By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
The Los Mayas acro-balancers strike amazing poses in the YES! revue.
Can Waikiki handle a show with mimes, magic, acrobats, dancing fish and a giant Slinky?
By John Berger
Special to the Star-BulletinSal Murillo - born in Mexico, raised in Italy, trained in French, English and Portuguese - speaks five languages and needs them all to bring YES! to the stage. His cast members hail from Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, England, France and Romania, and in many cases they can speak to each other only through Murillo. Their needs can be translated to the technical crew only through Murillo.
"By the end of the day I wouldn't have a throat," said Murillo, producer/director of the international revue, YES!
Creating YES! for Hawaii was an ambitious undertaking. Frances Kirk, Outrigger Entertainment Executive Vice President, wanted something unusual and imaginative for the palace. It had to appeal to an international audience. It couldn't be another "Magic of Polynesia"or "Legends in Concert" show - and it certainly couldn't be another by-the-numbers Polynesian revue. She wanted clean, family entertainment, and it had to fit the showroom's low ceiling.
Cut to Murillo. He'd grown up in the circus - performing trampoline, acrobatics and high wire - and had a showroom specialty act on the mainland before moving into management. Murillo contacted performers, costume designers and choreographers from Paris to Johannesburg to assemble a show to Kirk's specs.
The palace was gutted and rebuilt for the high-tech new show. It was an adventure in showroom archaeology that dug down through layers of paint, wallpaper and fixtures all the way back to Don Ho's '70s reign.
The makeover was still in progress when the cast gained access to the stage Dec. 19. Opening night was the 26th.
It was close. "Some of the equipment still wasn't in and we'd been working close to 20-hour days," Murillo said. "I've never done a show under those circumstances without somebody developing an attitude, but here, everybody pitched in and did more than their job description."
This despite language difficulties. The Romanian "human Slinky," for example, communicated in Italian with Murillo, who then translated his needs into English for the tech crew. And then there were construction workers who spoke only Chinese. To deal with them Murillo needed his own translator.
The result:A show never before seen in Waikiki, yet with a touch of Hawaii.
More than 200 dancers were auditioned to find the six who fit Murillo's concept.
"If you watch dancers closely you'll notice that a lot of them are looking off into space somewhere - certainly not at the audience. That wouldn't have been right for Hawaii," Murillo said. "I wanted women for this show who weren't afraid to look at the people and make them feel welcome."
Yes! International Revue
Featuring: Los Mayas acro-balancers, human Slinky Veniamin, comic mimes Mike & Nicky, illusionist Omar Pasha and the YES! Dancers
YES! Revue impresses and amazes
By John Berger
Special to the Star-BulletinThe accolades "awesome!" and "incredible!" have become reviewers' cliches. But the YES! International Revue easily earns them both - and more. The venue is intimate. The vision is world-class. Waikiki has never seen a show like this. It's fresh, fast and 100 percent family entertainment. Kids will be mesmerized by the dancing fish in the opening number. They'll be enthralled by the colorful human slinky and fascinated by the black-light illusions of Omar Pasha.
Each of the four specialty acts captures a different facet of the human experience and offers a different form of diversion. This is traditional circus entertainment at its best.
Consider Mike & Nicky. The art of mime is at least as old as Vaudeville. You won't see it done better than when curious bellhop Mike finds a floppy clown doll in a trunk, takes it out, throws it around, then stuffs it back in the trunk. He's hilariously expressive; she's incredibly flexible as the hapless doll.
Mike returns to silently direct two audience-participation segments. Both are brilliantly effective without mocking or humiliating the participants. Not making the volunteers the butt of the bit is a refreshing touch of class.
The human Slinky, Veniamin, is a colorful and comical high-energy illusion. Adults may try to visualize exactly where he is inside the costume; kids will love the visualness of the quadruped slinky as it rolls, sprawls, spills and dances across the stage.
Illusionists always fascinate. The "black cabinet" style is fresh in Waikiki. The Pasha and his assistants make the most of the possibilities. Making a woman vanish without first hiding her in something is one of the highlights of a colorful act. Omar Pasha is way better than Franz Harary, who appeared at the Blaisdell Concert Hall last summer!
And then comes Los Mayas. The trio of gold-painted acro-balancers comprise a breathtaking blend of theatrics, gymnastic discipline and superb physical conditioning. Remy Farfan is the base man; Mario Vargas and Sachenka Pacheco his partners. Watching them create living "sculptures" excites the imagination - yes, it is possible for humans to achieve this level of physical ability!
Seeing performers like these on video conveys the form but not the raw energy of the performance. Seeing them up close adds that important element.
Choreographer Cheryl Flaharty, the YES! dancers and the palace's Reid Sato (sound) and Leigh Ann Oshiro (lighting) share credit for the imaginative "underwater" opening. The dancers' portrayal of island fish opens the show on a fanciful Hawaiian theme. The dancers return as eye candy to introduce the human Slinky and contribute a hint of Polynesia to the finale.
