Mamma Mia & More
Sep. 29th, 2023 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aMAMMA MIA!
Happily, the reason for our trip to Oahu was a success. We saw Mamma Mia! at the Diamond Head Theatre and were thrilled by it. Among other things, it made us realize that what we're getting on Kauai is definitely local theatre (some of which we've definitely enjoyed), but Mamma Mia! was more of a full-throated production like we would have seen at the Berkeley Playhouse.
Here, the actors playing Donna and Sophie were very obviously professional singers (along with some of the dads and best friends). And there was a huge cast. And major props were moved in and out for scenes. It was great to see (even if a little expensive to come out here just for a play).
It was also great to see the original musical that the successful movie was based on. It was interesting to see how much more terse its dialogue was, while still getting the point across. And there were a few ABBA songs in the musical that didn't make it to the movie. There was a great "Thank You for the Music" where Sophie meets her dads that suggests she gets musical talent from them and was quite sweet and also a "Knowing Me, Knowing You" duet between Sam and Sophie where he talks about his failed marriage and was a wonderful bit of connection. (It was also one of a few bits in the musical that I felt portrayed Sky in a worse light than he is in the movie.) A few other songs I didn't care as much about, including a dream sequence "Under Attack" that leads off Act II and just seems to disrupt the flow of the story.
Overall, great experience. Nice theatre too, a bit larger than any of the theatres we attended in Berkeley, except maybe the second Berkeley Rep stage, but not by a lot.
BUSING AROUND WAIKIKI
We've been taking the bus a lot while out here because K. is having knee problems, as she's still trying to get back to walking well after years off her feet. But, they've been surprisingly efficient. We bused up to the Diamond Head Theatre (which is about a mile and a half from our hotel and would have been a fine walk in other circumstances) and back.
Then this morning we took a bus from the middle of Waikiki to the Aquarium.
Besides being efficient, it's also nice to have a rational fare system, unlike the confusing, codeworded system in Germany. You put money on a card. It deducts $3 for each trip, but tops out at $7.50 for a single day, as that's the cost of a Day Pass. Easy!
(And for the future I have a Holo Card for these buses, but hopefully we'll be able to bike and/or walk more on future trips.)
DONUTS & THE AQUARIUM
Today we had a pretty laid back day. We wandered out to get some taro donuts in the mornings from a place called Holey Grail (there's also on on Kauai). I had a chocolate one this time that was amazing. Then we bused over to the Aquarium.
It's a fairly small aquarium, focused on fish, with some jellyfish, and some seahorses and seadragons too. We quite enjoyed it, mainly for all the attractive tropical fish, some of which we recognized from Hawaiian waters, and some of which we did not.
We picked up this year's Christmas Tree ornament there, a fish of course, and hope it'll survive the trip home. (We just packed backpacks for our two days, to make the trip easy and to allow us to easily lug stuff around before checkin our first day and after checkout our last, but that leaves things like fragile ornaments much more vulnerable.)
A RELAXING
The rest of the day was mainly relaxing.
We've been reading aloud _The Magicians_, which I've read before, and which I continue to love this second time. We found a nice little park between Kuhio Beach and the Aquarium and read some there, but also read some back in our hotel room.
We had a nice lunch at a place we've eaten at before called Lulu's, which has good food and a beautiful view of Kuhio Beach. That was probably our splurge meal for the trip, especially since it included booze, a real rarity for either of us. (I had a delicious LavaFlow.)
We both napped some in the afternoon. Probably aided and abetted by the booze. That's vacation R&R!
And I did a bit of a ramble along the shoreline and back in the later afternoon (though I was disappointed to find that my favorite little walkway, right at the ocean, now has its center closed; not only can you no longer walk along all of the western side of Waikiki's shoreline but that enchanting little bit where waves sometimes splashed up at you is blocked off, probably since waves sometimes splashed up at you.)
Alas, but it's been a great couple of days here, both for enjoyable events and enjoyable time spent with K. after too many months in a pressure cooker.
