HAIR Sequel in the Works

[suzycat]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 1:13am

Currently titled Billy Earth, the musical begins where Hair ended, at the death of the central character Claude (James Rado played Claude in the original Broadway run). The 38-song proposal for Billy Earth, according to the gossip columnist, is "already in the hands of a Broadway producer."

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Is Hair Sequel in the Works? Updated On: 10/28/06 at 01:13 AM

[SirLiir]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 2:16am

Wasn't Dude a spiritual successor to Hair and failed miserably?

[jwsel]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 2:16am

Why am I picturing that the sequel will have the characters grow up, go through the disco era, become yuppies who spend their days trading stocks, and raise children that they can't understand and think are pampered and spoiled? Somehow, I don't think a sequel will have the cultural resonance that Hair had. Part of its success was that it brought the counterculture to Broadway at the time the counterculture still existed. Doing a sequel nearly 40 years later can't come close to accomplishing what the original did.

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 2:20am

Not to mention musical sequels never work

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 2:25am

^^ I was about to say the same thing.

[Ebonic_Singer]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 4:42am

Yes, I vaguely remember hearing something about a sequel that already came to be, then proceeded to crash and burn.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 4:54am

By now, any sequel to Hair should be called "Toupee."

[Fiction Writer]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 5:05am

HAHA.
Wasn't there a thread that covered the same thing?
RENT sequel is Mortgage, etc?

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 5:19am

There was an actual HAIR sequel in the early 70s. Meat Loaf played the role of Buddha (one of the characters). I think it got good reviews but was a flop anyway.. (for some reason). That show was called "Rainbow" the Adventures of Claude in Rainbowland. "Billy Earth" is, apparently, a revised version of "Rainbow" (when Meat sang one of the songs at an audition for a show called "Souvenirs", little did he know the guy he was auditioning to would write the songs for their album that is now one of the most successful Cds of all time! So there's some interesting trivia for you....)

Also, "Dude" and "Via Galactica" were such tremendous flops that I'm surprised anyone would ever revive them. I've heard all sorts of ghastly stories about both of them (a friend told me the original name for "Via..." was "Up!" Of course it looked insulting when you read the name and saw: "Up!" with Uris underneath. Heheh, meaning the Uris Theater of course...

They should have kept it that way. Perhaps it would have run a little longer out of sheer curiosity? Who knows...

But, in general, musical sequels never work. "Bring Back Birdie," ghastly, "Annie 2," is it the same as "Annie Warbucks"? Ghastly as well, "The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public," Jesus Christ! I only learnt of this recently, not to mention Andrew Lloyd Webber's old plans to write a sequel to PHANTOM that would take place in Manhattan. Still, I really like the song that he wrote for that, and thought it never had the same passion when re-cycled into Beautiful Game. But I would take "Beautiful Game" over a Phantom sequel ANY day of the week.

Then you have Richard O'Brien's old plans of doing a Rocky Horror stage-show sequel. This is either based on an old concept that became the movie "Shock Treatment" or the legendary, un-filmed FINAL INSTALLMENT of the ROCKY HORROR trilogy "Revenge Of The Old Queen," in which Riff & Magenta return to the moon-drenched shores of Transexual Transylvania, to face the wrath of the Queen, Frank-n-Furter's mother. The screenplay's online, and the lyrics look reeaal interesting. Pity we couldn't hear the music

The only sequels I think that would work are: if you deliberately planned to write one, or you attempted a great trilogy like "Ring Cycle". THAT would be interesting

[Junior]

Posted: 10/29/06 at 1:10pm

ewww. No. This should NOT be happening. I love Hair AS IS, and it should just be left alone. As people have already said, MUSICAL SEQUELS DON"T WORK. And even if they did, Hair is (just a bit) dated, and a sequel wouldn't evoke the same feelings in people as the original did, because today's audiences don't have as personal a relationship with the subject matter of Hair as its original audiences did. Bad idea. BAD IDEA.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 10/29/06 at 1:30pm

Why mess with it?

[SweeneyPhanatic]

Posted: 10/29/06 at 1:33pm

Why this is a bad idea in two simple words: "Funny Lady."

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 10/29/06 at 1:35pm

Or "Annie Warbucks"

or three words - the mother of wretched ideas: "Bring Back Birdie."

Personally, I say let them bring on a sequel to HAIR. We need a nice flop to be in the history books.

[SDav 10495]

Posted: 10/29/06 at 4:49pm

As it is, there are about ten thousand reasons why this idea is crap simply because of the nature of Hair, to say nothing of how awful musical sequels traditionally are. I don't see how a sequel could contribute any more to the legacy of the original than a cheesy cover of "Aquarius" does--it would only cheapen the show. And for the love of God, it's not even the right millennium anymore.

I admit I'm intersted to see what the Rado brothers have come up with, but I doubt it's anything that should ever come to fruition. A concept album would be nice, but a real production would just be bad, bad, bad.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 11:06am

This is true pathos, bordering on pathology!

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 11:30am

"As people have already said, MUSICAL SEQUELS DON"T WORK."

Except for Falsettos.