[Mb-hair] HAIR at UVM - An Overview

[Leo]

Just as a warning, this'll be long so if ya don't wanna read it move onward.
Saturday night Judy, my son Matt, & I went to see the production of HAIR 
being offered at the University of Vermont. I suppose I should pre-empt this 
by stating that there was a full military funeral held Saturday morning for 
a 2004 graduate of UVM who was killed in Iraq. Also, we were seeing the 
second of 2 shows on this day. Apparently there was an afternoon matinee 
AFTER the military funeral.
I took my camera with me as I was hoping to take some shots of the stage and 
the Tribe after the show; so, when I arrived at the box office, I asked who 
I needed to speak to in order to make this happen. I was directed to Molly 
who was the public relations head for the theater department. She told me in 
no uncertain terms that it was a violation of the copyrights for me to take 
pictures. I explained I didn't want to take photos during the show but would 
love to take some shots afterwards. Molly persisted with no, no, no and went 
on to say that the ushers were under strict orders to take cameras away from 
anyone trying to enter the theater with one! Finally, I said I was hoping to 
get some pictures so I could send them to the HAIR archives. Molly again 
said no but relented on taking my camera away from me; she gave the ushers 
the thumbs up to at least allow me to take the camera into the theater. I 
sat down and about 5 minutes later Molly came over and said I could take 
pictures during curtain call but NOT before. She also said that they would 
be taking production photos after the final show and would send me a dvd 
copy of them for the archives. Talk about a turn around. Now on with the 
overview.
The stage was completely sheilded by sheets so I had no idea what the set 
looked like but when the strains of AQUARIUS began to play there were these 
beautiful silhouetted images of the Tribe on the sheet panels. I did miss 
the "ritual" (cutting a snipet of Claude's hair) at the beginning 
but............. Then suddenly all the sheets were torn down and we see the 
Tribe and set for the first time. The "set" was actually just a bare stage 
with a few tires, trash cans, and milk crates around the perimeter. There 
was scaffolding set up upstage and the pit was actually on the upper level 
of it. Costumes were fine. Most of the Tribe wore Converse sneakers (looking 
fresh out of the box). No one was barefoot or wore sandals. I saw very few 
beads and no feathers. There were dashikis, torn, patched pants, bell 
bottoms, tie dye shirts, etc. About half the females wore bras and I saw 
thongs a few times throughout the night. Sheila was garbed in a brightly 
colored midriff top with puffy sleeves and a brightly colored gauzy long, 
flowing skirt which reminded me of a gypsy. Hair (or wigs) were very 
believable and looked far out!
There was only one black Tribe member, a male, who had on heavy blue eye 
shadow.
The pit consisted of lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, drums, 2 trumpets, 
trombone, baritone sax, and keyboard. They played well but I thought they 
were very muted, quiet.
The choreography was rock solid and very inspired! This Tribe moved together 
man! But this was sort of a paradox in that the director rarely had them 
"hooked up" other than in the dance numbers. The choreography on AIN'T GOT 
NO was wonderful and energetic and ditto that with GOING DOWN. At the 
beginning of THE BED the Tribe draped the stage with this huge piece of 
plastic (like you'd see in construction sites or over windows in the 
winter). There was a lot of humping and grinding during the number and at 
one point they were completely engulfed in the plastic. Very cool!
Vocally they were strong as a group. Sheila had a great belt voice but held 
back at times and even spoke some lyrics during EASY TO BE HARD. Berger was 
ok vocally and Claude was pretty good. Jeannie had a great voice. Woof did a 
nice job vocally too and was my favorite character. Lots of energy and great 
stage presence. There was also a male Tribe member who was right on 
throughout with his energy, enthusiasm, and character. Not to say that 
others weren't but he really stood out to me.
Highlights of act 1 were AIN'T GOT NO and the BE-IN where they looped these 
long, wispy fabric thingies over the stage and kept them in motion. DON'T 
PUT IT DOWN was sung standing in a trapdoor under the stage (where Jeannie 
makes her appearance with AIR) but we never see a flag. Margaret Meade was 
funny but didn't really have a great falsetto so when it comes to the drawn 
out "actuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally", Hubert sings it in this high 
tenor voice. It caught me off guard but was actually very funny. Act 1 ended 
with the BE-IN instead of WHERE DO I GO. I sat there momentarily stupefied. 
Claude approaches the draft card barbecue with his card, hesitates, then 
runs away as act 1 ends.
Act 2 really got the Tribe cranking with energy & passion! It was definitely 
the better of the 2 acts. It opens with Claude running back onto stage and 
singing a somewhat uninspired WHERE DO I GO. BLACK BOYS/WHITE BOYS rocked 
and the "trip sequence" was outasite! I have never seen a production where 
every piece of incidental music was used until I saw this one. During the 
Clark Gable, Scarlett O'Hara, John Wilkes Booth, etc. scene the Tribe 
members had masks of these people on the tops of their head so their heads 
were bent when they delivered the lines but the audience saw the masks. Very 
cool. When 3-5-0-0 started everyone except Sheila, Berger, and Jeannie (who 
were garbed as US soldiers) had on Viet straw hats (I can't think of the 
word for them right now) with their hands bound behind their backs and their 
heads bowed as they were marched out onto stage in low lighting. On the 
lyric, "Prisoners in Niggertown it's a dirt, little war" they lifted their 
heads and to reveal that they all had on these gold colored half masks. 
Extremely eerie and disconcerting. They were then marched down the trapdoor 
under the stage and fired upon while the 3 US soldiers laughed. WHAT A PIECE 
OF WORK IS MAN was sung by 2 male members of the pit! During GOOD MORNING 
STARSHINE the dialogue of "fuckety fuck" etc. was overlapped over the top of 
it. FLESH FAILURES/LET THE SUN SHINE IN was powerful and kicked ass. Oh, 
almost forgot to mention, during the "role call" (Epstein, Bukowski) scene 
they had a uniform on a coat stand at center stage and when the "moms and 
dads" delivered their lines like "Be a man" or "Son, you don't know how 
proud I am of you today" they gave those lines to the uniform. Powerful 
stuff. Curtain call was to HIPPIE LIFE and I was taking pictures like mad 
but the Tribe was moving so fast that most of the pics didn't come out that 
well. Boo hoo!!
No Nudity but no songs were cut.
All in all a very wonderful performance. I believe they had a Tribe of 24 
not including the pit.
That's it for now. Told ya it was gonna be long. My apologies.

PEACE,
Leo