[Mb-hair] RE:Hair review Guardian Unlimited

[Paul Korda]

A friend sent me this review which you may or may not have seen:

Hair
3 stars Gate Theatre
Michael Billington
Friday September 23 2005
The Guardian


Hair was the incarnation of the 60s "American Tribal Love Rock Musical"
that joyously celebrated a way of life and that in 1968 famously became
the first show to benefit from the demise of theatrical censorship. But,
delightful though it is to see it revived, I'm not sure it gains from
Daniel Kramer's determined attempt to update it.

The book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado are still there: it
remains the tenuous story of Claude, a New York tribal leader, separated
from his gang when he goes off to a foreign war. And the Galt MacDermot
tunes remain as fresh as ever. Merely to hear once again Aquarius, Good
Morning Starshine, Manchester England and all the rest is to be
transported back to a time of hippie optimism when the Sunday joint was
to be smoked rather than eaten.

But, in Kramer's version, the action all takes place today. Instead of
being drafted to Vietnam, Claude now goes to Iraq. Bush, Rummy and
Condie became the symbols of American patriotism. When the tribe wants
to protest about militarism it holds a candlelit vigil for peace in the
Middle East.

The problem with this is twofold. Claude's heroes remain Timothy Leary
and film directors such as Fellini and Antonioni which sounds
anachronistic in a modern context. More seriously, the show is a
celebration of a collective ethic: a belief that the group is stronger
than the individual. It reeks of the 60s rather than now when the
culture induces a hermetic individualism.

Hair is as much a period-piece as No No Nanette and should be presented
as such: as an evocation of a moment when sexual liberation was new, and
a young generation was rejecting inherited values. But Kramer's
production and Ann Yee's choreography have bags of oomph and fill the
Gate stage to overflowing.

The actors are also good. Charles Aitken plays Claude like a stoned
angel. Kevin Wathen lends his chum, Berger, a feverish promiscuity.
Nancy Wei-George sings one of the best and most touching songs, Frank
Mills, with heart-rending simplicity. I had a good time; and anyone who
has never encountered Hairbefore will succumb even more readily to its
charms. But I couldn't help thinking back to seeing Hair in LA in 1969
when Ragni and Rado were themselves in the cast. It seemed then the
perfect expression of the genius loci and of the mood of young America
at that moment. I wouldn't deny that protest in the face of the Iraq war
is still alive. But Hair belongs in its moment and, for all Kramer's
skill, I wish he'd preserved its period flavour.

· Until October 8. Box Office: 020 7229 0706

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited



Paul 
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