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ceebeegeeSo I scored two tickets for Hair at the Delacorte last night and took Paula. She'd never seen anything at that space (although she certainly identified most if not all of the productions on a collage poster outside the Box Office). I was so so soooooo excited to see the show--I kept burbling "WE got tickets to Ha-air, WE'RE gonna see Hair tonight..."
The production, like the show itself, is not perfect, and I would've done some things differently as a director. But it works. Oh, does it work. Jonathan Groff is very strong as Claude, achingingly vulnerable and sweet. (Er, though I must point out, he has a slight tendency to go a very little bit sharp. It's possible his vibrato pulls sharp at times--he was maybe a 1/4 tone sharp, if that. Not much.) The Sheila was interesting. It took me a little bit to warm up to her character because she plays it *very* differently from how Tracie and I played it--she's noticeably more serious, more earnest, more mature than the rest of the Tribe. She has a killer voice. There are some script emendations that help this characterization--she says at one point "when are you going to grow up?" They also rewrote the yellow shirt scene slightly--they argue and he rips the shirt, but doesn't hit her. The scene is not terribly well-written anyway, but I think deleting the slap removes her need to sing "Easy to Be Hard." I dunno. I think I would've left it in.
The crowd seemed very subdued--I was bopping in my seat to the music and then I would try to pull back, not wanting to be that annoying audience member. But then I though "It's fucking Hair! Why isn't this crowd rowdier?"
Berger was terrific--he played him as kind of an ADD guy and really brought out how annoying Berger can be sometimes. But in keeping with other Bergers I've seen, he doesn't look any 18 years old. That makes no sense--as great a song as "Going Down" is, Berger's character, his sway and influence over the rest of the Tribe and his sexual experience, doesn't really jibe with his being so young. Whatevs. The actor was great and that's what matters. As I said to Paula, Hair, like In the Heights, is not a perfect show--the book is sloppy and some of the characterization is weak or off. But it's a magnificent show when done right.* And you have to avoid making it *too* sentimental. Berger *is* annoying and self-centered, the Tribe are all still kids who are not nearly as individualistic and actualized as they imagine--their groupthink (whatever Berger proposes, they ALL immediately do) is daunting. And yet for all that, they're luminous, touching, and their vision for the future is a pure one.
*Hair, like Godspell, is so damn fun for the cast, the danger is that they will have more fun than the audience, that it will turn into a bunch of giggly insider humor and games onstage and the audience will be left out.
Dionne was terrific, amazing voice. Jeannie and Woof were also great.
That last sequence, starting with the Tribe at the Induction center, just kills me--it's so well-constructed, with the chanting going into "Yipyipyipyipyipyipyipppee! Yipyipyipyipyipyipyipppee!" And then Berger and Sheila and the Tribe calling out for Claude who appears--and he's invisible. And you just know what that means. Oh, it breaks my heart.
I remember learning the music for that sequence and hearing the guitar riff that starts off "The Flesh Failures" and realzing it was a dirge. A rock dirge. "We starve, look/At one another, short of breath/Walking proudly in our winter coats/Wearing smells from laboratories/Facing a dying nation/of moving paper fantasies/Listening to the new-told lies/With supreme visions of loneliness." And the tribe joining in mournfully--"Eyes, look your last/Arms, take your last embrace/And lips, o you, the doors of breath/Seal with a righteous kiss/Seal with a righteous kiss/The rest is silence...the rest is silence...the rest is silence..."
And then that dirge gradually, slowly transforms into "Let the Sun Shine" which, it should be noted, is also in a minor key--it is not necessarily a happygoodtimes song, just because it's about the sun. It's about "don't let this tragedy cripple you--don't let them steal your soul. Life is around you and in you." It's a plea.
This production played up the sadness much more--the ending was was stark indeed. When the Tribe was singing "Life is around you and in you" they had all pulled together into a huddle in the center, holding hands with each other and looking like the scared kids they were. It was quite powerful.
The production, like the show itself, is not perfect, and I would've done some things differently as a director. But it works. Oh, does it work. Jonathan Groff is very strong as Claude, achingingly vulnerable and sweet. (Er, though I must point out, he has a slight tendency to go a very little bit sharp. It's possible his vibrato pulls sharp at times--he was maybe a 1/4 tone sharp, if that. Not much.) The Sheila was interesting. It took me a little bit to warm up to her character because she plays it *very* differently from how Tracie and I played it--she's noticeably more serious, more earnest, more mature than the rest of the Tribe. She has a killer voice. There are some script emendations that help this characterization--she says at one point "when are you going to grow up?" They also rewrote the yellow shirt scene slightly--they argue and he rips the shirt, but doesn't hit her. The scene is not terribly well-written anyway, but I think deleting the slap removes her need to sing "Easy to Be Hard." I dunno. I think I would've left it in.
The crowd seemed very subdued--I was bopping in my seat to the music and then I would try to pull back, not wanting to be that annoying audience member. But then I though "It's fucking Hair! Why isn't this crowd rowdier?"
Berger was terrific--he played him as kind of an ADD guy and really brought out how annoying Berger can be sometimes. But in keeping with other Bergers I've seen, he doesn't look any 18 years old. That makes no sense--as great a song as "Going Down" is, Berger's character, his sway and influence over the rest of the Tribe and his sexual experience, doesn't really jibe with his being so young. Whatevs. The actor was great and that's what matters. As I said to Paula, Hair, like In the Heights, is not a perfect show--the book is sloppy and some of the characterization is weak or off. But it's a magnificent show when done right.* And you have to avoid making it *too* sentimental. Berger *is* annoying and self-centered, the Tribe are all still kids who are not nearly as individualistic and actualized as they imagine--their groupthink (whatever Berger proposes, they ALL immediately do) is daunting. And yet for all that, they're luminous, touching, and their vision for the future is a pure one.
*Hair, like Godspell, is so damn fun for the cast, the danger is that they will have more fun than the audience, that it will turn into a bunch of giggly insider humor and games onstage and the audience will be left out.
Dionne was terrific, amazing voice. Jeannie and Woof were also great.
That last sequence, starting with the Tribe at the Induction center, just kills me--it's so well-constructed, with the chanting going into "Yipyipyipyipyipyipyipppee! Yipyipyipyipyipyipyipppee!" And then Berger and Sheila and the Tribe calling out for Claude who appears--and he's invisible. And you just know what that means. Oh, it breaks my heart.
I remember learning the music for that sequence and hearing the guitar riff that starts off "The Flesh Failures" and realzing it was a dirge. A rock dirge. "We starve, look/At one another, short of breath/Walking proudly in our winter coats/Wearing smells from laboratories/Facing a dying nation/of moving paper fantasies/Listening to the new-told lies/With supreme visions of loneliness." And the tribe joining in mournfully--"Eyes, look your last/Arms, take your last embrace/And lips, o you, the doors of breath/Seal with a righteous kiss/Seal with a righteous kiss/The rest is silence...the rest is silence...the rest is silence..."
And then that dirge gradually, slowly transforms into "Let the Sun Shine" which, it should be noted, is also in a minor key--it is not necessarily a happygoodtimes song, just because it's about the sun. It's about "don't let this tragedy cripple you--don't let them steal your soul. Life is around you and in you." It's a plea.
This production played up the sadness much more--the ending was was stark indeed. When the Tribe was singing "Life is around you and in you" they had all pulled together into a huddle in the center, holding hands with each other and looking like the scared kids they were. It was quite powerful.
