ProArts Playhouse and James Nevius present ‘On The Nile: An Evening of Original Music and Dance’ this Thursday

Last year, Kīhei resident James Nevius—a musician, composer and playwright—released an album blending classical and ambient music called “On the Nile: A Musical Landscape in 18 Parts.” Next week, on Thursday, Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m, “On the Nile” comes to life as a dance and theater performance at ProArts Playhouse in Kīhei.

Choreographer Randi Lonzaga has created nine original dances around Nevius’s work. These dances, combined with poetry and video imagery shot along the Nile River in Egypt, create a serene evening of movement and music that will transport the audience around the globe and into the distant past of pharaohs, pyramids, and once-mighty temples.

As a composer, Nevius’s work draws on a number of influences from the minimalism of Philip Glass and John Cage, to the more familiar soundtracks of Hans Zimmer (“Dune”) and Jóhann Jóhannsson (“Arrival”), to more pop-oriented work by Talking Heads and even the tiki exotica of Les Baxter. Many of the pieces in “On the Nile” are built from sounds recorded in Egypt: merchants at the Great Pyramid; the call to prayer; the clip-clop of horses in the towns along the Nile; and the rush of the river itself, which underpins many of these sound collages. Nevius is also known to Maui audiences as the writer of the award-winning play “Murder in the Nth Degree” (ProArts 2022) and works such as “‘Ainakea” (Maui OnStage ONO 2023).

The evening will be danced by choreographer Randi Lonzaga (“Spring Awakening”) along with Lily Werner (“Peter and the Starcatcher”) and Aaron Pardini (“Seussical the Musical”).

CDs of “On the Nile” and Nevius’s other music (including his more pop-oriented work with the band Promised Road) will be available for purchase at the event.

Tickets are $15-$30 and are available from ProArts Playhouse online at https://proartmaui.org or by calling 808-463-6550.