope, dreams, and intentions of a playwright and poet (Quixote), who is fascinated by windmills, and his idealism, imagination and inclinations collide in his characterizations. Simply, he struggles and is conflicted between reality and delusion. As Cervantes, he is sent to prison during the Spanish Inquisition where he relates the tales of Don Quixote via a play-within-a-play with his fellow prisoners to protect his Quixote novel.
Buz Tennent, as Don Quixote, owns the “Impossible Dream” tune.
Multiple themes – perseverance, imagination, and the element of dreams – are heightened via recurrence and repetition. Quixote and his devoted manservant, Sancho Panza (Mo Radke) are Spaniards in Seville, though their mission to right wrongs and undo evils, might emulate the knights of the roundtable upholding chivalry in “Camelot.”
Anna Young is Aldonza, aka Dulcinea.
The delusional Quixote mistakes a windmill for a huge four-armed giant. Worse, at a roadside inn Quixote thinks it’s a castle, and he challenges muleteers and recognizes Aldonza, who toils at the inn, but mistakes her for Lady Dulcinea, to whom he has been eternally loyal. Also shamelessly loyal: Sancho, who pledges his bond with Quixote on “I Really Like Him.”
This not the easiest show to sit through, because of the volley of themes and tuneful reprises. Besides the two lead voices, there are a few other dependable and dedicated singers, too: Larry Paxton (Padre), Garrett Hols (Dr. Carrasco) and Lainey Hicks (Antonia).
Director Bryce Chaddock is like a prison warden here, taking on this journey of quixotic quests and dreams of a creative soul searching for perfection in an imperfect world. Of the cast of 21, 15 play prisoners and other double- and triple-cast roles.
Two faux horses generate smiles and appeal; they giddy-yup and trot with amusement and charm, but the actors are not credited in the playbill. At least, I couldn’t detect the identities.
John Rampage is choreographer, though “La Mancha” isn’t a dance-centric show.
Jenny Shiroma gets a full sound from her eight-piece orchestra, and the tech work is efficient and clean – Dawn Oshima (lighting), Mike Minor (sound), Kyle Connor (props), Emily Lane (costumes) and Mia Yoshimoto (hair and makeup) can all take a bow.
Advisory: There is no intermission, so the advice is to sip your drinks and visit the bathroom before the show. Running time: 1:55…
And that’s Show Biz…
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‘Man of La Mancha’
What: A musical about Miguel Cervantes, who stages his ‘Man of La Mancha’ while imprisoned. The show was written by Dale Wasserman (book), Mitch Leigh (music) and Joe Darion (lyrics).
Where: Diamond Head Theatre
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays; extended playdates at 7:30 p.m. June 13 and 3 p.m. June 14.
Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch,” now in the multi-plex theaters over the Memorial Day weekend, is anticipated to break box office records by Monday, a holiday.
The Hawaii-filmed project is surely to draw a family audience, whose patronage will probably boost the film with a $175 to $180 million gross, besting the Paramount-Tom Cruise “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” summertime powerhouse.
“Lilo & Stitch” will be driven by the popularity of the naughty-but-nice blue alien, who is the lone cartoonish character in the film, and an obvious scene-stealer. And sorry, Lilo, the most popular figure from the movie.
You know a film is hot, hot, hot, when it is accompanied by a swarm of merchandise to accompany the buzz from the movie. And while Lilo has a few entries in the buyables, Stitch is going to be the character to fuel the jingling cash registers.
Stitch talking plush.
Parents, get your charge cards ready. The merch looks wonderful, and the kid on the block to be the first to get one of the items will be the king or queen of the summer. But several items are for adults, so parents won’t be left out. But because of the prices of the products, moms and dads mahy prefer to save the purchases as Christmas gifts. But knowing Disney, there will be more stuff later that Santa will deliver to the young ones.
Stitch canvas tote,
Since Disney Stores have vanished in Hawaii, the easiest way to buy merch will be via online. So let me share a preview, with prices, of some of the best gifts available while stocks are plentiful.
The cool finds:
A basic Stitch “talking” plush, $39,99.His eyes light up and shows many moods.
Stitch sweatshirt.
An oversized vinyl Stitch, $24.99.
A puppetronic Stitch plush, $49.99. A hand inserted into a cutout on the back of Stitch’s head makes the doll’s mouth open to “talk.”
