'Peace on Your Wings' takes flight again at Hawaii Theatre

Feb. 5—Written by the local composer /lyricist team of Jenny Taira and Laurie Rubin, the production enthralled audiences with its history-based tale about a Japanese girl, Sadako Sasaki, who tried to fold 1, 000 origami cranes in the belief that it would help her survive the effects of the Hiroshima bombing.

"Peace on Your Wings, " the enchanting musical based on the 1977 children's book "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, " has had a remarkable run since it debuted in 2014. Written by the local composer /lyricist team of Jenny Taira and Laurie Rubin, the production enthralled audiences with its history-based tale about a Japanese girl, Sadako Sasaki, who tried to fold 1, 000 origami cranes in the belief that it would help her survive the effects of the Hiroshima bombing.

The production sold out its shows in Honolulu and the neighbor islands. Impressed viewers, along with a mainland Buddhist organization and the Japanese American community, subsequently provided funding to take the show to New York and several California cities, where it was also well-received.

Now Taira and Rubin have revised the musical, making it "a lot more succinct and poignant, " Rubin said. The musical, presented by their performing arts organization for children, Ohana Arts, premieres Thursday to Saturday at Hawaii Theatre.

"We preserved most of the songs, " Rubin said. "We replaced a few songs and changed around a couple, and a lot of the lines are different. So even if people saw it in 2015 or 16, it will still be a very different show."

The show will feature a new set and costuming, along with a cast of 24, all teenage or younger, performing to live music. The plot has been revised to emphasize the connection between the bombing of Hiroshima and Sadako's sickness, Rubin said. Sadako was diagnosed with leukemia a decade after the bombing of Hiroshima and learned of a legend that said if someone made 1, 000 origami cranes in one year, that person's wishes would be granted.

"There's a lot more emphasis on the fact that they were living in a time in which there was a lot of fear, a lot of disease, " Rubin said of the revised musical. "It doesn't make this show sadder or more distressing. It makes this show actually more uplifting, because you understand what the whole peace movement is about."

This is not the first time the show has been revised. The first version hewed closely to the children's book, except that it added a fictional group of Sadako's friends who establish a peace monument in her memory. It was later updated to address themes that in 1977 were likely considered too sensitive for young readers, but by 2014 were acceptable, Rubin said.

"Children go through terminal illness, " she said. "Children go through identity crises in school. Children go through so many things, and they would be so happy if the world recognized that."

In rewriting the musical, Rubin and Taira got advice from family and acquaintances of Sadako, such as her brother Masahiro Sasaki, who later championed his sister's story and became a renowned peace activist. He was present at the original debut of the musical and passed some of his knowledge on to them, such as the fact that she created well over 1, 000 origami cranes, "whereas in the children's book she never got to 1, 000, " Rubin said.

Taira and Rubin originally wrote the musical for Ohana Arts at the prompting of the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii. Taira knew the children's book from her schooling in Hawaii and thought it would appeal to local audiences, Rubin said.

Like previous versions, this new version of the musical will travel. Later this year, it will play in Los Angeles as well as in Hiroshima, where 2-year-old Sadako was living when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city, about a mile away from her home. At age 12, she was diagnosed with leukemia and died less than a year later, having folded more than 1, 300 cranes. Origami cranes have since become a symbol of hope and peace.

"Peace on Your Wings "