Did anyone see the original HAIR?- Page 2

[Marquise]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 5:10pm

and Vincent Canby raved: "Hair joins the ranks of the greatest musicals on film. **** highest rating!..it's much better than the original....nothing short of marvelous!"



Gene Siskel also praised the film as well.

Updated On: 10/29/04 at 05:10 PM

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 5:23pm

THANK you, Karen!

I had no idea that book even existed! :)

[sean martin]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 5:41pm

Piffle. What does Maltin know anyway?

[Glebb]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 5:52pm

I love the film. After Twyla's DEUCE COUPE for Joffrey and PUSH COMES TO SHOVE for ABT, I think HAIR is her greatest work of genius.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 5:55pm

My parents saw the first national tour in Washington DC (I still have the souvenir program). Three things they always talk about from the show:

When the music began for Aquarius, the actors appeared from the back of the audience and crawled to the stage across the tops and arms of the audience seats.

I think it was during The Flesh Failures, my father remembers Berger holding up a white cross that glowed in the dark. He said it was (at the time) haunting and devastating.

During the multiple choruses of Let the Sun Shine In finale, the actors invited the audience to dance on stage with the band. As the audience crams the stage to dance, the actors leave one by one, until there is no one left but the audience and the band. That was how it ended.

Updated On: 10/29/04 at 05:55 PM

[insomniak]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 6:03pm

Wow. Thank you all very, very much.

I love how the finale sounds, The Flesh Failures is one of my favorite songs. It's haunting and it stays with you in a way that few songs do.

I do have the remastered OBCR, but not the two-disk one. I don't have the money, unfourtunatly.

[Lynnespock2]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 6:12pm

I saw it for the first anniversary of my marriage. We were sitting next to two men from the midwest, salesmen or something and when the end of the first act came, they had had enough and went storming out of the theater. We were hysterical about that during intermission.

It was a wonderful show, and an anthem for the people of my generation.

Us "old" people :)

[insomniak]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 6:30pm

Thanks, Lynne

Can you tell me more?

[Carl Magnum]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 6:33pm

Couple of notes on this.

My mother saw the original cast in Toronto and when Berger did "Donna" He swang in on a rope and proceded to take the song into the audience where he would straddle audience member's, mostly women and old, by standing on the arm rests of their chairs in nothing but a loincloth.

Berger doesn't have the hots for Mick, Woof does.

Also, the cast used to drop acid at the places call so that during the "trip" sequence they were peaking. And alot of the orignal chorus was picked up by the directors in Washington Sqaure park simply by asking, "hey you wanna be in a show" This gave it legitamacy by having acctual flower children onstage. The show lost this later on when cast members were replaced by actors playing flower children and not people off the street recreating their lives.

[KarenNYC]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 9:23pm

You're welcome, Mary_Ethel. It's a great read.

I saw a small production of Hair several years ago and the finale went about the same way as well. My friends and I got pulled up to the stage as well, but if I recall correctly, the cast members didn't exit the stage; they just danced with the audience until the end.

Re: the film. I really didn't like how they changed the ending and had the switcheroo happen with Berger and Claude. I don't know what making that change was supposed to accomplish.

[Mamie]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 9:28pm

I saw the original on B'way. I was 18 and my best friend and I went to NY at Christmas just to see this show. (We told the folks we were going for Christmas shopping. Of course we never bought anything.)

It was overcast all day on the day of the show. We spent a lot of time in Greenwich Village that day and it looked like it was going to rain or snow the whole day. I remember standing outside the Biltmore that night looking for a deserving soul to give our extra ticket to. (One of our party couldn't come at the last minute.) I remember this young man acting like he'd died and gone to heaven when we gave him the ticket!

The show was incredible. I sometimes think you had to be 18 then to get the full impact. Our friends were going off to war and not coming back, all the blacks I knew hated and/or distrusted all whites. All the whites I knew were terrified of the blacks. Cops worked for 'the man' and HE was the government. It was a scary time. "Hair" told us that we weren't alone in feeling that scared. There were a whole lot of people out there who were just as scared as us and while we were in that theatre we could laugh and sing and mock them all.

The best memory I have is of the ending. They did invite the audience up on the stage and everyone danced and sang "Let the Sunshine In". While the music played and everyone danced, fake snow was falling from above. Then the real treat came. We went outside and the snow was really falling! HUGE flakes were floating down and filling the air. Despite the snow (or because of it) the temp was warmer than it had been during the day. As people left the theatre they joined up in groups, arm in arm, and continued the singing. It was absolutely FANTASTIC. I'll never forget it.

[Chloe]

Posted: 10/30/04 at 12:08am

Wow, Mamie, that's an incredible story.

[insomniak]

Posted: 10/30/04 at 12:14am

Thank you, Mamie.

This makes me wonder if there ever could be another HAIR- shows like Rent are said to be the Hair for their generations, but how do they really compare? Opinions?

[alterego]

Posted: 10/30/04 at 12:40am

I have a book that I picked up at a secondhand book sale by original cast member Lorrie Davis called Letting Down My Hair. Which takes you from auditions to the opening night and beyond. I also have the Off Broadway Cast Album (1967)from the NY Skakespeare Festival production.

One of the original cast members in the photo posted here, Natalie Mosco both appeared in and choreographed the Melbourne production around 1969. She stayed for a number of years and appeared in many shows here including Grease, Pippin, Jesus Christ Superstar, Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Magic Show. On my first trip to NY I saw The Magic Show and playing the role she had played here was Natalie Mosco. I went backstage and saw her after the show, she was charming considering she had never met me before. Ah pleasant memories!

[Sunfish]

Posted: 10/30/04 at 2:51am

>>>And by the way, the lead character decides NOT to burn his draft card. Instead, he gets a crew cut and joins the Army.<<<

He doesn't join, he is drafted. With catastrophic consequences. That's the whole point.

I just saw a production of HAIR and it sounds like it was very faithful to the original. I'm pretty sure the actors weren't dropping acid at call though. )

[Princeton78]

Posted: 10/30/04 at 2:09pm

Marquise...
Where did you get those great pictures from? I especially love the one of the Biltmore Marquee. I really am obsessed with pictures of marquees. New and old ones. For instance, I would love to have seen the original marquee for something like "Cabaret" in the 60's or "Bye Bye Birdie" or "Godspell" at the Promenade.

Posted: 10/30/04 at 5:21pm

I fell in love with the soundtrack from HAIR and then got the DVD for my birthday like 2 years ago... completely different which shocked me... but, for those who are fans of the film, I got to work with Annie Golden over the summer... definately a highlight of my theatrical life... And she's just as sweet and tough as she seems. :)