A Lego house, presumably where Stitch lives with Lilo, $89.99.
An adult sweatshirt, with ‘Ohana lettering on the back, $79.99.
A canvas tote, depicting a surfing Stitch, $19.99.
Stitch crocs.
An adult blue pair of Cros, festooned with Stitch images, $64.99
Go to www.disneystore.com to purchase and see more official Stitch buyables. Other sites, like Etsy and Target, may carry some of these items, or variations thereof.
Of course, you know that the cast includes many local actors, including:
Maia Kealoha, as Lilo.
Kaipo Dudoit, as David Kawena.
Jason Scott Lee, as the luau manager.
Sydney Agudong, as Nani Kelekai.
Amy Hill, as Tutu.
Tia Carrere, as Mrs. Kekoa.
Celia Kaleialoha Kenney, as AJ.
Another local notable, with an esteemed credit: Chris Kekaniokalani Bright, one of the screenplay writers for “Lilo & Stitch.”
Ins Choi’s “Kim’s Convenience,” now at the Manoa Valley Theatre, is a sit-com about an immigrant Korean family operating a corner store in modern-day Toronto, Canada.
It arrives in the aftermath of a series of popular episodic chapters screened on Netflix, peeking in on a family involved in the daily biz of selling goods in a cornerstone store visited by a walk-in crowd. But you don’t see the usual foot traffic like on the TV show.
The Kim Family amid the shelves: from left, Miki Yamamoto as Janet, Brandon Hagio as Appa, and Sun Min Chun-Dayondon as Umma.
But clearly, the streaming has widened viewership and thus casts an immense shadow on the play. I fear some show-goers who are diehard fans will expect a lot but receive just a little. Abbreviation is the special here.
Brandon Hagio
I loved the giddy pace and vibes of the TV program, and stage designer Willie Sabel has created a perfect setting dominated by shelves chockful of everyday needs, from breakfast cereal to snack-time chips, from chilled drinks to boxes of pancake mixes. And yes, instant saimin, too. Sara Ward, as prop designer, must have had a cheerful shopping mission to shop for the array of goodies to stock the shelves.
Appa (Brandon Hagio), the patriarch of the family, is an Archie Bunker sort with his own cache of racial slurs. He’s a worry wart, the sergeant of cars illegally parked in a no-parking zone we never see, and Appa also is conflicted, about his ranking now and his eminence in the future.
Miki Yamamoto
In comedies like this one, the verbal no-no’s trigger the loudest laughter, and Hagio is a master of put-downs. As viewers, we yearn for a volley of hisses and howls, but the show requires a bit more time than the allotted 1:45, including intermission.
The other key family member is Janet (Miki Yamamoto), a photographer at heart, whose beau is Alex (Jonathan Beck, in multiple roles), and she constantly dodges rockets from Appa about boyfriends and marriage. But she survives.
Sssun Min Chun-Dayondon
Director Reiko Ho has a way with characters, with a rhythm of cycles, but the production minimizes a couple of family regulars, including Kim’s wife, Umma (Sun Min Chun-Dayondon), and son Jung (David Tang). They share a key scene, staged on a bench, where they belt out a song of faith. Umma doesn’t have the usual confrontations as in the TV series, but Jung has a special photo to share as well as a pre-final curtain revelation of sort, comprising sentimental lore with familial love; he accepts to carry out Appa’s dream to tell his story by taking over the convenience store, not selling out to strangers or looming developers nearby. Nothing like fulfilling his dad’s wishes.
David Tang
Amber Lehua Baker’s costumes are functional, every-day wear; Janine Myers’ lighting design includes a minimal but a nice high-and-low mood surprise midway in the show; and Timothy Manatam’s sound is, well, sound.
It’s a blessing to showcase the work of a Korean, to share a modest but endearing comedy about successful immigrants writing their own chapter of establishing a viable mom-and-pop enterprise….
And that’s Show Biz…
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“Kim’s Convenience
What: A comedy by Ins Choi, about an immigrant Korean family and the convenience store they own in Toronto, Canada
Where: Manoa Valley Theatre
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays; through June 8; extended shows at 7:30 p.m. May 21, 7:30 p.m. June 4, and 3 p.m. June 7.
