A groundbreaking historical drama set during the epic power struggle to unify the Hawaiian islands; a record-breaking concert at the Tom Moffatt Waikiki Shell; a spotlight on island playwrights; and the return of the Blaisdell Concert Hall as a major performance venue after a $10 million improvement project are among the most memorable entertainment events of 2025.
In case you missed it, here’s a recap:
“Chief of War”
Jason Momoa and Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett shared credits as co-creators, co-writers and co-executive producers of the Apple TV+ miniseries, with Momoa also starring in the title role as the alii Ka‘iana and Native Hawaiian actor Moses Goods in the major supporting role of Moku. With scrupulous commitment to cultural accuracy in almost all areas — the primary language spoken was olelo Hawaii — “Chief of War ” depicted Hawaii’s wars of unification in the last decades of the 18th century. Most of the production work was done in New Zealand because Momoa’s production company could not afford to do it in Hawaii. The dilemma helped fuel a broad-based campaign to increase support for the state’s film and television industry.
Fiji tribute concert
Hawaii mourned the death of George “Fiji” Veikoso in July with a free concert Sept. 13 co-produced by the Kino‘ole Foundation, Tautua Reed, Mike Galmiche and the City and County of Honolulu. The crowd included 8,100 fans with free tickets for seating inside the Tom Moffatt Waikiki Shell and more than 20,000 more who had free tickets for an enclosed viewing area with giant video screens and concert-quality sound in Kapiolani Park.
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The city provided additional security, traffic control, public safety personnel, facilities staff, dozens of portable toilets and other infrastructure, and shuttle service between the venue and the Blaisdell Center parking lot.
The combined total attendance made the concert the biggest one-day concert event in the history of the famed Shell.
Kalapana Five-0
Kalapana celebrated the group’s 50th anniversary Oct. 4 at the Tom Moffatt Waikiki Shell. Founding member Kirk Thompson joined Gaylord Holomalia and Kenji Sano along with the current members of the group for the celebration. The three now-passed Kalapana members — Malani Bilyeu, Mackey Feary, and DJ Pratt — were seen and heard in re-engineered music videos that added Bilyeu and Feary’s voices and Pratt’s guitar artistry to the band’s performance.
“Aloha” Aloha Stadium
Henry Kapono, Brother Noland Conjugacion, Hoonua, and the Makaha Sons headlined the big “final” Aloha Stadium concert Oct. 25 in the stadium parking lot.
The last luau
The Paradise Cove Lu‘au ended its 47-year run at Paradise Cove on New Year’s Eve. The luau grounds will be replaced with a Hawaiian- themed recreation and community complex scheduled to open in 2028.
A Blaisdell Christmas
The city and the Royal Hawaiian Band celebrated Christmas with a free concert Nov. 28 in the Blaisdell Concert Hall. Bandmaster Clarke Bright welcomed Henry Kapono, Raiatea Helm, Lynell Bright and the Kamehameha Schools Children’s Chorus, and the ‘Ohana Jazz Trio, comprising Noel Okimoto, Dean Taba and Tommy James, as guest performers.
“Nutcracker” returns
Ballet Hawaii’s big-scale production of “The Nutcracker” returned to the concert hall after two years making do in Blaisdell Arena. The 2025 performances were the last times Hawaii will see local favorites Megan Fairchild (Sugar Plumeria Fairy) and Lucien Postlewaite (Snow King); they are retiring as dancers at the end of the national ballet season. It was also the Hawaii debut of New York City Ballet principal Chun Wai Chan as the Cavalier.
Musicals will travel
Broadway In Hawaii brought big-scale musical theater back to Honolulu with three national touring shows in the Blaisdell Concert Hall: “Tina! The Tina Turner Music,” the juke-box musical built around Turner’s catalog of hits; “Six” a high-energy “girl power” celebration of the six wives of Henry VIII; and “Chicago,” Kander and Ebb’s timeless satire of unethical “anything goes” lawyers and the perverse popularity of “celebrity criminals.”
Local theater highlights
Not to be outdone, the local theater scene brimmed with talent and diverse voices.
>> Allison Bruce- Maldonado, a veteran stage and showroom entertainer, made her debut as a director, playwright and songwriter with “Dolls! A Toy Story,” her MFA thesis project, at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The story of interracial love in the United States in the 1940s was based on the experiences of Bruce-Maldonado’s mother. Her daughter, Emily- Kim Maldonado, was the show’s female lead.
>> Sara Ward, known for years as a props designer, made her playwriting debut with “Smother” at Kumu Kahua Theatre, the story of a “fiercely devoted but meddlesome mother” and her “sweet but independent” daughter. Ward said that any similarities between the characters in the story and her real-life relationship with her own daughter were in the eye of the beholder.
>> Tony Pisculli, co-founder and longtime artistic director of the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival, proved equally adept as a playwright with “The Magic of Polly Amnesia,” a character study of a “mixed-race queer woman, orphan, punk and magician” who tries to distinguish hope from delusion, and dreams from reality, while doing a one-woman magic show. Kathryn Mariko Lee and Shane Chung played Polly on alternate performances.
>> Playwrights Moses Goods and Noa Gardner partnered with the Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings to tell the story of the invention of the Hawaiian steel guitar with “Joseph Kekuku and the Voice of the Steel Guitar” at Honolulu Theatre for Youth. Joshua “Baba” Kamoani‘ala Tavares starred in the title role, while Malie Lyman played steel guitar and several secondary characters.
>> Veteran actor/ playwright Ryan “Oki” Okinaka reworked the 1980s sitcom “The Golden Girls” as the story of four older “queer” men sharing a home and called it “The Golden Gays,” performed at Kumu Kahua Theatre.
>> Eric Anderson’s new play, “Outlandish,” imaged what King Lunalilo and travel writer Isabella Bird talked about when they met in Hilo in 1873, and posed the provocative question of what the alii might have accomplished if he had not died in 1874.
>> The Actors’ Group continued its two-decade commitment to African- American theater with the second, third and fourth plays in August Wilson’s 10-play Century Cycle. The fifth play in the Cycle, “Seven Guitars,” opens Jan. 9.
>> Former “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak and KHON news anchor Joe Moore co-starred in what will probably be their final stage project, “Prescription: Murder,” the 1962 crime drama about a psychiatrist (Sajak) who murders his wife, and the police detective (Moore) assigned to the case in a summer run at the Hawaii Theatre. Moore covered the production costs; all ticket sales benefited the historic venue.
A hui hou
>> Television and film actor and longtime Hawaii resident Richard Chamberlain died March 29, two days before what would have been his 91st birthday. Best known as the heartthrob star of the popular TV series “Dr. Kildare” in the 1960s and several hit miniseries, Chamberlain starred in Hawaii Opera Theatre’s summer musical production of “The King and I” in 2006.
>> Singer, recording artist and kumu hula Kealoha Kalama died June 25 at age 93. She was a recipient of the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
>> Musician and recording artist Gary Aiko, the last of the great Hawaiian baritones of the 20th century, died July 15. He was 90. Aiko received the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.