[ WEEKEND ]
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
If you like to boogie and love the Swing era, head on to Diamond Head Theatre where music and dancing will keep you moving in your seats.
‘Swing!’ time
at DHT
There's a lot to be said for a music and dance revue with no pretensions, plot, storyline, or anything that even looks like any sort of story construct to link the various numbers together.
'Swing!'
Where: Diamond Head Theatre, 520 Makapuu Ave.
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, through April 11
Tickets: $12 to $42, with discounts for students, seniors and military
Call: 733-0274
And that's "Swing!," which opens tonight at Diamond Head Theatre with a display of some of the best music and dancing styles to emerge from the 20th century, specifically from the '30s and '40s.
That this music and these dances have come back into fashion to a certain extent is perhaps no accident, since it's all about good, old fashioned fun.
"This music is just hot," says seasoned Hawaii stage performer Katie Leiva, who in her six years in Hawaii has appeared in 16 shows. "Even if you don't know anything about the dance, come for the hot band ... "
"Swing!" was nominated in 2000 for six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The score includes such classics as "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," "Stompin' at the Savoy," "Skylark" and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)."
Leiva, a University of Phoenix executive by day, plays the role made famous in the original show by Ann Hampton Calloway. She says it's challenging because the role not only requires her to sing three solos and a duet, but to scat as well.
"This is the most vocally challenging role I've ever had," Leiva says. "I really wanted to remain true to the style, so I did a lot of listening to Ella Fitzgerald and other big band music.
"But I have to hit some very high notes and then the scat frightened me since I had done so little before. You can't mess that up; you either have to get it or not get it.
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Kelsey Kaneshiro and Ross Pascual perform a dance number.
"The secret to scat is you've got to cut loose, give way from your inhibitions, let go."
Scat singing has been defined as vocal improvisation, using nonsense syllables instead of words (e.g., "doo-bee-doo-ba-doot-'m-do-ba"). Jazz singers create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using only the voice. Scat singing is distinguished by the improvisations made with a song's melody and rhythm, much like jazz players.
Scat singing is said to have even influenced the development of doo-wop and rap music.
"It isn't simply sounds but a type of conversation, a subtext in a plot," explains the 30-something North Carolina native. "It may not sound like it when you first hear it, but it's there."
Leiva could have been the woman you saw driving to work or on errands using her vehicle as a rehearsal hall.
"Yeah, that was me at the stoplight jamming away, singing my swing," says Leiva, who also takes weekly voice lessons from Larry Paxton at the University of Hawaii.
Leiva was last cast as murderess Velma Kelly in Diamond Head Theatre's production of "Chicago." She made her local debut in DHT's 1998 production of "Damn Yankees" and later was in Manoa Valley Theatre's "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change."
It wasn't lost on Leiva that scat is mostly associated with African-American singers.
"There's a song in the show that I worried I wouldn't do justice to because I could just imagine a big, black woman singing it, but I hope I've made it my own," she says. "Calloway made it her signature piece and she's haole, too."
"Swing!" also features four singers and 10 dancers, and includes several swing dances like the West Coast Swing and the Lindy Hop.
"Swing was never a time or place," said John Rampage, the theater's artistic director. "It has always been a state of mind."
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
On the cover: Dress rehearsal for Diamond Head Theatre's "Swing!" production.
Click for online
calendars and events.
