An ode to the entertainers who made 2015 memorable

For the final column of 2015, we present The Waynies, a retrospective of the year gone by.

Drum roll, please:

>> Star of the year: Ruthie Ann Miles, who picked up a Tony Award for best musical actress in a supporting role, for her stellar performance as Lady Thiang in Lincoln Center’s revival of “The King and I.” Appropriately, her signature song, “Something Wonderful,” defined her performance.

>> Best male performer: Bruno Mars, who provided the lead voice and moves on Mark Ronson’s record- breaking “Uptown Funk,” which they co-wrote with a team of others. The dance-friendly anthem sat atop the charts for 14 consecutive weeks and the related video was a YouTube sensation.

>> Best female performer: Amy Hanaiali‘i. She sang, she conquered. She also returned to her stage roots in a Maui production of “Evita.” She even launched a line of wine bearing her name. And like wine, she gets better with age.

>> Best group: Streetlight Cadence is the most refreshing breeze to hit our shores in years. This four-member ensemble comprising Jonathan Franklin (violin and vocals), Brian Webb (cello and percussion), Jessie Shiroma (accordion) and Chaz Umamoto (guitar) offers unconventional instrumentation served with warm, engaging ambiance. Streetlight has been home for the holidays, concertizing hither and yon, but now is based in Los Angeles to test the temperature for fame. Prediction: It’s a matter only of time before the act is nominated for a Grammy Award. The lads have the look, the sound and that “something” ingredient that shouts “success!”

>> Best instrumentalist: Jake Shimabukuro. He’s now the rock star of the ukulele, with a flashy style that combines the fierce with the frenetic, the endearing and astounding. He’s arrived, for sure, and is destined to log more mileage in his incredible, expanding career.

>> Best fun-raiser: Frank De Lima. For more than 40 years, De Lima’s been a staple on the club circuit, but his appeal and audience base flowed over to grade school, middle school and high school audiences through his student enrichment campus visits. His “auntie” TV spots for TheCab (422-2222) made him a TV personality and his periodic parodies (latest: “The Ballad of Marcus Mariota,” “Randy the Other Reindeer,” “It’s All About the Face”) make him a constant chronicler of who’s in, what’s hot. And yes, every December, “A Filipino Christmas” is everyone’s favorite howl.

>> Best fundraiser: Dr. Mark Mugiishi. The Honolulu surgeon spearheaded a drive that raised a lion’s share of funds to launch “Allegiance,” the George Takei-Lea Salonga Broadway musical about wartime internment camps. Though it received mixed reviews, the musical has opened the eyes and ears of the world to that dark pocket of American history. With a cast album recorded and due out shortly, the tale and tunes will have a lingering shelf life.

>> Best fan-raiser: Loretta Ables Sayre. At the height of the August heat and humidity, the Broadway actress — a Tony nominee as Bloody Mary in “South Pacific” — became bloody ambitious, raising funds to buy 250 electrical fans for wilting students in Nanakuli, to augment red-tape-delayed Department of Education equipment. It was some enchanted achievement when she surpassed her goal in October and delivered about 315 oscillating fans to campus.

>> Most improved show: “Honu by the Sea.” Johnson Enos’ expanded two-act version, in its premiere at Hawaii Theatre, segued into a legit stage endeavor, with spanking-new costumes and leading players with stage creds, notably Jacquelyn Holland-Wright, now of Las Vegas, as the Honu mom Lehua, and Guy Merola, a regular on the local circuit, as the menacing villain of the piece, Slicker.

>> Loss leader: Ron Bright. Of the show biz luminaries who died this year, director Bright’s passing on July 7 was among the most unexpected. He was the pied piper among local theater kids, creating believers who became achievers. His legacy lives, with a roster of Hawaii-trained talent on Broadway and on the road, and his memory lives in hearts of a wide community of fans, too.

>> Departures: That ingenious multi-act “CabaRAE” show shut down (but is reorganizing for a possible return) at the Hilton Hawaiian Villlage, and Leo Days’ “Burn ‘N Love” Elvis Presley tribute show wound up a brief run at the Holiday Inn Waikiki Beachcomber Magic of Polynesia Showroom — all proving it’s a risky task to launch and maintain a show in Waikiki, despite the shortage of mainroom acts. …

Wayne Harada is a veteran entertainment columnist. Reach him at 266-0926 or wayneharada@gmail.com. Read his Show and Tell Hawaii blog at staradvertiser.com.