FRIDAY-MARCH 26
What goes unsaid is focus of ‘Joneses’
The power of “The Realistic Joneses” lies in the spoken word, or rather, the unspoken word.
“We’ve all observed situations where people really need to talk about important stuff and they don’t,” said Peggy Anne Siegmund, who is directing the play for The Actors Group. “We get together on street corners and throw words at each other, as one of the characters says. How often do we really take the time to sit and face another person and listen and have a conversation?”
Written by Will Eno, “The Realistic Joneses” had its Broadway premiere in 2014, winning two Drama Desk special awards. The play unwinds as a series of conversations involving two neighboring couples, Bob and Jennifer Jones (Jim Aina and Karen Valasek), and John and Pony Jones (Jeff Juet and Amrita Mallik). The health of the two men emerges as a focal point of the conversations, which involve a lot of “mixing and matching” of the four characters, Siegmund said.
“It’s about love and marriage and fear and death, and it’s funny,” she said.
Where: The Actors Group, 650 Iwilei Road, Suite 101
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through March 26
Cost: $14-$25
Info: taghawaii.net or 722-6941
SATURDAY
‘Afrofuture’ event closes out Black History Month
Black History Month goes out in style at Art After Dark, the monthly evening party at the Honolulu Museum of Art.
Today’s event is dubbed “Afrofuture,” referencing a cultural aesthetic that Afrofuturist writer Ytasha Womack calls “the intersection between black culture, technology, liberation and the imagination.” Attractions will include an art projection by artist Ed Hemphill and a screening of “The Last Angel of History,” a film by John Akomfrah comparing slavery to alien abduction.
The evening also introduces “silent disco,” pictured, to Honolulu. DJs Maynard G, Davey Shindig, Sejika and count weevil will stream tunes into wireless headsets, distributed to the first 500 visitors. Colored lights on the headsets indicate who’s listening to what, so if someone seems to be getting a better groove on than you, switch and join in. Silent discos, which started in England in 2005, have become something of a craze in New York and other cities.
Where: Honolulu Museum of Art
When: 6 p.m. today
Cost: $25 (free for members)
Info: artafterdark.org or 532-8700
Bailey of ‘Cash Cab’ to deliver stand-up
Ben Bailey is instantly recognizable from “Cash Cab,” the award-winning game show in a taxi that he hosted for six seasons.
Prior to that he had a nice career going as a stand-up comedian, and now he’s back on stage with his observational comedy. He’ll poke fun at things like filling out a job application form incorrectly, resulting in listing your address as “Ben Bailey Drive.”
“Mostly I write about silly things that are right in front of us and go unnoticed,” he said in an email from Australia, where he was on tour. “I just get ideas seemingly out of nowhere and have to jot them down as they come. There’s really no rhyme or reason to it.”
His Cash Cab gig came after a rigorous tryout process that would put Uber drivers to shame: an audition “with about 2,000 other people,” five callbacks, a background check and drug test, and taxi school. “After all that, they finally offered me the gig,” he said.
As a celebrity now, he gets driven around by taxi or limo a fair amount, getting “all kinds of reactions from drivers, from asking me trivia questions to complaining about people being disappointed that their cab is not the Cash Cab, to trying to take my picture while driving!”
Bailey’s “Cash Cab” won six Emmys. He’s not interested in going back on the road, though he’s “flattered and proud” that other comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and local comic Andy Bumatai are doing drive-around bits these days.
“I would probably be quietly bitter about having to drive a cab,” he said.
Where: Hawaiian Brian’s, 1680 Kapiolani Blvd.
When: 8 p.m. Saturday or 946-1343
Cost: $20
Info: hawaiianbrians.com
The Canadian Brass perform with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra. 7:30 p.m. today. Blaisdell Concert Hall. $27-$79. ticketmaster.com or 866-448-7849
SATURDAY, SUNDAY
Mozart concerto will be on the program for violinist Cho-Liang Lin
Violinist Cho-Liang Lin returns to Honolulu this weekend to perform with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra. He has “a soft spot” for Hawaii, playing here several times since the 1980s, after he became one of the pioneering artists from Asia to make it big in the classical music world.
“It was a wonderful fairy tale experience,” he said, recalling a career that began with a humble upbringing in a Taiwanese village, listening to records and learning on a “crappy quarter-sized violin.” He would progress to studies at Juilliard, which led to his debut at age 20 with one of the “Big Five” symphonies in the U.S., the Philadelphia Orchestra. “During that rehearsal in Philadelphia, I remember thinking, ‘Am I dreaming? For God’s sake, I’m standing next to Eugene Ormandy, and this is the Philadelphia Orchestra. What a sound!’”
Concerts with the L.A. Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic followed that year. “As a young player, you only get one chance, basically,” Lin said. “These were all major performances, and I think I rose to the occasion.”
He will perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major, a favorite. The work features a uniquely whimsical finale that alternates between a graceful theme and an energetic dance.
“I often try to imagine being inside an opera by Mozart, ‘Figaro’ or ‘Don Giovanni,’ where comedy is the primary theme but then there’s incredible beauty as well,” Lin said. “I’m trying to imagine playing one character from the opera, and then another character emerges and plays another theme.”
Also on the program is Mahler’s magnificent Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor. Acclaimed conductor James Feddeck, whose burgeoning career has already included stints with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony, leads the orchestra.
Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $34-$92
Info: ticketmaster.com or 866-448-7849
