Rutene Spooner's new show Velvet Rebels: Celebrating the Rat Pack Era, inspired by his pianist grandfather, premieres at the Auckland Cabaret Festival in June.
Rutene Spooner - creator of theatre shows like Thoroughly Modern Māui and Be Like Billy - says his new production celebrates kaumātua, classic jazz and crooning.
At the end of last year, I had just felt the brunt of being an independent artist making these shows. Producing, performing and touring
Over summer, I really did some wananga [learning] and talked to some people back home about how I could move forward safely, mentally and physically, without costing my own whānau time and resources.
Rather than running away from making and producing, I actually ran back a little bit. I realised that with the collection of works I’ve made over the past seven years, I don’t actually have anything that is targeted to our kaumātua [elders].
While I’ve made shows for the different generations within my community – I’ve got Pīpī Paopao for young ones my daughter’s age, Thoroughly Modern Maui for my generation and Be Like Billy for the boomer-ish age group – I didn’t have anything for our kaumātua, and that kind of entertainment is where I started.
There’s a photo I have of my grandfather, who was a jazz pianist, with my great-grandfather. It’s just all these men in dapper suits, their number ones, having a few drinks. I started thinking about my grandfather, who was a jazz pianist, and he really became the inspiration for the style of the show. They reminded me a lot of the Rat Pack, and as a result, this show is a celebration of that era.
While I wanted to do this crooner show inspired by the Rat Pack, it had to be specific to Aotearoa. There’s this time within Aotearoa, before my time, that showband variety era and the Vegas jazz lounge style that we’ve taken inspiration from for the form of the show. But when it comes to the content of the show, we asked ourselves, “What would happen if the crooners, like the Rat Pack, washed up here in the South Pacific? What would that feel like? What would that look like?”
People are still really attracted to this kind of music. It’s obviously super-nostalgic, but it’s uniquely a style of music where the introduction of the microphone really matters. When the world was introduced to singing with a microphone, it meant the singer could relax without needing to project or push.
It’s the kind of music that’s got swag, and that crooning, that swagger, is timeless. That relaxed nature also really helps connect to that Māori concert party feel. It’s chill, it is what it is, there’s no hiding, there’s absolutely no fourth wall, and it’s all about having a good time.
It’s called the Velvet Rebels for a reason. It’s about enjoying dressing up and getting in there. What I like about it is that time is glamour. It’s coming out in a full suit, with all the bells and whistles, dressed to the nines. What I love for our show is the juxtaposition with that glamour. It’s also real talk. We haven’t reinvented the wheel, we’ve just recontextualised it. It is what it says on the box. My work is always kaupapa-driven, it’s a waste of time if it isn’t, but the kaupapa is buried a lot deeper.
When I started thinking about this show, and thinking about kaumātua, I remember there was one period where I was working for a company that entertained that specific age bracket. I did a few trips with tour groups as sort of an at-their-fingertips entertainer, and really got to know what this audience enjoyed. When I went out and committed to making something for our kaumātua, I really wanted something that our generation’s parents, or our kaumātua’s kids could take them to.
In my experience, for a lot of kaumātua, the act of going out is an entire day’s activity – they think about the entire day in the context of the show: “Am I gonna get stuck driving at night? Who’s gonna drive me? Is there food? What time does the show get out?” There’s a whole lot of logistics, and we’ve been really on to that while making this show.
My grandfather was a pianist, but he was a tricky man. I put it down to him being a man of his time, and a lot of what I know of him, I think I’d struggle to see eye to eye with him, but I think this kind of music is somewhere we could arrive together on.
I think of him lots when I’m making this show.
The Velvet Rebels: Celebrating the Rat Pack Era, June 6-8 at the Wintergarden, The Civic, as part of Auckland Live’s Cabaret Festival