Waikiki's newest lu'au show is the only one on a beach within the 96815 ZIP code — with a lagoon as a bonus attraction — and it embraces simple but treasured practices.

You're greeted with a lei and Hawaiian music.

A canoe floats in from the lagoon named for surfer Duke Kahanamoku, with dancers portraying fishermen with fresh catch. It's a measure of atmosphere and culture uncommon in Waikiki these days, and it recalls bygone years.

You can get sand between your toes, sip a mai tai, and learn to do a basic hula to "Hukilau."

Other interactive activities like coconut husking and pineapple tossing will whet the appetite for dinner.

And the kau kau for the evening? Well, the pig in the imu is removed and ceremoniously taken to the buffet serving table. Doesn't get any fresher than that.

All this outdoor wonderment precedes the main attraction: a Polynesian revue themed "E Pa'ina Kakou (Let's Party)" that heralds and upholds tradition with refreshing Hawaiian hula, Samoan and Tahitian dances, and even Maori war numbers performed by adorable keiki.

The "Waikiki Lu'au on the Lagoon," as the newest destination for visitors and locals is called, reinvents a basic visitor desire: to experience the simple pleasures and customs of the past ... without a bus ride to the 'burbs.

It is staged Sunday and Wednesday evenings on The Great Lawn, a patch of green located a stone's throw from the Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon, between the Rainbow Tower and the Lagoon Tower at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort.

Produced by Tihati Productions, "Waikiki Lu'au on the Lagoon" is a jewel on several fronts.

The show, hosted by singer-emcee Kale Chang, features about 20 Tihati regulars hand-picked from the casts of about seven different shows.

The playlist is hapa-haole, Hawaiian and Polynesian fare, so you hear Chang share "In the Middle of an Island" alongside male and female dancers who bring the rhythms and movements (watch the speedy hands — and the gyrating hips) of Tahiti, Samoa, Maori New Zealand and the Cook Islands to life.

An otea features Afatia Thompson, Pogi Tevaga, Hoku Garza, Joe Pauole and Sean Jandoc dancing to Chang's "Teve Teve" vocal, demonstrating Hawaiian ancestors who canoed here from Tahiti.

Thompson is the resident Samoan knife dancer, "eating" fire, as well as twirling one flaming knife, then a pair. It's hot stuff, always an audience favorite; in his other life as an entertainer, Thompson croons and sings R&B and some hip-hop.

Wallen Teo, 10, also has a fiery moment as a pint-sized twirler — he was first runner-up in a world-ranked keiki fire knife dance competition this year — and he draws squeals of encouragement and hurrahs from the spectators. He is one of two keiki soloists; the other is Kamaile Takao, a girl with Tahitian tamure power.

This cast boasts a next-generation crew of keiki performers with Maori-style painted faces doing the haka — the aforementioned Teo, Jack-Eli Tufono, Maninoa Tufono, Hawaka Jeremiah and Eli Matagi Thompson, aged 5 to 10 — draws attention of young and old alike.

For Waikiki revues, this is a rarity — very family-friendly.

The women's Tahitian segment includes audience participation, a common ingredient for Island lu'au shows; so besides shimmying to drumbeats, the dancers (Nicole Thompson, Trisha Abenes, Pilialoha Gaison, Shylenn Hall, Jasmine Yoshino, Sarah Noyle and Kanoe Ahu) go into the crowd to select "volunteers."

'Ukulele stylist Taimane Gardner is part of the mix and may be on stage some nights; she was not performing at the show we caught.

Newlyweds and anniversary celebrants are toasted via two wedding songs — "Lei Aloha Lei Makamae" and "Ke Kali Nei Au," with requisite "groom" and "bride" enactment on stage.

And the house band — Iele Eseroma, Kalamaku Eseroma, Mark Yim and Vise Vitale — serenades during the arrivals, dinner and the show. So you hear classic tunes from both Territorial and post-Statehood eras.

For visitors and residents alike, the buffet is part lu'au, part plate lunch, but 'ono and suited to the palate. On the Hawaiian side, you'll find poi (with paper bowls to fill), lomi salmon, kalua pig and Island-style creamed spinach.

If poi's not your picking, there's rice and rolls. The plate-lunch-inspired choices include huli huli chicken and macadamia-crusted mahimahi. The dessert spread has creamy haupia wedges, coconut cake, macadamia cream pie with a dark cookie crust, and guava cake.

But the setting is a selling point.

You arrive in daylight, with plenty of time for sunshine and fellowship; emcee Chang's welcome includes a suggestion that you shake a stranger's hand, to meet and make a new friend. Ours was from Washington state.

By the time the finale "There's No Place Like Hawai'i" is performed by the entire cast, darkness prevails — and folks leave with a lasting memory and a shred of real Island-style culture to take home.