[Mb-hair] Two More Toronto Hair Reviews

[Sherwin Ross]

Now if Michael produces HAiR and I play Berger the reviews will be off the
wall.

I want to play Berger!

 

 

Sherwin "Ace" Ross

Private consultation for <http://www.aceross.com/>  your business.

Private label and <http://www.foundascousa.com/>  brand manufacturing.

Shop our Boutique <http://www.shopourboutique.com/> 

 

323 655 5554

 

  _____  

From: mb-hair-bounces at islandlists.com
[mailto:mb-hair-bounces at islandlists.com] On Behalf Of Nina Dayton
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 1:00 PM
To: Hair list
Subject: [Mb-hair] Two More Toronto Hair Reviews

 

The Toronto Globe and Mail 
 
What a bummer. It's far off, not far out
 
KAMAL AL-SOLAYLEE 
Hair
Book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni
Music by Galt MacDermot
Directed by Robert A. Prior
Starring Craig Burnatowski, Karen Burthwright, Jamie McKnight
 
At Bluma Appel Theatre in Toronto
 
When the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars . .
.perhaps it will be time for Hair to shine onstage again. Until such a
celestial meeting of peace-digging planets takes place, we're stuck with
CanStage's wretched revival of the 1967 hippie musical. It opened Thursday
at the Bluma Appel Theatre under the direction of Robert A. Prior -- and has
a whole lot of nothing to say about the sixties or the present time.
 
A relentless collage of unsubtle video projection, vintage fashion show and
karaoke-grade singing, this production only succeeds in pulling the dubious
double feat of undermining the old musical and exposing the vacuity of its
new 
interpreters. James Rado, co-writer (with the late Gerome Ragni) of Hair's
book and lyrics, straddles both camps: For the last few weeks, he's been in
Toronto, frantically rewriting the book for this revival.
 
I'm not sure what exactly he's been busy doing, since nothing here has a
whiff of freshness about it. The basic plot, at any rate, remains unchanged.
Hair is the story of Claude (Jamie McKnight), the long-haired rebel who has
to leave the tribe of East Village hippies to fight for his country in
Vietnam. His friendship with "democracy's daughter," the activist Sheila
(Karen Burthwright), and with Berger (Craig Burnatowski), the de facto tribe
leader, forms a secondary emotional through line in Hair. There's not much
of a story, but the musical has always been more about capturing (some would
say capitalizing
on) the period's vibe than telling its definitive history.
 
That's where this production strikes out. Prior's vision, if that's the
right word, of the 1960s counterculture scene is superficial in the extreme.
All that talk about parallels between Vietnam and the war in Iraq that was
supposed to prove the relevance of this period piece was just that: talk.
 
The only evidence of a 21st-century aesthetic or thinking is the constant
streaming of video-game-like imagery that only enhances the high-school feel
of the night -- a night hijacked by the audio-visual club at that. From
newsreel footage to psychedelic colour explosions, practically every moment
in Hair is accompanied by this barrage.
 
Such visual vocabulary would have worked much more successfully if the rest
of this over-amplified, over-designed production didn't clash horribly with
it. Dany Lyne's sets and costumes recycle the sixties as an existential
theme park from which there's no physical or emotional exit. I suspect Prior
was aiming for a sense of visual and sensual bombardment, but his strategy
loses its impact and wears out its welcome early on in Act I.
 
Normally critics are on autopilot in complaining when the visual overload of
a show upstages the cast or unfairly competes with it. (See The Lord of the
Rings for the ultimate illustration of this critical mantra.) This time,
however, I'd like to part company with my own tribe to note there is a
silver lining to the cloud of sensory overload: It offers a distraction from
the thoroughly dull cast of largely unknown and untried musical-theatre
performers. The thinking behind such risky casting in a high-profile
production is admirable; the execution significantly less so.
 
Collectively, there's a wholesomeness -- which is not to be confused with
innocence, lost or otherwise -- to the cast that denies the material its
social undertones and its rebellious spirit. Everybody seems to function
emotionally at the level of a cruise-ship production of Annie.
 
There are two exceptions: Burnatowski as Berger and Jamie McKnight as
Claude. The former at least offers a magnetic stage presence; the latter
gives an emotionally straightforward performance unencumbered by the
sound-and-light show that surrounds him.
 
There's no good news to report when it comes to the singing. The real
tragedy in this Hair is not Vietnam but the vocal massacre of one great song
after another. From the opening chords of Aquarius to the closing anthem Let
the Sunshine In, from the comic Frank Mills to the thunderous Ain't Got In,
the singing lacks feeling, character and, well, singing ability.
 
It all rather forces one to re-think the place of Hair within American
musical-theatre history, at the very least as a "now more than ever" work.
Time has left this show behind.
 
For most of the cast in this spectacularly awful revival, the cruise ship
awaits. 
 
Hair continues at the Bluma Appel in Toronto until June 17 (416-368-3110).
 
************************************
TORONTO STAR
Theatre Review: Hair needs a comb
Mar. 31, 2006. 06:50 AM
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-hair/attachments/20060403/64797bc4/attachment.htm