rOcKS @ 'Hair' — Page 7

I'm going tomorrow night and can't wait! I saw the original two times during the first two months of the original Broadway run and loved every second of it. Now, this from a traditionalist (Guys and Dolls, King and I, Annie Get Your Gun, etc., etc.) and I wasn't prepared for the sheer energy of the show. It opened up a new vista that had been screeming at me for years, but I just closed my ears and eyes and continued to live in the world of The King and I. Not that I don't still love The King and I, but Hair made me realize that there was still so much out there that I'd been ignoring. Since the commments have generally been so favorable, I'm fully prepared to get in my time machine and relive one of my happiest afternoons in the theatre -- ever!!!!!

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I saw today's matinee.

I was probably a little more underwhelmed by the show than everyone else, but it was still great. It wasn't incredible, but it was pretty great.

Will Swenson, however, WAS incredible. He stole the show from everyone else (especially in the opening monologue, when he was trying to get change from a 5-year old).

Gavin Creel... I don't know. I think he did the best he could with a part that's a little too earnest for its own good. Mind you, his monologue after the Act II trip was wonderful, so sad and dramatic.

Everyone else was great, especially when they interacted with the audience.

The problems I have with the show were mostly because of a twenty-minute Act I sag, and an Act II that wasn't as dramatic as it could have been. And while it's great to see the band on-stage and rocking out, the orchestrations tended to make most of the songs sound the same (this was especially noticeable during, unfortunately, LET THE SUNSHINE IN).

Overall, it was great, the opening ("Aquarius") even more so. Go see it.

PS. It was great to see Diane Paulus dancing on stage with everyone else during the Finale.

PPS. The show's final image is the most fitting, dramatic final image I could never have thought of.

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Updated On: 3/14/09 at 08:32 PM

Saw it last night and once again had the time of my life. WHERE does Will Swenson get the energy to keep that performance going? He was fantastic -- I'd seen him in Rock of Ages and liked him then, but nothing prepared me for this. He is NON-STOP the entire show!!!!!!! And the "be-in" at the end of the show was to die for -- the audience was beside itself.

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Ed, I would be interested in hearing your take on the comparison between the original run and it's present incarnation.

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