[Mb-hair] HAiR Alert - Grant High School

[John Zuehlke]

Hi tribe.

Just found out that HAiR is being performed at my local high school for 
three days only!

Ulysses S. Grant High School

13000 Oxnard Boulevard

Van Nuys, California

The school is located in the North-East corner of the Los Angeles Valley 
(Community) College campus area, and the auditorium/multi-purpose room is 
accessible from the east side of the campus from a small service driveway 
that is located just west of-, and parallel to-, Coldwater Canyon Boulevard. 
The service drive may be entered from Oxnard Boulevard.

Opened Friday, April 28, 2006 at 7pm

Remaining performances:

Saturday, April 29, 2006 at 3pm and 7pm

Sunday, April 30, 2006 at 3pm and 7pm

All performances are $5.00, and tickets may be purchased at the auditorium 
door.

Hebe and I ran out to the opening performance, and we really enjoyed 
ourselves. Since this event is mostly unpublicized (I only found out about 
it - on the day of its opening - from a notice in a small, directly-mailed, 
community newsletter) I believe that the audience consisted mostly of the 
parents and siblings of the tribe and the tribe's fellow students. This made 
for a much younger audience than I usually see at HAiR shows.

The production is directed by a STUDENT (who also played Jeanie) and was 
backed by an excellent band - or should I say, small orchestra since there 
were 8 members and the only synthesizer to be seen was at the sound mixing 
table!

The school's (sole?) drama teacher delivered a cautionary disclaimer before 
the start of the show, explaining that, because it was a high-school troop, 
the nude scene(s) had been cut along with a lot of the other sensitive 
material. He did announce that it still contained very controversial 
material that would surely shock and offend members of the audience, but 
that any further cuts would have rendered the show meaningless. He announced 
that there would be a discussion forum following the performance to try to 
address audience concerns with such material being presented in a high 
school.

With these caveats presented, the show began.

The first thing that I noticed was the singing. Although several of the 
soloists had some vocal difficulties with the score's demands (a problem 
exacerbated by major problems with the sound-reinforcement equipment), the 
ensemble songs were performed wonderfully, with excellent feeling, tonality, 
and extremely crisp diction. The 16 year old black girl who played Chrissy 
delivered a "Frank Mills" that ranks among the best renditions that I have 
heard (plus she could act!). Despite obvious opening-night jitters and some 
quite slow moments caused by forgotten cues and a scene blocking that had 
most of the cast running off stage only to have to run back on to deliver 
their lines, the show really was HAiR.

The youthful audience appeared to have little problem understanding the show 
even though it had been cut into a two hour long one-act by eliminating 
almost all of the script's text! They sang almost all of the songs, cutting, 
I believe, only "Hippie Life", "Abie Baby", "The Bed", and "Don't Put It 
Down" and they appeared not to have altered/softened any lyrics like they 
did in the recent Orange County college production. Incidentally, "Don't Put 
It Down" was listed to be performed on the program. The cutting of the whole 
Abraham Lincoln and following scenes did disappoint me as I was especially 
waiting to see how The Ulysses S. Grant number would go over in a school 
named after him.

The discussion after the show was quite interesting. Even with multiple 
attempts to prod the audience into voicing their offence at the material 
(even the tribe tried to evoke some response) no one said anything negative! 
I know that this was not quite the case, since there was a major gasp from 
the audience followed by a couple of audience members calling out ("Bye, 
bye" and "You're Outta' Here". if I recall correctly) when Berger slapped 
Sheila's face. I have never heard such a loud gasp, let alone any vocal 
catcall, from an audience ever before. Curiously, the face slap was 
performed so gently it could even have been mistaken for a caress! 
Interesting how audience sensibilities have changed over the years!