Honu by the Sea is a Hawai‘i-originated Broadway-styled fantasy musical about Kainoa, a teenage Hawaiian surfer-beachboy, who finds a magical sea star that makes his wish to spend a day underwater come true.

In Disney-esque tradition, writer-composer Johnson Enos has created a family-friendly theater show with tunes that depict a happy under-the-sea community faced with a contemporary environmental reality: humans are making a mess of the ocean, threatening life beneath the waves.

The show alternates between Tokyo and major US cities. It was playing at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach for International Children’s Day, and while the cast was here in Los Angeles they made some recordings at East West Studios. I was one of the music copyists for the session yesterday with Brian Benison.