06 Oct Broadway producer and Hawaiian Council partner on new musical
Broadway producer and Hawaiian Council partner on new musical
Katie Helland | Aloha State Daily | October 06, 2025
The production shares the story of Hiʻiaka, who sets out on a journey to find the lover of her sister, Pele. The new production, which was created through a partnership between WitzEnd Productions and Hawaiian Council, will have its world premiere this week.
Broadway producer Michael Jackowitz, the founder and president of the Tony Award-winning production company WitzEnd Productions, moved to Maui to work on a musical that will hit the stage for the first time this week.
That story is “The Epic Tale of Hiʻiaka,” which will have its world premiere at the Native Hawaiian Convention on Wednesday, Oct. 8, at the Tulalip Resort Casino in Washington, more than 2,600 miles from the Islands. It is a project that was created by WitzEnd Productions and the Hawaiian Council.
Previously, among other projects, Jackowitz was the producer of the 50th anniversary revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” which starred Daniel Radcliffe, Darren Criss and Nick Jonas in the leading role at different points. WitzEnd Productions was also a producer of “Once On This Island,” which was named the best musical revival at the Tony Awards in 2018.
“I had the idea to do a Hawaiian story 10 years ago,” Jackowitz told Aloha State Daily. “I moved here 11 years ago to start figuring out how to tell a story that appeals to both a Hawaiian audience that grew up with these characters and a musical theater audience who never heard of these characters.”
The musical follows Hiʻiaka, the youngest sister of the volcano goddess Pele on a quest to retrieve Pele’s lover. The full length production will open at Leeward Community College on Oʻahu in 2026, according to representatives of Hawaiian Council. Eventually, it will have a permanent home at KoʻOlina.
Advisors during development included Kumu Hula Kealiʻi Reichel, the renowned singer and songwriter who has won 36 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards. Another advisor was the composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who has won Grammy and Academy awards and is known for his work on musicals such as “Wicked” and “Godspell,” as well as his contributions to the Disney animated movie “Pocahontas” and Dreamworks Pictures’ “The Prince of Egypt,” among other works.
“We were working on how are we going to tell this story, and how we are going to do it?” Jackowitz said. “And we ended up meeting all of us — Stephen and Kealiʻi and the writers — we all met in Los Angeles in 2013.” Schwartz quickly saw the story’s universal themes, Jackowitz added.
“On the way out of that meeting, he turned to me and said: ʻOn the surface this is a story about these two Hawaiian goddesses, but underneath it’s about two sisters, a falling out, the havoc that’s wreaked because of it and an ultimate redemption,’” he said. “You tap into that, and you have a worldwide hit on your hands. That’s ‘Frozen.’ That’s ‘Wicked.’ That taps into a big thing.’ And I thought: ʻI cannot do this from New York.’ ”
On Thursday, Oct. 2, Jackowitz watched the actors and actresses run through a 45- minute excerpt of the script at Hawaiʻi Stage, a warehouse converted into a theater in Kalihi. Hawaiʻi Stage is owned and operated by a subsidiary of the Hawaiian Council.
The original story comes from a writer known as Ho’oulumāhiehie. The book, music and lyrics for the musical adaptation of it were written by Roslyn Catracchia and Kumu Hula Patrick Makuakāne.