faux HAIR: Gavin Creel's wig

folks complained about the wig big time when Groff was wearing it as well. It seems to be "better" than his....but I haven't seen it at the Hirschfeld yet. (Another torturous week of waiting.)

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What do you mean "bald" ensemble members? I did notice that in the promo shots much of the male ensemble had clipped chests and shaved treasure trails and I thought wasn't that the era of things growing wild and free. Hmmm....

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Are shorter wigs really all that bad? I'd rather they have him keep his long hair for the majority of the show and then wear a short hair wig at the end.

Okay, we'll change this to "wig."

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Are we talking girls or guys? Or both?

Yeah, Hilton Als pretty much hated the whole thing, mostly the epiction of blacks and women. To me, the women are very much pre-feminist accessories, groupies to narcissistic male characters in the tribes. It's sort of silly to quibble, however -- they are historically accurate because they were written at a moment when counter culture explored sexuality but still saw the male as the center of the universe. Hell, listen to the lyrics of the title song. It's about men having long hair. "...the male plummage..." nails it, in another song.

But back to the wig -- the wig Creel wears is asexual, does nothing to make him more expressively virile. Berger, the 32 year old high school student in this production (!) has the compelling natural hair, and matching 'tude about it. Creel has to shake his bewigged tendrils, limp and stringy, in the face of many people, and the lank locks are not persuasively threatening or even thick enough to suggest the hippie subcultural aversion to grooming.

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Yes there is nudity in the show both male and female

In response to the question about short hair wigs vs. long haired wigs: yes, it would be much harder to make a short haired wig on a guy look good, especially when you wouldn't have time to properly pin curl and tuck up his hair if it was naturally long.

And the hippies and Brazilians comment brought a huge smile to my face. You would think that these actors would be a little more committed to recreating the times and forgo the trips to the bikini waxers.

I'm MORE suprised that production team wouldn't demand it.

Its not a big deal, but it does take you out of the moment...for a moment.

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personally it didn't take me out of the moment. the first 3 times i saw it i didn't notice it at all. the last time tho i did because of all of the discussions of it on here.

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By the way, the photo of Swenson and Creel at this very site, currently on display, makes the wig look much more effective than it does during performance. Maybe it's been poorly maintained. It just looks very JOSEPH/DREAMCOAT-ish. In other words, expensive, but not really evocative. What if Creel had just grown his? I recall seeing a black Berger in the old days -- HAIR embraced non-traditional casting in ways CHORUS LINE did not until the revival. Needless to say, he didn't have long locks. (Didn't Andre de Shields move into the role of Berger? I think I actually saw him in the Chicago/Blackstone Theater sit-down, circal 1971.)

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Gavin Creel's wig looks more realistic than the one James Rado seems to be wearing these days!