Broadway revival of Hair — Page 2

sabrelady, it's not Jamie (Claude) who descends in the harness, it's Julius.

Rentboy, no one is MAKING them shave their heads. They auditioned for the show with full knowledge of this.

Yeah...I was not a big fan of the Toronto production. To me it came off as sloppy high school production with a big budget. The direction was lazy and what little story there was seemed subdued. The cast was energetic enough, but were a little caraciature-ish. The projections were cheesy and not really well used except for in the drug-induced nightmare, and the set was sort of bland and lifeless.

To be fair though the audience was loving it, and by FAR the youngest crowd I have ever seen in that theatre, which was nice to see. I may be crazy but I could have sworn I saw Cassie Levy, the Penny on the Hairspray tour there. If it was her, I'm sure she was visiting her Toronto Hairspray bud Karen who was in the show.

Akiva

I, too, have done the nude scene in Hair. It was one of the most liberating things I've ever done. It is very moving to be in that moment. It becomes something so real and organic, it is no longer acting. It is powerful.

In regards to a Broadway revival, I'd like to see it happen, only because I've never seen a professional production of it. I don't think the show can be updated or changed that drastically. And I think the book belongs with the music. With a strong director, it can work with the show.

~Steven

I saw the recent HAIR mounting at Canstage in Toronto and I was so disappointed and shocked about how much I hated it. The music was great and the cast was fabulous, but the book - and even the production - were pretty damn crappy. Yuck! Sorry to all Hair lovers, this show does nothing for me.

I agree with Link Larkin Wanabe: Hair was supposed to be a serious, yet somewhat fun statement about a movement and a lifestyle, but the TO production seems to have made the material a caricature of the hippy life. The singing was great, but it was painful to watch.

Why are so many of you concerned with the shaved heads issue and summer jobs? They're not shaving their heads NOW, it's not happening til next school year. Give it a rest! If people didn't want to shave their heads, they don't have to be in the show! Trust me, there are hundreds of Tischies who would love to have been cast. These are all drama majors at Tisch, this isn't like many college shows where anyone in any major gets to audition. These kids are studying in a pre-professional program and are expecting to be challenged and to have to take risks, both in class and onstage. It's not the big deal that many on this forum are making it out to be.

Link, it's possible you saw Caissie. She's headed to Hairspray on Broadway in a couple of weeks so maybe she left the tour early to spend bit of time at home before moving to NYC.

AW Akiva u always look kool to us!!

Yeah there is a lot of cheesy type fake orgy sex sim but hey it was the same in the original prod too! Just a tad less familiar so much more shocking!
(anyone remember the "cop" coming out @ intermission and advising that everyone was under arrest? this was so outre back then a lot of people wern't sure if the cop wasn't real) Ah the bloom off the rose...

I saw the original production twice on Broadway and then one of the first road productions at the National Theatre in DC. My memory is exactly as Michael Bennett described it.

My memory is not real clear on this scene because it really was no big deal. Go back and look at the films - particularly the home movies - of Woodstock and other gatherings at that time. Groups of 'hippies' (only called that by our parents - 'love children' by ourselves) often ended with many shedding their clothing. It was part of the 'return to nature' movement and a very common occurrence. There were many anti-war demonstrations taking place down on the National Mall and kids would come in from all over the country. My roommate and I would invite any we'd run across to come over and stay at our place. It wasn't uncommon to get up in the morning and find 10-15 bodies asleep on the floor. It would have been unusual if half of them weren't naked!

We had lots of friends being drafted and going off to war. A lot of them didn't come back. I know too many names on the Wall at the VN memorial. Many, many more did return - but they weren't the same young guys who had left. Put all of this in the context that we were living under at the time. It just didn't look like it was EVER going to end. It's that kind of background that led to "Hair". It hit us all right at home. It wasn't addressed to ANYBODY but us and that made it unique and great. Unless you are able to revive all of those factors, you shouldn't attempt to revive "Hair". And believe me - you don't want to revive all those factors!

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While I am glad you enjoyed the performance, I would like to point out I was not alone in disliking CanStage's production. Here is a link to Richard Ouzounian's review in The Star (he gave the show 1 star out of a possible 4):

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1143760212592&call_pageid=968867495754&col=Columnist974814650911

Also, Robert Cushman in The Post:

http://www.canada.com/cityguides/toronto/story.html?id=0db71615-609f-4698-a557-9b8e91dbef85&k=15956

In addition Christopher Hoile in EYE said it "has the general effect of a high school production with a large misspent budget."

It is possible they have adjusted the sound mix (I sure hope so) but the night I attended I missed many lyrics as did my friend who had never seen the show before.

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The nude scene is not as scandalous now especially in Toronto where we have many plays with nude scenes, an official nude beach, and a generally laid back attitude towards nudity. The scene as done by CanStage seemed to me a carbon copy of what I saw in stage at the Biltmore theatre in 1977 (10th anniversary revival cast.)

For most actors, nude scenes are more an issue for those watching than for the performers.

As for Richard Ouzounian, he is a tough critic but I find I agree with him most of the time. With HAIR he was pretty much right on the mark.

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I was in Naked Boys Singing and for me, being naked was simply a different form of costume. Unless you are involved in a scene with sexually suggestive physical contact, I really doubt there would be any danger of popping a boner. Even then, it would probably have to involve someone you find attractive, and awareness of the audience would still probably kill it (unless you're into that). The biggest problem was when you feel the urge to pee. As most guys know, when the little soldier gets some fresh air, he wants to go and he wants to go NOW, whether it is necessary or not. That is horribly distracting when you are performing an entire show in the nude because it would happen totally at random.

As for Hair, I saw a brilliant performance by a small theatre in Dallas in 1988 which had two moments of nudity. The first opened the Hare Krishna song, when a girl in a gauzy peasant dress starling twirling around and around. The dress billowed out a bit and the lighting illuminated her naked body underneath the garment. It was stunning. The second involved a man who was dragged out onto the stage in a fully zipped body bag. A couple sang What a Piece of Work is Man and he emerge from the bag completely naked as if it was his birth. He then moved in slow-motion throughout the song and struck a pose reminiscent of Da Vinci's Anatomy of a Man. At the end of the song, he slowly died on stage, was zipped back into the bag, and dragged off the stage. It was poignant and beautiful.

I attended the 25th Anniversary national tour of Hair. I don't know if there was any nudity because I left right after "Donna". It was one of the most embarassing productions I've ever seen.

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I am glad I went to see the Toronto production of Hair on a “Pay what you can” night . The actors in the cast were very talented but something was missing because I wanted to leave the theater as soon as the show started. The songs were powerful , specially the last song "Let the Sunshine in" but overall the show was disappointing.