Monkeying around the swing era

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Performers in mask rehearse at the Hawaiian Hut on the grounds of the Ala Moana Hotel. The happy Hawaiians are, from left: Palani Figueroa, Chachi Charles and Mike Emia. Photos by Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

The show at the Hawaiian Hut presents a surreal combination of experimental visuals with the dances and tunes of the 1930s and '40s. That's Yukie Shiroma in the middle, directing a rehearsal.

'CLUB MONKEY' A presentation of the Waterfall Dance Theatre Company 8:15 p.m. today, Saturday Hawaiian Hut, Ala Moana Hotel, 410 Atkinson Drive $15 at the door

It reaches a pinnacle with "Club Monkey," a fascinating mix of nostalgic wartime memories and postwar Japanese melodies with surreal and experimental visuals, including myriad masks. The show is at 8:15 p.m. today and Saturday at the Hawaiian Hut, on the Ala Moana Hotel grounds.

"I was researching the cabaret clubs of the 1930s in Honolulu," said Yukie Shiroma, co-artistic director of the Monkey and the Waterfall Dance Theatre Company, about the origins of the monkey fascination that permeates her works.

"The company's signature piece, about a monkey and a waterfall, came to me in a dream. The name of the company came from my mother, who was living in San Francisco. I had this piece about a monkey and a waterfall, with masks and puppets and other elements. She told me, 'you're the monkey, Ben's the waterfall,' and ultimately it made sense."

Ben is co-director Ben Moffat, who embodies the waterfall element when he towers on construction workers' dry-wall stilts and wears a flowing costume.

The piece originally was staged in San Francisco. Shiroma encountered a bookstore in the Fillmore, where a clerk handed her a book of stories on the Monkey King. "I read the book, the concept stuck with us," she said.

Shiroma is exploring the club scene during wartime Honolulu, where sailors, GIs and local women, dancing to swing and jazz sounds, populated the tiny halls, USO clubs and cabarets that flourished. Other venues showcased postwar Japanese melodies, revived in recent years in Club Nisei CD compilations — tunes first popular in Japan and found appeal with Hawai'i's large population of Asians.

"All those clubs are gone, but it was a fascinating time," said Shiroma, who chose the Hawaiian Hut to stage the production "because it has the right smell and the right feel of an old-time cabaret."

Not that she was around when such cabarets were in vogue.

"We're talking about the cabarets that emerged in the 1930s and were hangouts in the 1940s," she said. Historian DeSoto Brown and her mom provided the perspective she needed.

"We're talking songs by Marlene Dietrich, the Blue Angels, the Andrews Sisters, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Club Nisei and, yes, even hapa-haole songs," she said.

Brown pointed out that this was before the widespread revival of ancient-style hula, and hapa-haole tunes were what was popular in clubs back then.

A cast of 20 is involved, said Shiroma. Besides company troupers, all wearing masks designed by Michael Harada, guest artists also are participating, including Betsy Fisher of the University of Hawai'i-Manoa Dance Department, kumu hula Michael Pili Pang of Halau Hula Ka No'eau and Sami L.A. Akuna III (also known as transgender trouper Cocoa Chandelier) of the Iona Contemporary Dance Theatre.

"Masking and unmasking is sort of the whole theme of the show," said Shiroma. "We all wear masks in all different parts of our lives — as wives, mothers, teachers, boyfriends, girlfriends. In Latin, the word for mask is persona, where we get the word personality, so these various mask expressions are very important in our show."

"Club Monkey" is the final installment of Shiroma's three-show excursion utilizing masks, dance, theatrical elements and puppetry. "Monkey on My Back" was staged in 2001, followed by "Still on My Back" in 2002.

Shiroma said "Club Monkey" would work best in authentic sites as the now-defunct Glades, and Club Hubba Hubba in Chinatown. The Hut, with its faux-tropics rattan and bamboo reflecting a Mainland view of a South Seas lounge, was the next-best spot for monkeying around.

"In my dream, the monkey was on a rampage — it fell from the clouds, and it was tearing up trees, throwing things in the air — and I like to look at back sides, turning over stones, peeking behind the scenes," she said. "Most artists try to do that — go beyond the facade, look at what's hidden. I think the monkey was a premonition. So it's really good to have a bad dream."

Reach Wayne Harada at 525-8067, wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, or fax 525-8055.