HONOLULU THEATRE FOR YOUTH Cast members Daryl Bonilla, left, Nara Cardenas and Aito Steele are not only entertaining actors but talented musicians as well. Their show-closer, the local-style "Twelve Days of Christmas, is a guaranteed kid-pleaser.

Improved show a winner

The updated holiday offering is entertaining and briskly paced

ERIC JOHNSON'S first Christmas as artistic director of Honolulu Theatre for Youth brings welcome innovation and change to the company's annual production of "Christmas Talk Story." In previous years, there were two versions of the show, a one-act production to accommodate weekday school audiences, and a two-act one presented for public consumption on weekends.

Johnson, who also directs, has made other improvements as well. In the past, "Christmas Talk Story" consisted of just monologues. This year, Johnson stages several stories with two actors.

Johnson also includes stories that mention, in one way or another, that Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ. (His predecessor had included stories about Chanukah, the celebration of Kwanza, and the fact that some religions don't even celebrate the holidays, but omitted any suggestion that Christian religious observances are part of the season for many island kids.) There are three stories this year that touch lightly on the religious foundation of Christmas and, significantly, two are by playwrights who are first-time contributors.

Two young girls learn an important lesson about sharing while attending church in Megan Chock's "A Special Dollar on Christmas Eve," and a boy experiences a similar epiphany in Sara Wynhoff's "Angel Wings."

Perennial contributor Diane Aoki addresses cross-cultural issues in excellent style with "I Believe," a story in which the narrator is a Christian girl whose cousins are Buddhists.

Other stories cover secular themes. Actor/playwright Daryl Bonilla stars as a boy determined to stay up until Santa arrives in his "Christmas Undercover."

Aito Steele stars as a perturbed dog in Yokanaan Kerns' whimsical "Dogs Hate Christmas," and Nara Cardenas is charming as the narrator in Sean T.C. O'Malley's surprisingly subtle "The Christmas Witch."

In playwright Linda Tagawa's contribution "Da Tooth Fairy," a child who needs money to buy presents steals her grandfather's dentures and puts them under her pillow to reap what she hopes will be a bonanza from the tooth fairy.

In the only non-Christmas tale, Rochelle delaCruz's "The Year of the Turkey" tells of some kids who decide to catch a turkey for Thanksgiving. The energetic interaction between actors Bonilla and Steele makes the tale an entertaining one.

The production, however, ends on a problematic note. "Da Meaning of Christmas Talk Story" is a heavy-handed piece by pidgin writer Lee A. Tonouchi, one that tells the young ones in the audience that all the stories in the show have a message, that we all share the same emotions and experiences in the spirit of "togeddahness."

Johnson makes it interesting theater by having Steele deliver much of it from a seat in the audience, but if kids have to be told that these stories all have messages, they're probably too young to be there.