"It ran for four weeks to sold-out audiences and received numerous accolades, including the Outstanding Original Musical award by the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle - a vibrant opera-musical theater hybrid with a story both personally compelling and eye-opening."

For many places, fall comes with shortening days, crisp, cool air, and changing leaves. But when you live in paradise, we’re ‘stuck’ with beautiful weather all year round. Ah well – that’s a sacrifice I’m very willing to make.

But even in beautiful Hawaiʻi, fall brings the start of school and more importantly, the first production in Hawaiʻi Opera Theatre’s 2024/2025 Season!

‍Stuck Elevator began life as a piece of musical theatre, premiering in April 2013 at San Francisco’s historic American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.). It ran for four weeks to sold-out audiences and received numerous accolades, including the Outstanding Original Musical award by the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. The San Francisco Chronicle hailed it as “a vibrant opera-musical theater hybrid with a story both personally compelling and eye-opening.”

It was picked up later the same year by a theatre company in New Haven, Connecticut, but then lay dormant. That is, until Nashville Opera’s CEO & Artistic Director, John Hoomes, learned of the powerful piece. He reached out to composer Bryon Au Yong to see if he’d be interested in expanding the music to make it more operatic in scope. He agreed, and the revised version debuted at Nashville Opera in January 2023, once again to packed to audiences. [That’s the production we’re bringing to you here, reimagined for the Blaisdell Arena, with John directing and NO’s music director Dean Williamson conducting.]

A Chinese exchange student at Vanderbilt University attended one of the Nashville performances – his very first opera – as part of a school assignment. Students were asked to write about the experience. I’d like to share a few short extracts from his essay:

“I was genuinely taken aback by how many similarities I saw between myself and Guang, despite our completely different life experiences, social standings, and reasons for coming to the United States. The libretto and vocal technique made for many comedic moments, but what truly resonated with me the most were the somber recounts of Guang’s journey to America and his vision of his family.”

“When I heard that haunting chorus of the immigrants within the cargo container, mingled with sounds from the belly of the ship so masterfully recreated with the bicycle wheel, and saw Guang huddled with his nephew, I remembered my journey to the United States: the first flight, the first time I’ve been alone in my life, crowding around me were nothing but unknown faces in a dark cabin, and uncertain fates whipped up by my weary, sleep-deprived mind, all drowned out by the thundering drone of airplane engines.”

“Like Guang stumbling out of the elevator, I exited the theater in a daze by the show’s end. Stuck Elevator may not be a conventional choice for a first live opera –– the description of the work deems itself a ‘comic-rap-scrap-metal-opera’ –– but I have no regret at all in making it my first. It evoked my interest in this niche genre of the performing arts characterized by its dramatized yet hauntingly realistic depiction of its characters –– opera.”

I know the description ‘comic-rap-scrap-metal-opera’ might seem off-putting to some of our longtime, devoted patrons. But I encourage you to attend this powerful piece of theatre, whether it’s your first opera or your 100^th.

The cast is amazing, including HOT’s favorite tenor Taka Komagata in his role debut as Guang, and the return of soprano Helen Zhibing Huang as Ming.

‍SAVE THE DATE: Taka and Helen will be featured, along with director John Hoomes, conductor Dean Williamson, and composer Bryon Au Yong, at the Downtown Arts Center (DAC) on Saturday, October 12, 6-8pm. Don’t miss this exciting evening, our first joint event with DAC.

And definitely don’t miss seeing Stuck Elevator at the Blaisdell Arena: October 18 at 7:30pm and October 20 at 4pm.

Andrew