Couplet turns wedding calamities into musical comedy
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Performing as the duo Couplet, Micah O'Konis and Marnina Schon encountered an endless string of calamities when they began planning their wedding. O'Konis recalled that Schon wondered if they were "cursed because lots of bad things kept happening."
First came the catastrophic Los Angeles fires, "which burned down our wedding venue," said Schon. Then there was an insect infestation, followed by a judgmental couple's therapist that all conspired to ruin their plans for a joyous celebration.
"It kind of made us ask, 'Why have a fun, happy, celebratory thing when the world is on fire?'" Schon said.
Managing to survive the ordeal, the couple transformed their misadventures into the award-winning musical comedy "Honey Honey Moon Moon," which they will present Saturday at ProArts Playhouse. "It's about us and we tell the story of the rocky lead-up to our wedding," explained O'Konis. "The stories are true and autobiographical."
"It's all the things that went wrong," added Schon. "We're really excited to bring it to Hawaii."
Among their reviews, The Jewish Chronicle praised their "beautiful encapsulation of a perfectly imperfect love story, told by two musical theatre nerds who are having so much fun together." The New York Times profiled them with the headline: "There is nothing that married duo Marnina and Micah can't sing and laugh their way through."
Both classically trained musicians, O'Konis plays the acoustic guitar and Schon the violin as the couple detail their journey to the altar, which includes their endeavor to uphold Jewish customs while ditching the traditional "bride and groom" gender roles.
A Jewish, genderqueer couple, they entertain with such quirky numbers as "People Think We're Straight," "People Think We're Siblings" and "Our Wedding Venue Burned Down."
"It's a super joyful show," said Schon.
"It's very silly and all original songs and music," added O'Konis.
The show is being presented by the Pono Project, which celebrates the diversity of the Maui community, promoting inclusion of marginalized persons and educating on Maui's history and challenges, bolstered by partnerships with other Maui nonprofits.
"Because we're here as part of the Pono Project, we're very honored to be part of it," said Schon. "So there's a strong current throughout our show about how we relate to our Jewish tradition, and how we find comfort and meaning in the ritual, but also where we find them to be in need of change."
Schon has acted in Netflix and Hulu shows, and starred in "Chanshi" with Henry Winkler that debuted at Sundance. O'Konis co-wrote and performed the award-winning musical comedy "More Guns! A Musical Comedy About the NRA," which ran for two years at the Second City Hollywood theater in Los Angeles, and has a political comedy in the works, "Good Guy With a Gun!" Couplet also has a new show "Folk Marry Kill," which they debuted at Scotland's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest performing arts festival.
Together for 10 years, they began writing songs during the pandemic, "when there was nothing else to do," said Schon. "All of our other creative projects were on hold indefinitely and so we needed somewhere to put all of this energy, and we turned toward each other."
As far as influences, they mention New Zealand's cult comic hit "Flight of the Conchords," with both owning DVDs of the series when they got together.
About to make their Hawaii debut at ProArts, they enjoy reliving their wedding saga. "The show gives us an excuse to recapture the joy we felt years ago," said O'Konis. "Everyone can relate to it in different ways, whether you think that you're cursed or you think that everything's going to work out, the show comes to the conclusion that maybe everyone's right. People, if they want to see a comedy show, should definitely come. They'll also be uplifted as well."
"It's important to us to not just leave it in a dark place," concluded Schon.
"Honey Honey Moon Moon" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at ProArts Playhouse. Tickets range from $11 to $26 at proartsmaui.org. Special pricing is made possible through the Pono Project.