4 Thursday, June 8, 2017 Island Beat Hawaii Tribune-Herald ‘Book of Esther’ inspires locally written, produced musical By JOHN BURNETT Hawaii Tribune-Herald The biblical “Book of Esther” will come to life in the premiere of Shalom Players’ production “For Such a Time As This.” The original, full-length musical opens at Kamehameha Schools Hawaii Campus Lunalilo Center in Keaau at 7 p.m. Friday, June 16, with additional performances at 7 p.m., Saturday, June 17, and a 2 p.m. matinee Sunday, June 18, Father’s Day — and there will be a special surprise for fathers attending that show. Shows are open to the public and tickets are $15 for all ages, available at Basically Books in downtown Hilo, Simply Said, the Wedding Store in Prince Kuhio Plaza and Keaau Natural Foods. Online tickets are available at estherplay. brownpapertickets.com. Remaining tickets will be available at the door, 45 minutes before each show. The musical theater production is completely homegrown. Susie Chun is the playwright, lyricist, producer and director. Kamehameha Schools music teacher Herb Mahelona composed the score and serves as musical director and University of Hawaii at Hilo dance instructor Kea Kapahua is the choreographer. “The ‘Book of Esther’ is like theater at its best because it has all of the theatrical elements you would want in a good show,” Chun said. “It has twists and turns, heroes and heroines — and the villains. Something just came to me that made me want to make it into a musical. … I wrote the book. I wrote the lyrics to the songs, but then needed somebody to do the music. It took years to Courtesy photos Crystella and Kaipo “Kip” Kauka appear as Jews of Shushan in “For Such a Time as This,” June 16, 17 and 18 at Lunalilo See MUSICAL Page 5 Center on Kamehameha Schools Hawaii campus in Keaau.
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