[Mb-hair] HAIR-London TIMES review

[richard haase]

i dont remember who in specific
but people i spoke to at the playbill office
people talking about it at the reunion
kibbitzing in general
the buzz was very positive
it sold out immediately
and there is talk of it being extended
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Butler" <michael at michaelbutler.com>
To: "HAIR List" <mb-hair at islandlists.com>
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 1:24 PM
Subject: Re: [Mb-hair] HAIR-London TIMES review


> 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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Mb-hair mailing list
> Mb-hair at islandlists.com
> http://www.islandlists.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mb-hair