Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’

Photo by Bruce Asato / basato@staradvertiser.com

The Beast (Justin Glaser) confronts Belle (Liz Shivener) for the first time in a scene from “Beauty and the Beast,” which opened in Honolulu on Tuesday.

Review by John Berger
jberger@staradvertiser.com

Kids love stories that involve adults struggling to learn things or master social skills that are part of their own recent life experiences. That’s one reason NETworks’ production of “Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’” is such perfect children’s entertainment.

The show opened its two-week run in the Blaisdell Concert Hall on Tuesday, and when the kids in the audience were watching the Beast trying to tamp down his temper and speak politely, it was obvious they understood that he was having a hard time trying to say, “please” — and that they could relate.

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PICS: Society of Seven ‘homecoming’ an instant hit

Photos by Bruce Asato / basato@staradvertiser.com

The Society of Seven reopened their show at the Outrigger Waikiki with excellent music and comedic antics, but also turned patriotic with a medley of patriotic songs, ending with Tony Ruivivar, Alika Santos, Arshiel Calatrava, Bert Sagum and Hoku Low at the front of the stage singing “God Bless the USA” as Roy Venturina, Wayne Wakai and Vincent Mendoza played in the background.

Review by John Berger
jberger@staradvertiser.com

Rule Number One in show business is that if something works, you don’t mess with it.

Tony Ruivivar developed a winning formula for the Society Of Seven some 40 years ago, and the opening of the SOS’s “homecoming” show last night proved that Ruiviviar’s formula is still a winner. Old-time nightlifers who remember the SOS from their heyday in the 1970s and ‘80s can count on embracing this latest production by Waikiki’s once-and-forever super show group. Anyone seeing the SOS for the first time is certain to leave a fan.

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Review: ‘Return to Waikiki’ a welcome addition

Photos by Cindy Ellen Russell / crussell@staradvertiser.com

Pua La’a and Kali Kekuku perform hula during Makana’s new show, “Return to Waikiki,” held at the International Market Place. Pictured in back, from left, Lono Kaumeheiwa, Makana and Keoki Lopez.

Review by John Berger
jberger@staradvertiser.com

History can be a tough sell in Waikiki. Kathy Paulo did a beautiful one-woman show about Ainahau, the long-since-demolished home of Princess Kaiulani; the show brought some visitors to tears with images of the concrete jungle now in place there — it didn’t last long.

Roy Tokujo tried twice to share the history of Waikiki in “Waikiki nei” without either whitewashing the facts or offending visitor industry power brokers; he failed both times. Makana is doing much better sharing the history of Hawaiian music in his ambitious new dinner show, “Return to Waikiki.” Read more

Review: MUTEMATH at Pipeline Cafe

Photos by FL Morris / fmorris@staradvertiser.com

Review by Gary Chun
gchun@staradvertiser.com

Sometimes, you just have to thank your lucky stars that you were able to witness a concert special enought that it will be talked about for months.

That happened last night at Pipeline Cafe, when New Orleans rock band MUTEMATH made their Hawaii debut. In the parlance of performers, MUTEMATH “killed it.”

Even though the band has had a few forays into the national limelight, thanks to songs like “Typical,” “Spotlight” and “Backfire,” the quartet of guitarist Greg Hill, singer-keyboardist Paul Meany, bassist Roy Mitchell Cardenas and drummer Darren King have really made their reputation as a live band. Here in Honolulu, they didn’t disappoint at all, making many new fans.

The tightly focused set they played may have been one they’ve done many times on the road before, but the guys didn’t phone it in. MUTEMATH played with commitment and verve, and besides Meany, who is a charismatic frontman with a fine voice, everybody had their moment to shine.

Putting King and his drum kit along the front line as part of the stage setup was a brilliant idea, because the man is a show unto himself, as he and rhythm-mate Cardenas attacked the songs’ beats and grooves with an authority that can be traced back to the band’s Nawlins roots. Hill’s guitar sound was at times reminiscent of the Edge’s approach in the early years of U2, with its chiming notes and chords.

The strength of MUTEMATH’s sound is its ability to draw on the strengths of all kinds of music. Their hit songs sound great live — the buildup in “Typical” blew me away — and when they go off on rhythmic tangents, like during the extended encore, MUTEMATH always finds its way back home.

And I give props to Meany, who acknowledged the memory of Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole by leading the band through a toned-down, reggae-groove version of “Peculiar People” that wouldn’t sound out of place in any given local club. By night’s end, the Pipeline crowd had succumbed to — taking a phrase from the band’s song “Control” — the “beautiful surrender” of MUTEMATH’s music.

The band’s return to the islands wouldn’t be too soon.

Abby and John Garland, a husband and wife couple out on “date night” at the concert.

Hiwa Brown, left, and Lance Chang.

Melanie Rudkiewicz, left, and Shin Ko.

Tiare Thomas, left, and Brandon Apeles.

Joe Huihui, left, and Erin Higa.

Natalie Phoenix.

PICS: Wonder Girls wow fans at Pipeline Cafe

Photos by FL Morris / fmorris@staradvertiser.com

Review by John Berger
jberger@staradvertiser.com

“Do you see Asian singers on American television? I don’t!”

JYP — aka Park Jin-young, founder and CEO of JYP Entertainment, and the producer/manager of the Wonder Girls — posed that question about an hour in the Wonder Girls’ Hawaii debut concert at Pipeline Cafe last Friday.

The Girls — Sun, Yenny, Sohee, Yubin and Lim — had come out on stage without introduction at 8 p.m. on the dot and entertained the wall-to-wall crowd for a solid 40 minutes while a luminous sea of iPhones and other electronic devices recorded their every twist, turn and seductive gyration.

Then came a momentary lull as the quintet left the stage.

JYP, pictured at right, appeared seconds later in an immaculate white suit and the crowd went wild again.

It was JYP’s concert debut in Hawaii as well, and he made the most of it as he sang several of his signature hits, played one selection on keyboards and displayed his crowd-pleasing skills as a dancer on several others. He told the crowd that he was happy to be in Hawaii not as a CEO, or as the manager and producer of the Wonder Girls, but as a singer and dancer who was there to entertain them. Read more

Review: ‘Sound of Music’

Review by John Berger
jberger@staradvertiser.com

Rodgers & Hammerstein, Howard Lindsey and Russel Crouse didn’t write “The Sound of Music” as a political statement but 50 years after the show first opened on Broadway the issues it addresses are surprisingly topical.

Georg Ludwig von Trapp had served with honor in the Austro-Hungarian navy in World War I but although an ally of Germany in that war he despised the Nazis who’d come to power in the ‘30s and opposed their plans to unite two German-speaking nations into a “Greater Germany,” Friends urged him to keep his personal reservations to himself, but after the two countries were peacefully united von Trapp was recalled to service – this time in the German navy, and subject to the orders of a government whose policies he disagreed with.

Who could have anticipated in 1959 that many Americans would find themselves in similar situations in the years to come?

So much for politics! It’s the story of the unlikely romance between Captain von Trapp and a young would-be nun, and the glorious Rodgers & Hammerstein songs, which have made the show a Broadway classic. Diamond Head Theatre’s season-closing production of the ever-popular Broadway blockbuster brings the political issues to the table while simultaneously doing justice to the stirring love story and some of the popular songs in 20th century musical theater – “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” among them. Read more