Happily, the reason for our trip to Oahu was a success. We saw Mamma Mia! at the Diamond Head Theatre and were thrilled by it. Among other things, it made us realize that what we're getting on Kauai is definitely local theatre (some of which we've definitely enjoyed), but Mamma Mia! was more of a full-throated production like we would have seen at the Berkeley Playhouse.
Here, the actors playing Donna and Sophie were very obviously professional singers (along with some of the dads and best friends). And there was a huge cast. And major props were moved in and out for scenes. It was great to see (even if a little expensive to come out here just for a play).
It was also great to see the original musical that the successful movie was based on. It was interesting to see how much more terse its dialogue was, while still getting the point across. And there were a few ABBA songs in the musical that didn't make it to the movie. There was a great "Thank You for the Music" where Sophie meets her dads that suggests she gets musical talent from them and was quite sweet and also a "Knowing Me, Knowing You" duet between Sam and Sophie where he talks about his failed marriage and was a wonderful bit of connection. (It was also one of a few bits in the musical that I felt portrayed Sky in a worse light than he is in the movie.) A few other songs I didn't care as much about, including a dream sequence "Under Attack" that leads off Act II and just seems to disrupt the flow of the story.
Overall, great experience. Nice theatre too, a bit larger than any of the theatres we attended in Berkeley, except maybe the second Berkeley Rep stage, but not by a lot.
BUSING AROUND WAIKIKI
We've been taking the bus a lot while out here because K. is having knee problems, as she's still trying to get back to walking well after years off her feet. But, they've been surprisingly efficient. We bused up to the Diamond Head Theatre (which is about a mile and a half from our hotel and would have been a fine walk in other circumstances) and back.
Then this morning we took a bus from the middle of Waikiki to the Aquarium.
Besides being efficient, it's also nice to have a rational fare system, unlike the confusing, codeworded system in Germany. You put money on a card. It deducts $3 for each trip, but tops out at $7.50 for a single day, as that's the cost of a Day Pass. Easy!
(And for the future I have a Holo Card for these buses, but hopefully we'll be able to bike and/or walk more on future trips.)
DONUTS & THE AQUARIUM
Today we had a pretty laid back day. We wandered out to get some taro donuts in the mornings from a place called Holey Grail (there's also on on Kauai). I had a chocolate one this time that was amazing. Then we bused over to the Aquarium.
It's a fairly small aquarium, focused on fish, with some jellyfish, and some seahorses and seadragons too. We quite enjoyed it, mainly for all the attractive tropical fish, some of which we recognized from Hawaiian waters, and some of which we did not.
We picked up this year's Christmas Tree ornament there, a fish of course, and hope it'll survive the trip home. (We just packed backpacks for our two days, to make the trip easy and to allow us to easily lug stuff around before checkin our first day and after checkout our last, but that leaves things like fragile ornaments much more vulnerable.)
A RELAXING
The rest of the day was mainly relaxing.
We've been reading aloud _The Magicians_, which I've read before, and which I continue to love this second time. We found a nice little park between Kuhio Beach and the Aquarium and read some there, but also read some back in our hotel room.
We had a nice lunch at a place we've eaten at before called Lulu's, which has good food and a beautiful view of Kuhio Beach. That was probably our splurge meal for the trip, especially since it included booze, a real rarity for either of us. (I had a delicious LavaFlow.)
We both napped some in the afternoon. Probably aided and abetted by the booze. That's vacation R&R!
And I did a bit of a ramble along the shoreline and back in the later afternoon (though I was disappointed to find that my favorite little walkway, right at the ocean, now has its center closed; not only can you no longer walk along all of the western side of Waikiki's shoreline but that enchanting little bit where waves sometimes splashed up at you is blocked off, probably since waves sometimes splashed up at you.)
Alas, but it's been a great couple of days here, both for enjoyable events and enjoyable time spent with K. after too many months in a pressure cooker.