[Mb-hair] HAIR at Lake Region Theater

[Michael Butler]

Thanks, Leo
Well, win some, lose some.
XO Michael

> A group of 5 of us went last night to see the production of HAIR being
> offered at Lake Region Theater in Meredith, NH. It is with great sadness
> that I write these observations.
> First of all the "pit" consisted of a keyboard & drums. The keyboard
> constantly had this church organ type of sound. Nuff said..
> The lighting plot was not only unimaginative but minimalistic at best. It
> was poorly lighted with no specials whatsoever. At times tribe members were
> in the dark.No strobes, no blacklights, no colored gels, etc.
> The costuming looked as if they went through the costume shop and pulled out
> anything which remotely might work. Berger had some pretty decent threads
> and some of the others were ok but for the most part the costumes appeared
> to be handmade and several of the women wore Rennaisance type dresses
> (probably from some other production). There were precious few beads, no
> flowers, no feathers, etc. The females wore bras and sports bras - not one
> was braless and of course the nudity was cut (read further for an
> explanation).
> The set consisted of 3 painters scaffoldings which was groovy but the only
> "dressing" they had were chunks of white material sorta tied around them. It
> looked like someone was getting ready to paint the set (which they never
> did). There were 2 sets of white steps that led up to the scaffolding on
> stage left & right but they too were not adorned with peace signs. slogans,
> flowers, or anything; they were just stark white.
> Now the Tribe. I was reading the bios before the show and these actors came
> from all over - Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin, etc. Just your
> typical summer stock troupe. But when the show started and the first strains
> of AQUARIUS were being sung I knew we were in trouble. The gal who sang was
> flatting out all over the place; it was actually painful to watch. Berger
> and Claude at least were ok and Sheila had a powerhouse voice but she was
> dressed in this I Dream Of Genie type of outfit. She looked like she
> strolled in from the local harem. Jeannie also had a wonderful voice but she
> was one of the gals dressed in Rennaisance garb. The only song cut was
> SODOMY and every reference to anything potentially "dangerous" (as seen by
> the director I guess) was cut. Emanci mother friggin pator of the slaves. I
> wish it would bloody snow, yeah I wish the frig it would, etc.When Margaret
> Meade wanders off with Hubert she says, "Screw you kids." And Woof doesn't
> hump the poster of Mick Jagger. Claude never dropped his British accent (I
> suppose this is at least forgiveable) but it bugged me. WHAT A PIECE OF WORK
> IS MAN was a travesty! I have no clue why they chose these 2 people to sing
> it. There were many better vocal choices; it was absolutely terrible. The
> camaraderie was totally missing; even when they sat in groups there were
> spaces between them. No touching, hugging, etc. There was a neat moment
> during the Be-In where thet were carrying people around over their heads and
> it was really wonderful; it elevated that sequence above all the others. The
> passion just seemed to be missing. Most of this I off on the director; I
> just don't think these kids "got it". I always tear up during 3-5-0-0 (right
> Joe?) but I wasn't feeling it in this production. The song tempos seemed to
> be ass backwards. Tunes that were normally fast were slowed down and vice
> versa. I did start to tear up during FLESH FAILURES and I was happy about
> that but then Claude came out in a WWII uniform. Agh!!!
> The last freaky thing was that HIPPIE LIFE was listed as curtain call music
> but they did play LET THE SUNSHINE. At the end, as we exited the theatre,
> the Tribe was standing in a line receiving well wishes from patrons and all
> done out of character!
> On the ride home the 5 of us talked about it and I wasn't the Lone Ranger in
> my opinions. I was glad to see HAIR but this production left me bitterly
> disappointed.
> Sorry to send such sad tidings. But I always look forward to the next one.
> 
> PEACE,
> Leo 
> 
> 
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