Starshines Unite! The official HAIR love thread... — Page 62

i don't think he's really criticizing us. just showing us what else was going on during that time. we look at the show and see peace and love and happy go lucky, but there was another side to the counterculture.

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And it's subtly included in the show. Very consciously. Which is why this production has not been dismissed as "a period piece" hopelessly out of date. Sure, it's great for the recoupment and all that that most people who are obsessive fans of the show just want to go on and on and on about audience interaction and seeing it again and again. It's just a shame that people overlook a really important aspect of what makes this production exceptional.

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And to be fair, I was aware of Crissy's thing BECAUSE of what Brantley had written in his review. I might not have been conscious of it immediately if he hadn't pointed it out.

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I had come across a few songs from HAIR 3 years ago (Aquarius, Sodomy, and Hashish). At the time, I found HAIR to be extremely disrespectful and disgusting. I was not interested in a show about a bunch of lazy hippies who only wanted to sit around and do drugs and have sex. When the central park production came around, I learned a little more about HAIR and I became familiar with the songs I Got Life, Easy to be Hard, and Let the Sunshine in. It was at that point that I started to learn that this piece was about more than just sitting around and refusing to be responsible, but I still wasn't all ga-ga over it. I felt that even though they tried to do a couple of good things, they were still a bunch of dirty hippies. The Broadway production came about and when I saw how people were responding to this show, I knew there was something that I didn't see...something special. For some strange reason, I decided to buy the cast recording.

I listened to it from start to finish, Aquarius to Let The Sunshine in. I finally realized what the hype was all about. In this score, I saw a group of people who were willing to fight for what the believed in at all costs. I STILL knew that many things were going too far, and many of the things they were promoting were not right. This show taught me to respect a group of people that attempted to do very serious things in a naive way. Even if it was naive at points...they tried, and maybe we should learn a thing or two from them. People are well aware that not ALL hippies are as glamorous as the ones shown in HAIR, and if you don't know that going in...that is not the creative team's problem.

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I understand the anger. But some people in Aquarius are smiling the whole time.

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Namo, will you go to see Hair with me?

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In my opinion, you can't judge the people who have only seen the show once. They are taking it in for the first time and may not pick up on every single little detail that went into the production after only seeing it once. Most people aren't going to pick up on the things you are saying. I've seen the show a couple times and I am just learning about all the details in the directing for this revival.

And I don't see the show just for the cast interaction. I see it for the beauty and message that the show portrays. People can be fans of shows and still accept the show for what it is.

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Aquarius is the ideal. Many were smiling looking at the ideal. Just as many who go to an ashram will smile in the presence of a guru. It does not mean there isn't anger or angst also present.
I found myself feeling quite sad for the Tribe by the end of the show, not solely for Claude's end but for their Naiveté. We know Berger won't stay high his entire life (or maybe he will right up until he OD's). Time marches on and ideals change and tarnish. I felt perhaps in later years Sheila would end up at the Palladium at a carding party or busy investing in real estate. You know at least one of them will wind up working for Halliburton!

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Sorry if I confused anyone (I think my post was horrendously written. I struggle to get my point across on this forum sometimes, especially when I'm partaking in a deep conversation such as this one).

The point I was trying to make is that even though I disagree with a lot the things this fictional tribe did, I learned that they tried to do many admirable, beautiful things. Gavin Creel put it in perfect words. He once said that hippies were viewed as being very un-American people, but by seeing this piece...they learn how patriotic they were. That's one of the many things I find so special about this show. Those who go in expecting to be disgusted by a display of laziness and promiscuity end up seeing the big picture. In some ways they were lazy, and they were extremely promiscuous (the era portrayed in HAIR was the cause for many sexually transmitted diseases that we have today)...but they were also trying their best to 'fight for their country' in the naive way that they thought was 'the' way. People only see hippies as dirty, promiscuous, lazy, junkies; but this show teaches them of all the good things that they attempted to do. It's also not fair for me to say 'I know the message of Hair'...because I haven't even seen it. I've listened to the cast recording (countless times) and read the full plot summary on wikipedia. I can't official 'get' it until I see it. My point is, I first saw disgusting hippies...and I now see a group of people who at least TRIED to make a positive impact on their country. Are they still dirty hippies, absolutely...but there's more to them than just that.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0DoYg1P8gw

I've made fun of this thread previously because of my disappointment that this production hasn't inspired deeper discussions than the norm here.

And Jazz, Im sorry but it really gets me pissed when you toss off words like "promiscuous" as if that's inherently a bad thing. And just so we're clear, the Hair era didn't "cause" sexually transmitted diseases. Viruses and bacteria cause those. Sexually transmitted pathogens have always existed.

Given the incredible baggage you have with so much of the Hair material, maybe it isn't the show for you.

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Sexual freedom is very much a central issue with HAIR. Non judgmental sex, expressing freedom, love and life itself. It was one of the factors that made it so shocking in 1967. Seems, if it is still that shocking today, we haven't come that far.

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