Hair: Differences between film and stage show- Page 2

[KingChuck]

Posted: 9/28/10 at 10:33am

I grew up listening to the Broadway cast recording (it came out when I was 12) I saw a live touring version in 1976 or so and it really blew my mind that all of these seemingly unrelated songs could actually fit together into a plot. I saw the film in 1979 after I had enlisted in the army and promptly let it fade from my memory.

The stage version was about Claude, who believes in God, and apparently his country, because he can't bring himself to burn his draft card. “What a Piece of Work is Man”, from Hamlet, alludes to the deadly potential of the decision that he had to make: be the responsible adult, or stay with his Peter Pan (I won't grow up) friends. Unlike Shakespeare's play, where Hamlet's desire for justice will lead to his own end, Hair's Claude is searching for God's intention for his life in “Where Do I Go?”.

The hippies came from the generation AFTER the greatest generation. They grew up in the shadow of their parents who had defeated (arguably) the greatest evil of all time. They created a “Catcher In The Rye” environment where fighting social injustice meant doing a lot of drugs and acting irresponsibly. “Easy to be Hard” points out how the hippies say that they want to improve the world, yet 'easily' do it harm instead.

I saw the film version again recently, and remember again why I chose to forget it. In the effort to “improve” the a plot, Hollywood made it a cop-out, where karma placed an unlikeable character in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Broadway authors gave the hero, Claude, free will to make his own decision and create his own place in history.

[Jon]

Posted: 9/28/10 at 11:55am

Ragni and Rado didn't like Forman's version of HAIR.

Ken Kesey didn't like Forman's verion of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

Peter Shaffer wrote his own screenplay adaptation for "Amadeus", so we can assume he was OK with Forman's film.

What did E. L. Doctorow think of Forman's "Ragtime" movie?