[Mb-hair] HAIR at Lake Region Theater

[Leo]

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