You’ll be happy to hear that the kids are all right. Quite a bit more than all right. Having moved indoors to Broadway from the Delacorte Theater in Central Park — where last summer they lighted up the night skies, howled at the moon and had ticket seekers lining up at dawn — the young cast members of Diane Paulus’s thrilling revival of “Hair” show no signs of becoming domesticated. On the contrary, they’re tearing down the house in the production that opened on Tuesday night at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. And any theatergoer with a pulse will find it hard to resist their invitation to join the demolition crew. This emotionally rich revival of “The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical” from 1967 delivers what Broadway otherwise hasn’t felt this season: the intense, unadulterated joy and anguish of that bi-polar state called youth.
Yes, I know there was a musical called “13,” about being exactly that age, that opened last fall, and that a lyrical revival of “West Side Story” is now playing to packed houses only a few blocks away. But what distinguishes “Hair” from other recent shows about being young is the illusion it sustains of rawness and immediacy, an un-self-conscious sense of the most self-conscious chapter in a person’s life.
Notice I did say “illusion.” Ms. Paulus and her creative team have worked hard at their seamless spontaneity. Karole Armitage’s happy hippie choreography, with its group gropes and mass writhing, looks as if it’s being invented on the spot. But there’s intelligent form within the seeming formlessness. And the whole production has been shaped in ways that find symmetry — and complexity — in a show that people tend to remember as a feel-good free-for-all.
“Hair” has a history of defying expectations. Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot’s portrait of living low and staying high in the East Village was, by all accounts, a mess up to the day it opened for previews at the Public Theater in 1967, with a last-minute switch of directors and several wholesale restagings. It was not an obvious candidate for the Broadway transfer it made the following year (with a new director, Tom O’Horgan, and a streamlined book). But of course it ran and ran, for 1,750 performances, and became the last original Broadway musical to introduce more than a couple of Top 40 hits.
Its latest resurrection, however, may be the most surprising of all. “The show is the first Broadway musical in some time to have the authentic voice of today rather than the day before yesterday,” wrote Clive Barnes in The New York Times when “Hair” opened in 1968. “Authentic voices of today” tend to grow cracked and quaint with age. A 1977 revival, which ran for 43 performances, suggested that “Hair” was strictly a show for its time, not for the ages.
That there’s nothing of the museum — or, worse, of the vintage jukebox — about Ms. Paulus’s production isn’t because she’s reinterpreted or even reframed it. She does what Bartlett Sher did for “South Pacific” last year, finding depths of character and feeling in what most people dismissed as dried corn. It’s not so much what Ms. Paulus brings to “Hair”; it’s what she brings out of it, vital elements that were always waiting to be rediscovered.
Most important, she clearly knew early that “Hair” isn’t just a celebration of the counterculture it depicts. The young folks here who sleep, trip and protest together may spout the philosophy of “peace, love, freedom, happiness.” But, hey, they’re all mostly in the waning days of their adolescence, a time when moods swing wide and adulthood looms as a suffocating shadow.
The kids of “Hair” are cuddly, sweet, madcap and ecstatic. They’re also angry, hostile, confused and scared as hell — and not just of the Vietnam War, which threatens to devour the male members of their tribe. They’re frightened of how the future is going to change them and of not knowing what comes next. Acting out the lives of the adults they disdain (a charade at which Andrew Kober, Theo Stockman and Megan Lawrence are particularly expert) becomes a cathartic ritual.
Ms. Paulus vividly establishes the show’s essential dichotomy in the first number, when she brings two performers to center stage. On the one hand, there’s Dionne (Sasha Allen), who leads the anthemic “Age of Aquarius” with soaring spirits and unimpeachable authority; on the other, standing to Dionne’s right, there’s Crissy (Allison Case), with a scrunched-up face and contorted posture that read like a plea for help, shelter and attention.
They all want attention, of course. Who doesn’t at that age? At least except when you’re longing to be invisible, like Claude (Gavin Creel), a young man who’s about to be drafted, who leads the show’s most stirring songs of affirmation (“I Got Life”) and helplessness (“Where Do I Go”).
Though a less flashy and show-offy presence than his best friend, Berger (Will Swenson), Claude is the divided soul of “Hair.” At the Delacorte, Jonathan Groff, with his outsider’s wistfulness, seemed such a natural in the part that I was sure that the Broadway “Hair” would suffer from his absence. But the pure-voiced Mr. Creel, late of “Mary Poppins,” scruffs up real nice. That he seems more a part of the gang than Mr. Groff did somehow makes this Claude come across as more of a bellwether of the group, the one who’s most in touch with the ambivalence they’re all feeling.
