[Mb-hair] HAIR-London TIMES review

[Michael Butler]

Where did you hear this was a great show? Please send us information.

> i just think theyre bastards
> i think despite the fact the people love the show in billions
> that there is an element of the establishment element of the critics
> not the real cogniscenti or artists or actual producers etc
> but a conservative element in the press
> and in the establishment in general that was gunning for this show from day
> one company one
> and still is
> i heard this kid did some great stuff
> thats the word i been hearing
> 
> i think this conservative element is still scared shitless of hair and is
> still afronted at the bringing of hard core rock and roll in the realm of
> the " proper " theater
> 
> thats what i think
> 
> richard haase in nyc
> 
> ( i thought the london production was going to go like a house on fire )
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Butler" <michael at michaelbutler.com>
> To: "HAIR List" <mb-hair at islandlists.com>
> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 1:07 PM
> Subject: [Mb-hair] HAIR-London TIMES review
> 
> 
>> 
>> September 23, 2005
>> 
>> Times2
>> 
>> Hair
>> Benedict Nightingale at Gate Theatre, W11
>> 
>> THIS show < meaning the original Hair, not last night¹s ineptly updated
>> version < was a big deal when it hit London 35 years ago.
>> 
>> That was partly because its portrait of stoned hippies brandishing their
>> unshorn locks at American society had made it a cult in New York, but
> mainly
>> because we had just dispatched the censor to the knacker¹s and were at
> long
>> last free to see its famous nude scene.
>> 
>> Here, let me inject a personal memory. Halfway through Galt Macdermot¹s
>> ³tribal musical² I whispered to a colleague, ³When is the nude scene
>> coming?², and he replied, ³It¹s just happened². So for me Hair will for
> ever
>> mark the time when I realised I needed specs.
>> 
>> At the tiny Gate there¹s no danger of missing what is, in 2005, a pretty
>> standard display of bobbing genitalia. Indeed, one would only have to
> reach
>> out a hand in anger to end several men¹s hopes of fatherhood. What¹s odd,
>> though, is that the second such display is meant to evoke the human
> pyramids
>> at Abu Ghraib. A musical that was once a protest against Vietnam has moved
>> to the Iraq era, complete with a poorly caricatured Bush and a spoof
>> sergeant who tells the anti-hero to ³get your ass out there and fight
> those
>> sand-niggers².
>> 
>> It doesn¹t work, least of all in the handling of that anti-hero, Charles
>> Aitken¹s spindly Claude. This time he isn¹t the hapless victim of a policy
>> that was forcing young men into the killing fields. Rather, he volunteers
>> for the army, one moment sneering over his PlayStation at parents who want
>> him to get a job, the next bewildering his fellow dropouts by telling them
>> that he¹s about to defend democracy.
>> 
>> I was bewildered too, despite a new ending and a dream sequence in which
>> Claude twigs what he¹s doing. The hippies in general have become more
>> aggressive and confident, which is fine when energetic dancing or singing
> is
>> needed, but stops us seeing them as the baffled, vulnerable youngsters
> they
>> were meant to be. A musical about a lost generation has become one about
>> brash layabouts exercising their inalienable right to smoke dope, sing
> songs
>> about love and refuse to grow up.
>> 
>> Starting with that hummable ode to Aquarius, some of those songs still
> have
>> zing. But evoking a zombie Establishment by dressing actors in judicial
>> robes, plus plastic headdresses that can¹t decide if they¹re hair-curlers
> or
>> coal buckets, is just one of several errors. Moreover, the hippies¹
> flowing
>> locks, like their clothes, have succumbed to spare modernity. This is a
> Hair
>> without hair, which is no Hair at all.
>> 
>> Box-office: 020-7229 0706
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>     Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.
>> This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard Terms and
> Conditions
>> . Please read our Privacy Policy . To inquire about a licence to reproduce
>> material from The Times, visit the Syndication website .
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Mb-hair mailing list
>> Mb-hair at islandlists.com
>> http://www.islandlists.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mb-hair
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Mb-hair mailing list
> Mb-hair at islandlists.com
> http://www.islandlists.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mb-hair