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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, December 21, 2007

Celebrate Christmas Cazimero-style

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Roland Cazimero temporarily takes over the bass as brother Robert Cazimero takes a turn on the piano at the Hawaii Theatre.

Courtesy of Hawai'i Theatre

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'A CAZIMERO CHRISTMAS'

7:30 p.m. Dec. 21-22; 2 p.m. Dec. 23

Hawai'i Theatre

$30, $40, $50, $75

528-0506,

www.hawaiitheatre.com

Also featuring: Amy Hanaiali'i Gilliom, Leina'ala Heine Kalama, Halau Na Kamalei, Royal Dance Company, Miss Keiki Hula 2007 (Marissa Medrano) and Master Keiki Hula 2007 (T.J. Idemoto)

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The Brothers Cazimero, Robert and Roland, make merry music together. Think Lei Day concerts every May 1, and also Christmas spectacles like the trio of concerts set for tonight through Sunday at the Hawai'i Theatre.

How they get on the same page is another issue.

"I'm so glad the concert's on the 21st this year," Roland said. As the arranger for all of the music, he's the heartbeat of the tunefest. "We have more time to rehearse. We had it all planned out for a while now, and the dancers were way ahead of the game. But then scripts were rewritten."

Robert — the "idea" man with the concept, songs and production — countered, "This show was put down on paper before Dec. 1."

Banter between the brothers is a given.

No matter how far ahead the brothers plan, crunch time hits as time ticks away. So, recently Robert has been a tad edgy.

Last week, he was worrying about getting the show's tree decorated. "How do you get 16 feet in the air?" he wondered. "Ask for the firemen's help? They can lift me up, for all I care. I would say, though, that we're at stage-fright hell about now."

Burton White, manager of Hawai'i Theatre, will produce the Christmas production and serve as its stage manager. He has toiled with The Caz many times and is accustomed to the pre-opening stress and schedule juggling required to get all the pieces of the holiday puzzle in place. And, of course, the satisfying end result.

How to be joyful and triumphant, if not for a memorable challenge?

"The tree is coming from Hammacher Schlemmer," the New York-based online and shopping emporium, White noted. "It's large — 16 feet tall, 8 feet wide — but what it's costing me still is less than a 10-foot live tree I could buy over here."

The clincher is that this imposing tree can be used again and again — and it will be, if The Caz become the Hawai'i Theatre's signature Christmas show.

Jim Nabors' 10-year run of "Merry Christmas With Friends & Nabors" wound up last year. So there's new interest in setting up a legacy program.

White notes that the Hawaii Theatre could host two Christmas shows, in time.

This is the third Caz holiday show at the theater, and the second in a row. Each year, there are issues to resolve, some connected to the brothers' frequent travels.

"It's a little daunting because Robert spends a lot of time out of town (during key planning weeks)," White said.

"Argentina; you have to go have steak in Argentina," said Robert of his gallop to the land of Evita earlier this month, where he located the graveyard holding Eva Peron's remains. "The graveyard's huge — like a big city," he noted.

The trip was virtually a holiday; "just holoholo, acting like a teenager, siesta in the afternoon, late nights out," Robert said.

There was a trip to Japan, too, for both Roland and Robert. But the show's rundown was put on paper before the holoholo.

"Robert keeps forgetting the keys" during practice sessions, Roland joked, since they all returned home to face the inevitable: showtime.

Robert said the yuletide show is "a chance for celebration ... but a completely different animal from Lei Day."

"For this one, we don't have to do all Hawaiian," Robert said; "it's like decorating — you have a blank slate, you can put anything on." (No worry; there will be plenty of Hawaiian presence.)

Meanwhile, he was calling for props, again, for "Twelve Days of Christmas," and he was still hunting for a Santa. So he tried to press White into service.

"I tried to be Santa Claus once, and I didn't like it," responded White, although he has the white hair and the white beard, and "the girth is getting there.

"All I know is they're looking for a big man to bang a drum at the beginning of the show, but I'm calling the show (remember, he's stage manager), so I'm not in the show," he said emphatically.

Asked why The Caz are the lone holiday to-do not featuring Willie K, a pal of theirs, Robert chuckled, then said, "We thought about him ... then heard he was doing the others (Willie guested with The Makaha Sons, Ho'okena and Na Leo), so we decided to go with Amy (Hanaiali'i Gilliom). But we think it would be kick if he just showed up."

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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