Mr. Creel does not dominate the show; nor does the terrific Mr. Swenson, who finds an edge of cruelty and desperation in the grandstanding Berger; nor does Caissie Levy (an excellent new addition to the cast) as the earnest politico Sheila, the woman both men sort of love.
Every single ensemble member emerges as an individual, each with specific issues and knotty histories that no drug or slogan can resolve. (Even their nudity, and how they flaunt it, in the first-act finale, further defines them.)
After the show I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen to Bryce Ryness’s sexually inchoate Woof; Ms. Case’s hopeful, fretful Crissy; Darius Nichols’s defiant, suspicious Hud; Kacie Sheik’s pregnant, cheerily adrift Jeanie; or Ms. Allen’s taunting, sensually assured Dionne. I could go on through the entire cast list.
Mr. MacDermot’s music, which always had more pop than acid, holds up beautifully, given infectious life by the onstage band and the flavorfully blended voices of the cast. Scott Pask’s exposed-wall set is the perfect playground for a world in which imagination (aided by chemical substances) provides the décor.
But of course no stage can contain the hormone-stoked exuberance of those who inhabit it, whether they’re yipping, unzipping or tripping, both merrily and scarily. Know that you may find yourself in intimate contact with various dancing, cajoling tribe members. They may give you daisies or leaflets. They may even ask you to embrace them. Not that you haven’t already.
HAIR
The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical
Book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado; music by Galt MacDermot; directed by Diane Paulus; choreography by Karole Armitage; sets by Scott Pask; costumes by Michael McDonald; lighting by Kevin Adams; sound by Acme Sound Partners; orchestrations by Mr. MacDermot; music director, Nadia DiGiallonardo; music coordinator, Seymour Red Press; wig design by Gerard Kelly; associate producers, Jenny Gersten, Arielle Tepper Madover, Rebecca Gold/Debbie Bisno, Christopher Hart, Apples and Oranges, Tony and Ruthe Ponturo and Joseph Traina. Presented by the Public Theater, Oskar Eustis, artistic director; and Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Gary Goddard Entertainment, Kathleen K. Johnson, Nederlander Productions, Fran Kirmser Productions/Jed Bernstein, Marc Frankel, Broadway Across America, Barbara Manocherian/Wencarlar Productions, J K Productions/Terry Schnuck, Andy Sandberg, Jam Theatricals, Weinstein Company/Norton Herrick, Jujamcyn Theaters; Joey Parnes, executive producer; by special arrangement with Elizabeth Ireland McCann. At the Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th Street, Clinton; (212) 239-6200. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes.
WITH: Sasha Allen (Dionne), Allison Case (Crissy), Gavin Creel (Claude), Andrew Kober (Dad/Margaret Mead), Megan Lawrence (Mother/Buddahdalirama), Caissie Levy (Sheila), Darius Nichols (Hud), Bryce Ryness (Woof), Saycon Sengbloh (Abraham Lincoln), Kacie Sheik (Jeanie), Theo Stockman (Hubert) and Will Swenson (Berger).
Posts: 2803 | Location: New York, New York | Registered: August 08, 2003
With its alfresco setting and the penetrating echoes of its countercultural themes during an election year in which political disenchantment became endemic, the Public Theater's revival of "Hair" last summer in Central Park was a unique experience. So shifting it indoors could only dim the thrill, right? Wrong. The enhanced production now at the Al Hirschfeld is sharper, fuller and even more emotionally charged. Director Diane Paulus and her prodigiously talented cast connect with the material in ways that cut right to the 1967 rock musical's heart, generating tremendous energy that radiates to the rafters.
Much credit goes to the design team's skill at reconceptualizing the show for a proscenium theater. Suggesting a public space commandeered by hippie occupation, Scott Pask has littered the stage with rugs and splashed sunbeams and stars across a back wall punctuated by windows, doors, walkways and a tangle of stairs. This allows the hyperactive cast to race around at all levels, including aisles, boxes, mezzanine and even street exits.
In a show about community, it's an astute move to erase the barriers between performers and public, inviting the audience to share directly in both the hedonistic conjuring of peace-love-freedom-happiness and the sorrowful disillusionment that follows. What could have been mere nostalgia instead becomes a full-immersion happening.
The 12-piece band plays composer Galt MacDermot's period-authentic orchestrations atop a 1950s truck, and a pristine sound mix makes the show as kick-ass loud as it should be, while allowing every one of Gerome Ragni and James Rado's trippy lyrics and inventory-style poetic riffs to be heard. The most dazzling new contribution is visual magician Kevin Adams' lighting, alive with throbbing colors that truly pop and psychotropic effects that make the walls, floor and ceiling swim.
