Parody still delightful even after one noddah time

Lisa Matsumoto’s trio of loving parodies about Hawaii, "Once Upon One Time," "Once Upon One Noddah Time" and "Happily Eva Afta," has deservedly earned permanence on Hawaii’s stages with a unique blend of self-mocking local stereotypes caught up in "fractured fairy tale" format.

Matsumoto’s works capture what is special about Hawaii: its cultural mix, self-deprecating humor, quirky crossroads relationship with Western and Asian traditions — in short, its "style." Always fun to see and pretty much a guaranteed success, the trio should be required viewing for keiki and malihini and is a hoot for kama­aina, who recognize their neighbors in the characters.

Manoa Valley Theatre’s "Once Upon One Noddah Time" squeezes a huge, 26-member ensemble cast into a small black-box stage — miraculously without crowding — proving the work can be adapted to almost any venue. Director Brad Powell staged and choreographed with precision to make complexity look simple.

Set designer MJ Matsu­shita manages to pack in about 10 entries/exits — stairs, doorways, curtains, a central swivel panel — on two levels (three, if you count audience seating), allowing the many storylines and chaotic chases to interweave smoothly.

Matsushita’s uniset is a riot of greens upon greens punctuated by Hawaii’s flowers — plumeria, hibiscus, ginger, heliconia — and inhabited by butterflies, geckos and frogs, the lush greenery extending into the house with soft fronds of light projected onto the walls. Specific areas are subtly delineated; the railing around the upper level, for example, is faced with white picketing in front of Faddah’s home and with split bamboo in front of King Ichi­ban’s residence, demarcated simply by a torii gate revealed behind shoji­like panels.

Costumes, wigs and makeup are a mishmash reflecting Hawaii’s diversity, exaggerated for effect: tennies and tabis, slippers and suits, baseball caps and towering hairdos, kami­shimo and bow ties and Hello Kitty backpacks, and so on. Styles of every era permeate, from Edo to the 1950s and ’60s to today, and clever touches abound, from a bandanna on Da Mean Mongoose’s tail to a Maleficent-to-cockroach transformation.

"Once Upon One Noddah Time" is a musical, but its focus is on words (the book and song lyrics). Roslyn Catracchia’s music draws from a variety of styles to deliver settings, using songs to expand upon the moment rather than showcase voices. Vocal lines are set in speaking ranges to be singable by pretty much anyone so that the effect is a play with songs, heightening the sense of campy parody.

In general, Powell cast actors, and although ensemble casts are designed to have no "stars," several stood out.

Devon Nekoba, reprising his role as the narrator, Keoni, is outstanding, his pidgin pitch-perfect, his local-style emceeing comfortable and endearing.

Daryl Bonilla (both Faddah and miraculously transformed into One Nodda Hunta) kept everyone laughing on opening night Thursday with his Hunta caricature; Lelea‘e "Buffy" Kahalepuna Wong (Da Wicked Queen and the most notable singer) nailed every scene. Sterling Beair (Da Mean Mongoose) was hilarious, and Katja Berthold (Goldilocks) was the epitome of fairy-tale girlishness.

Despite the large cast, the audience came to know each and every one of the 25 actors and their roles before the evening was out, an impressive feat.

One of the lovely features of Matsu­moto’s works is their use of pidgin, which is so much more than grammar and vocabulary. Pidgin also involves a lilt and soft, gentle cadences that shape how people interact. Adapting pidgin for singing and stage delivery is every bit as tricky as adapting all types of speech, including shouts, whispers and asides. On stage, one cannot just shout a line or "talk li’ dat," and the scenes and actors who got it just right at MVT were a joy.

Co-musical directors James Mares (who contributed to the stage action like a talk-show band leader) and Phillip Foster ably led MVT’s five-piece, matching-aloha-shirts "pit" band, which was tucked into the right corner of the stage.

Sound designer Walid Alhamdy had his hands full trying to maintain balance between the open band and onstage singers in such a small space. Song lyrics occasionally disappeared into the mix, and stage shouting tended to slide toward incomprehensible. Fortunately, almost every speaking line was clear, and the audience fully enjoyed the delightful wordplay (try to catch all the "Simon Says" jokes!).

Overall, MVT’s "Once Upon One Noddah Time" was a campy romp, and even those who have seen it before will enjoy a revisit to notice entertaining tidbits: the nod to "Wicked" when Goldilocks disappears in green smoke, 1960s pop-ensemble dancing, cockroach jokes, gender sarcasm and the satisfyingly comedic final "happily every after" pairing up of characters.

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Ruth O. Bingham received her doctorate in musicology from Cornell University and has been reviewing the musical arts for more than 25 years.