[Mb-hair] FW: Variety.com - Hair

[Barbara Siomos]

Amen..... and I agree Jonathon.   :-)

peace,
barbara


-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathon Johnson
Sent: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 07:15:09 -0700
To: mb-hair at islandlists.com
Subject: Re: [Mb-hair] FW: Variety.com - Hair

"If it ain't broken - don't fix it." 
   
  Sorry folks, but no one can convince me that "Hair" needs to be rewritten or updated.
  Not even Jim Rado who I love and admire deeply. Just go back to the Tom O'Horgan
  Broadway version (which WAS the HIT), and the people will get it. Do not stray too far 
  from the playing field or you'll get lost in the tall grass.
   
  Just an opinion of an old tribe member who is set in his ways ;)
   
  Peace, Love and Blessings ~ Jonathon

Michael Butler <michael at michaelbutler.com> wrote:
  

Posted: Thurs., Mar. 30, 2006, 8:00pm PT

Hair

(Bluma Appel Theater, Toronto; 876 Seats; C$89 $77 top)

A CanStage and Dancap Private Equity presentation of a musical in two
acts with music by Galt MacDermot, book by Gerome Ragni and James Rado.
Directed by Robert A. Prior. Musical director, Steve Hunter.
Choreographer, Stephen Hues.

Grasshopper, Margaret Mead, Scarlett O'Hara - Matthew Boden
Hud, Sergeant - Matthew Brown
Berger, General Grant - Craig Burnatowski
Sheila - Karen Burthwright
Crissy, Monk - Kimmy Choi
Stroodel, Dad, Hubert Mead - Kevin Dennis
Brain, Rock Band Soloist - Gerrard Everard
Justice - Ryan Field
Dionne, Lincoln - Alana Hibbert
Apache - Bryan Hindle
Woof - Andrew Kushnir
Claude - Jamie McKnight
Pumpkin, Mom - Adrienne Merrell
Thistle - David Mongar
Karisma - Katrina Reynolds
Karma, The God Aquarius, Monk - Julius Sermonia
Lala - Valerie Stanois
Hotdog, Principal, Clark Gable,
Uncle Sam - Zachary Stevenson
Moonchild, Aquarius Soloist - Sheena Turcotte
Jeanie - Cleopatra Williams
Angela - Naomi Zara


_____ 

By RICHARD OUZOUNIAN

_____ 

Quick, get the Rogaine. The new production of "Hair" now on view in
Toronto supposedly boasts a series of enriching rewrites by author James
Rado. But rather than help the material, they make the iconic
flower-power, antiwar musical seem thinner than ever. A lot of the
blame, however, must be laid at the feet of director Robert A. Prior,
choreographer Stephen Hues and a decidedly inferior cast.

Prior is the founder of L.A.'s Fabulous Monsters Performance Group, and
Hues has collaborated with him on numerous occasions. They have a
reputation for doing edgy, innovative productions, which is probably why
Rado demanded that CanStage import the American duo for this production.

But something has gone horribly wrong along the way: The brightly
colored, insipidly staged mess being performed at the Bluma Appel
Theater would be more at home in a theme park than at Canada's largest
regional theater.

It was their rough-hewn charm and political intensity that made the
original productions of "Hair" work. The people who created, produced
and performed the early versions of the show were united in their anger
over the war in Vietnam. And so, despite an initially breezy air, some
fetching tunes from Galt MacDermot and the inventive staging of Tom
O'Horgan, the musical showed its rage in act two, which is largely a
drug-fueled fantasy of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

This is territory artists can still revisit with sincerity and passion,
as Twyla Tharp proved in "Movin' Out."

But Prior and company have opted instead for Peter Max-colored designs
and costumes that look like they stepped out of an episode of
"Laugh-In." No one actually comes out and says, "Sock it to me!," but
you wouldn't be surprised if they did.

Yes, there's a nude scene at the end of act one, but where it used to be
a personal statement for the cast, tied into their reaction to Claude's
moving "Where Do I Go?," it now features the whole cast in what looks
like a merely egregious way to bring down the curtain.

When it was announced that Rado was working on rewrites of the script,
some people assumed he might be honing the political message to make it
more relevant to today. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Instead, he has expanded the book scenes in which Claude, Berger and
Sheila work out the details of their not-quite-menage a trois. Maybe the
material has personal resonance for Rado (the show supposedly mirrors
his offstage relationship with co-author and co-star Ragni), but the
cliched dialogue further drains the show's political intensity.

In a city known for a deep talent pool of young musical theater
performers, Prior and Hues have largely contented themselves with
fishing in the shallow end. Most of the company doesn't sing well, take
the stage with confidence or seem to have any idea what they're doing.