Yet despite all the creative and financial resources applied, there's no trace of deadening slickness here. The show still has the loose vitality of urgent, spontaneous expression, thanks to a vibrant ensemble that understands the guiding principle of deep-rooted group harmony while still asserting distinctive personalities.
The production's veterans have honed their characterizations into second skins: Will Swenson's Berger is a fiercely charismatic ringmaster, his cheeky audience interaction banishing spectator detachment from the start. Darius Nichols' Hud has a sexy strut and deadpan insouciance; Bryce Ryness' Mick Jagger-loving Woof drolly balances swagger and sweetness; Allison Case's Crissy beams raw vulnerability and idealism; and Kacie Sheik's pregnant Jeanie nails the flaky comedy and the ache of unrequited love.
Among newcomers, Gavin Creel's assured singing and unforced charm are a fine fit for the doomed Claude, and he establishes a warm bond with Swenson's Berger, the pair of them firing up the rousing title song. Creel brings rebellious self-affirmation to "I Got Life," darkens the tone via the confused questioning of "Where Do I Go," and amplifies the bitter poignancy of "The Flesh Failures."
Also a strong addition, Caissie Levy's ballsy Sheila is persuasive as the group's galvanizing political force, pumping wounded anger into "Easy to Be Hard." The one disappointment is Sasha Allen as Dionne, a marginal character given major vocal duties, notably on "Aquarius," "White Boys" and "Walking in Space"; she sounds too contemporary, layering on intrusive "American Idol"-style growls and warbles.
Draped in Michael McDonald's flower-power finery, each Tribe member gets multiple opportunities to shine, and while one or two of them stretch age-appropriateness a bit, the overall impact is of a group bursting with youth. They elevate the audience to such a collective high during the first act's nonstop exuberance that the apprehensive turn becomes all the more wrenching.
Paulus rises to the challenge of shaping Ragni and Rado's freeform vaudeville collage into a narrative, particularly in the heartbreaking crescendo of the final scenes. And Claude's extended hallucination suite, which often drags, here walks a mesmerizing line between humor and horror.
The characters' unity of spirit is mirrored in their movements as choreographer Karole Armitage shepherds the group into a writhing mass, a sinuous human chain or splintering comets. Her brilliant work has the appearance not of practiced steps but of uncontainable physical self-expression.
Surprisingly, considering how firmly they were rooted in the zeitgeist of the era, the songs remain trenchant. The score's vigorousness and variety are remarkable, threading together delicate melodies with driving, combustible ones, double-edged comic sketches with celebratory anthems, dirty funk, hippie-dippie lovefests and satirical ditties.
Fears that the Vietnam-era show's message, which struck such a chord in the waning days of the Bush administration, would have less impact in the Obama age now seem unfounded. While it's unmistakably a period piece, "Hair" plays almost like a direct response to the fallout from a culture of shortsighted greed.
Following the exit of "Rent" and "Spring Awakening" from Broadway, a vacancy exists for a rock musical that communicates viscerally with its audience. This revival does that and then some; it's likely to invigorate kids coming fresh to the material as much as baby boomers disinterring memories of their youth. If this explosive production doesn't stir something in you, it may be time to check your pulse.
Sets, Scott Pask; costumes, Michael McDonald; lighting, Kevin Adams; sound, Acme Sound Design; orchestrations, MacDermot; music coordinator, Seymour Red Press; wigs, Gerard Kelly; associate producers, Jenny Gersten, Arielle Tepper Madover, Rebecca Gold/Debbie Bisno, Christopher Hart, Apples and Oranges, Tony & Ruthe Ponturo, Joseph Traina; production stage manager, Nancy Harrington. Opened March 31, 2009. Reviewed March 27. Running time: 2 HOURS, 30 MIN.
With: Megan Lawrence, Andrew Kober, Theo Stockman, Saycon Sengbloh, Ato Blankson-Wood, Steel Burkhardt, Jackie Burns, Lauren Elder, Allison Guinn, Anthony Hollock, Kaitlyn Kiyan, Nicole Lewis, John Moauro, Brandon Pearson, Megan Reinking, Paris Remillard, Maya Sharpe, Tommar Wilson.
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Posts: 2803 | Location: New York, New York | Registered: August 08, 2003
A **** review from Elisabeth Vincentelli in THE NEW YORK POST...
I have zero nostalgia for the 1960s, but I love this "Hair."
