[Mb-hair] HAIR-London TIMES review

Fri Sep 23 16:50:56 PDT 2005

I don¹t know where you got this information but it is for sure not what has
happened with adhering to the original

> michael you obviously have nothing to do with this
> i am the one who trumpets the need for updating
> but but
> dramaturgical pt
> i am not saying to change the tams witmark script
> but in the places where improvising and topicality are indicated by the
> authors
> the same way in initials that lbj took the irt
> became tricky dick took the irt
> 
> one just now fills in the contemporary reference
> similarly the long bridge in aint got no etc
> 
> for the record corresponding / talking regularly with all the hair
> originals; i can state unequivocally as the one who does the arguing on the
> pro updating side; all of the original principals michael butler, jimmy
> rado, galt macdermot and tom ohorgan have all been absolute classicists
> where hair is concerned and all have been steadfast against new changes in
> the script
> 
> all have been staunch traditionalists
> so anyone who says any of them
> were behind any such innovation is not telling the truth
> 
> i can vouch for that
> welcome to show business
> 
> and michael your handling of the bdwy production
> was sublime obviously
> it launched the first one billion dollar world rights package
> that is what a producer is supposed to do
> achieve fiscal success
> there just arent anymore qualifying factors
> 
> also you have the unique talent i felt in working with you
> that you have great artistic talent as a producer
> which is one of your unique qualities as a producer
> ( eg not all producers do )
> 
> as far as i know
> jimmy was the one who relented and encouraged the kid at least sporadically
> i take some responsibility for that
> because i was at the time pouring docket after docket
> to rado on a daily basis
> in support of drastically updating the mis en scene
> if not the script
> so obviously my name will be mud
> on this one
> lol and not lol
> 
> i still say im right
> in the 1980 production we did update
> we did it well
> it did work
> and even rado went crazy for it
> came 10x ( said it was the best production ever ( which it was not ;
> obviously the bdwy 68 production was )  ; i have multiple witnesses )
> 
> ( this refers to the performances in the home space harry streeps 399 seat
> the brook on west 18th street off fifth 1980 - 1981 )
> 
> not to one terrible performance in the 3000 seat loeb student center
> 
> anyway the debate continues
> which is good
> 
> but the question of the hour is
> 
> why is frankel taking so long to make the baby?
> 
> ????????
> 
> 
> R in the project pit
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Butler" <michael at michaelbutler.com>
> To: "HAIR List" <mb-hair at islandlists.com>
> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 3:07 PM
> Subject: Re: [Mb-hair] HAIR-London TIMES review
> 
> 
>> You will recall that I was attacked by Rado due to my Blog 'Answers to
>> Simon' where he took umbrage to my putting down the rumored changes in the
>> Gate production.
>> I had never heard of them and was critical of this director or any
> director
>> for deviating from the Tams approved version.
>> How was I to know that he and Galt had approved these changes. In fact it
>> turns that Rado had supposedly made many of them.
>> So I responded putting the record straight.
>> Never a reply nor acknowledgment from them.
>> PS: Rado also was critical of my handling the Broadway production of HAIR
>> and the Russian production. I did respond with my last Blog 'Questions
> about
>> HAIR'.
>> 
>>> 
>>> Yikes, sounds awful.  Claude-with-Playstation.  Hmmm.
>>> and Berger with what, an Ipod...?
>>> Maybe Sheila, instead of leading the protest march,
>>> sits down and cc's e-mail petitions across the globe
>>> in a single stroke.
>>> 
>>> I'm curious: Was these changes due to a re-write by
>>> the author(s) or a directorial enhanceement?
>>> 
>>> rj
>>> --- Michael Butler <michael at michaelbutler.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 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
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> __________________________________________________
>>> Do You Yahoo!?
>>> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
>>> http://mail.yahoo.com
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 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