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Veteran entrepreneurTom Moffatt has surfaced in the Waikiki showroom mainstream: He is part of a hui that took over ownership and management of the venerable Outrigger Main Showroom at the Outrigger Waikiki Hotel on July 31.
Mele Mau Loa LLC acquired the showroom — for decades a showcase for the Society of Seven group and the spinoff Society of Seven LV — from World Class Entertainment, whose principals included SOS founder Tony Ruivivar and restaurateur-businessman Mendrei Leelin, president of Rosy Cheeks Entertainment Group. …
“Yes, I’m back in Waikiki,” said Moffatt, a longtime show presenter and radio deejay here. Early in his entertainment career, he had club connections.
“For now, SOS LV will continue in the showroom,” said Ruivivar, now based in Las Vegas and leader of his classic group and overseer of the SOS LV crew, with a rejuvenation planned.
The showroom had been under Outrigger management until World Class assumed operations several years ago. The club had been Waikiki’s premier showcase for homegrown local acts, such as SOS alternating with The Aliis and The Krush, and featured stars like The Reycards, Tommy Sands and The Diamonds. The showroom also was a destination for high school prom-nighters in gowns and tuxedoes.
With the management change, Ron Lee has been huddling with Moffatt, perhaps to return as room manager; Leewas among the employees who left the Outrigger when World Class took over the reins.
Meanwhile, Ruivivar’s SOS is revamping and prepping a relaunch in the gambling capital. He and group co-founder Bert Sagum, the original members of the combo that has Philippine and Hong Kong roots, will open Aug. 16 in a 9 p.m. slot at the 500-seat Starlite Theatre at the Riviera hotel and casino; the SOS music/comedy mix (with Jasmine Trias of “American Idol” joining in) will fit in with the prevailing menu of comedy and magic. Further, a new lead singer, Jonathan Badon, will debut with the SOS; he is widely known as a “pop-eratic” singer, specializing inboth pop and opera genres, and dubbed the “cultural ambassador of the Philippines” because of his good will and concerts abroad. …
BRING HIM HOME: Remember when Broadway performer Peter Lockyer (“Les Miserables,” “Miss Saigon,” “Phantom of the Opera”) directed Diamond Head Theatre’s stellar “Les Miserables” a couple of years ago? Lockyer had difficulty casting the lead Jean Valjean role, so he grew a beard and assumed the titular character.
Well, since April of this year, Lockyer — who is married to localite Melanie Tojio, meeting her when both starred in “Saigon” — joined the ongoing 25th-anniversary touring company of “Les Miz” and has been collecting rave reviews. …
So don’t you think Honolulu is ready for yet another “Les Miz” touring company — preferably with Lockyer heading the cast? In a broadwayworld.com interview, Lockyer admitted his first brush with Valjean was the Honolulu show (which wife Tojio co-directed), and surely a homecoming is a valid wish to revisit him singing “Bring Him Home.” What do you think? …
ITEMIZATIONS: Singer-guitarist Keith Haugen and Frank Uehara packed the Ruth Bacon Auditorium at Pohai Nani last month, apparently the first time the hall was filled to the max. The duo was invited to bring its “Folk Music Live” concert to the senior residence, thanks to a stellar two-hour program at Hawaii Public Radio’s Atherton Performing Arts Studio. But because the HPR show was a two-hour deal and the Pohai Nani one was only an hour, Haugen and Uehara will do a hana hou — at 7 p.m. Oct. 16 — to perform the second hour. So Haugen wonders out loud: Is traditional American folk music becoming popular again? …
Shane Jones, who won the title of Hawaii’s Most Beautiful Man at the 2011 Hawaii Woman Expo,appeared on Fox TV’s celebrity dating show “The Choice” last month. …
And that’s “Show Biz.” …
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