Everything aligned per fectly when Diane Paulus resurrected the 1967 epoch- making show in Central Park last summer. Not only did the production throb with life, but having it play under the stars, for free, elevated it to a near-mythical level. Even the audience participation came across like an expression of community rather than cheeseball pandering.
Transferring that spell to the crowded confines of the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (and charging Broadway admission prices) was risky, but "Hair" has emerged triumphant.
Director Paulus, scenic designer Scott Pask and choreographer Karole Armitage have completely appropriated their new surroundings. The set has gained in depth and height, and the actors regularly bound into the orchestra and boxes. (Beware if you sit on an aisle: You will smell youth culture up close and personal.)
The most significant change is actually linked more to our perception of the show than to its content or staging, testifying to the power of the multilayered vision of "Hair."
The acid-tab-thin plot centers on a "tribe" of New York flower children led by a hunky free spirit, Berger (Will Swenson). They drop out of school, live on the streets, engage in polymorphously delicious sex and enthusiastically burn their draft cards.
These days, the nation is fixated less on war and more on the economy. As a result, the scenes that resonate most are the ones in which the kids exultantly reject the rat race. It's also hard not to read in Paulus and Armitage's thrilling, sweaty physicality a dig at the way so many people now live via Twittered proxy.
But the text/subtext/context of "Hair" would mean little if the young and -- coyness be damned! -- wholesomely hot cast didn't also bring to glorious life the show's avalanche of stick-in-your-head tunes.
Modern musicals strain to belch out a couple of hummable songs. Lyricists Gerome Ragni and James Rado and composer Galt MacDermot tossed off close to 40.
With breathtaking precision and conciseness, they dispatched spoofs of Tin Pan Alley, country and doo-wop along with hazy psychedelic explorations, folk ballads and full-on rock anthems. It's a tall order for any troupe, especially since more than a dozen actors get distinctive solos.
This "Hair" bench has great depth. Some stick out, of course -- Swenson, Gavin Creel as Claude, Andrew Kober as Margaret Mead, Allison Case as Crissy -- but the musical's singular glory lies in the generosity with which it allows so many to shine.
Inviting the audience to rush the stage at the end is very much in that spirit. Paulus doesn't shy away from the inevitable crash landing after Berger cries out, "I wanna stay high forever!" But she also helps us understand how important it is to fully bask in a moment.
"Hair" is a musical for the ages because it's a musical for the now.
elisabeth.vincentelli@nypost.com
Posts: 27161 | Location: Phoenix, AZ | Registered: February 02, 2003
Originally posted by YoungRestlessOne: THANK YOU! I cannot wait to see this! Are you going soon R2684?
I saw it in the Park last summer and thought it was outstanding, and figured it wouldn't be possible to like the same production any better indoors.
But these reviews seem to indicate that it's lost nothing - some even saying it's gained something. So I probably will head to it for a second time, not sure when, though. This is a season packed with major late-openers.
It's great you already have your tickets - the show pulled in $500,000 today alone!
Posts: 2803 | Location: New York, New York | Registered: August 08, 2003
As written the second act is not as strong as the first due mainly to the long, trippy LSD sequence. But in my opinion this production brings more lucidity and profundity to that seemingly nonsensical stuff than I thought was possible.
The production has so much honesty and life - I don't know how it's possible to be unimpressed!
Posts: 2803 | Location: New York, New York | Registered: August 08, 2003
I was in NY last week and I saw this production - 3 TIMES!!! It was amazing. I didn't think I would like it, but forced myself to see it after reading all of the positive reviews. I was absolutely blown away. Each actor gave everything they had on stage. Will Swenson and Gavin Creel were both award worthy. The music was exceptional. I don't know how anyone could watch this and not leave the theater feeling moved, inspired and hopeful.
I also saw 'reasons to be pretty' and 'God of Carnage' - both fine productions. But I would have gladly given up those tickets to experience HAIR a couple more times.
I really hope this cleans up on the Tonys on Sunday.
I saw it on 5/22 and LOVED it! I was a little lost during Act ! with all the lyrics because I wasn't familiar with most of the songs or the plot. I actually thought there was more of a plot to "Hair" than there actually is. Due to that, I have to say that I was enthralled with the second act and found it a little more enjoyable than the first. I thought the drug trip sequence was terrific and don't feel it dragged at all.
I ran up on stage at the end to dance with the cast and sing "Let the Sunshine In!" IT WAS AN ABSOLUTE BLAST!! I sure hope it wins multiple Tonys on Sunday because it sure deserves to. The ending got me pretty choked up, I must admit. And Will Swenson! Not only is he effin HOT, but he wowed me with his performance. I'm really pulling for him to win Featured Actor in a Musical!
