American Theater Company to stage the original 'Hair'- Page 2

[temms]

Posted: 5/17/12 at 5:31am

The Public script is out there. At the Lincoln Center Library is a set of archives from the Public Theatre that includes scripts from all of their productions. The "Hair" file contains both the original draft script and a Stage Manager's performance script for the actual production, which changed quite a bit from the draft.

And because I am a super mega-nerd, I actually typed out the script, making notes where it was the same as the published version to save typing. Unfortunately I did it years ago in an ancient word processor so all I have is the hard copy, which I'm looking at right now. The opening of the show is the most different from the published version. The songs "Manhattan Beggar" and "Flesh Failures" are not actually in the Public Version, though they are in the published script.

The show starts with Mom & Dad (played by adults) singing "Don't Put It Down." Then the main characters all introduce themselves like they still do, but nobody has any songs and it's a big dialogue sequence. Claude goes first, then Berger, Hud speaks the lyrics to "Colored Spade", they all speak what would become "I'm Black", and then "Ain't Got No" is the first real song.

After a few verses of "Ain't Got No" is the whole Berger-Principal expulsion sequence (minus the song "Going Down"), after which they do a couple more verses of "Ain't Got No", followed by the scene between Claude and Mom which goes into "I Got Life". After that is "Ain't Got No Grass", picking the song back up again. Musically it sort of peters out rather than building like it does on Broadway, and Jeanie appears to sing "Air". Berger arrives to recount being expelled and sings "Going Down" with the Company.

From there the script follows the published version pretty closely for the rest of the Act - Claude enters, recounts his visit to the draft board, the tourist couple scene happens (with the adults playing the couple) and "Hair", then Sheila's scene with Claude & Berger leading into "Dead End". Following that, the rest of the act is mostly as it is now, with the "Come to the be-in" scene, "Frank Mills", and "Be-In"/"Where Do I Go".

Act Two follows the published version more closely - starting with the band The Leather Bag doing "Electric Blues" and "Easy To Be Hard", and Berger trying to convince Sheila to sleep with Claude as a going-away present during the latter. Then "White Boys/Black Boys" (in that order), "Walking In Space" and the Trip sequence. There's no "Abie, Baby" in the trip, though they speak the lyrics. The mass killing sequence happens, over which the cast recites the verse to "Prisoners in N-town" as a poem (which it is, written by Allen Ginsberg.)

(There was a cut sequence here - a character called "The 1,000 Year-Old Man" appears, speaks the lyrics to what would become the song of that name ["The war was over several hours ago and the future is speeding on..."] and sings a few lines of "So Sing The Children On The Avenue".)

Everyone lies dead, and the trip is over. The Tribe wake up, and there's a brief scene where Claude pretends to be dead, but reveals he was joking, and the whole company sings "Aquarius" (with the same lyrics we've always known, according to what I transcribed.) Following that, the script basically follows the published version with a few slight changes here and there. Claude and Sheila have their scene, they sing "Exanaplanetooch" and "Climax", and everyone comes to say goodbye to Claude at the train station, who has had Sheila cut his hair. They sing "Sentimental Ending", the cast sets loose wind-up tanks and war toys, and the show ends with the mechanical toy tanks firing at each other.

And that's the Public version. As I said, there's a draft script of an even earlier version that's considerably different even from this. I don't recall the details of it, except that it was quite lengthy. Oh, and it included the song "Mess 'o Dirt", which is probably my favorite of all the "Hair" cut songs.


Updated On: 5/17/12 at 05:31 AM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 5/17/12 at 5:47am

@3bluenight: It's already been mentioned that the published script is a hodge podge of the off-broadway script, the broadway script and other material used/not used.

The original Off-Broadway version of HAIR was first presented in 1967 and did not open with the song "Aquarius". "Aquarius" was sung in the middle of the show's second act and wasn't quite yet the anthem it would later become.

Mind you, I was just a fetus when all this was going on...

And thank you temms for taking the time out to explain in detail the differences of the original Off-Broadway version of HAIR.

I remember listening to an interview with Jill O'Hara, who played "Sheila" in the original Off-Broadway production. She was asked why she didn't do the re-hauled Broadway version and if she'd ever seen it.

She said she didn't do it because she wanted to do something else and she auditioned for GEORGE M!, which she got and in the middle of the show's run at The Cheetah she was rehearsing GEORGE M! during the day and then performing HAIR in the evening.

She also stated that she did see the Broadway version of the show and she said it was quite a different "animal" and she didn't quite care for it.





Updated On: 5/17/12 at 05:47 AM