[Mb-hair] HAiR - Questions regarding Revised Script

[Little Birdie]

John wrote:

>1) How "old" is the current revision?

The script currently being sent out by TAMS is copyrighted 1995. Jim Rado 
has done many rewrites since then, and has been saying that TAMS would be 
coming out with a newer version, but so far it has not.

>2) Does the current script still have the part of Claude's Hallucination
>where one group kills another group, and then, in turn, is killed by a 
>third
>group, etc., etc.?


Yes. The entire sequence is done once at normal speed, then , with a strobe 
light flashing, it is done in reverse faster, and again forward at the 
faster speed. When done correctly it is an amazing scene, not hard to read 
at all from the audience vantage point. On Broadway it got applause at every 
performance.

>
>In the "complete" production that I just saw, this scene is performed by
>having two "Nuns" in chest-baring habits (males, however) run across the
>stage followed by a general melee reminiscent of a "mosh pit."

Not the way it's written in the script. Although the nuns, and other 
characters in the scene, were always played by members of both sexes, so you 
did have male nuns.


>Is this change in the new script or was it made by the director?

By the director.

>3) When I saw Berger deliberately tearing the yellow shirt, stomping on it,
>and slapping Sheila's face in the UCLA production a couple of years ago, I
>attributed these choices to the director rather than to the script.

Nope. They are in the script.


>Now that I have seen this new production, which also features Berger
>deliberately tearing the shirt and slapping Sheila (one of three face slaps
>in the production), I am now not so sure that this is a not a part of the
>new script.  I still can't believe that James Rado would want the scene
>played this way.

Even in the 1966/69 script (the Broadway script) there is a face slap in the 
yellow shirt scene (The only one in the script, I believe), but it was done 
slightly humorously (if one can call a slap humorous, which is hard to do). 
It was done with Berger yelling at Sheila, and being visually echoed from 
behind by Claude, Woof, and Hud, so that when Berger slapped Sheila, all the 
others slapped each other, and it was played for a laugh, which it often 
got. The ripping of the shirt and stomping on it was, in Tom O'Horgan's 
Broadway staging, more like someone losing control. Berger is fooling around 
and goes too far.

>Are these face slaps in the new script?

Don't know about the other two you mention, but the yellow shirt scene one 
is. The 1966, 1969, and 1995 scripts all have the following stage directions 
in that scene (and there are very few stage directions in the script) after 
the "You nag, nag nag..." speech of Berger's:

"BERGER slaps SHEILA. BERGER is followed closely across stage by CLAUDE, 
WOOF, and HUD -- all mouthing the same dialogue and slapping motion as 
BERGER"

There is also a stage direction about him stomping on the shirt, and ripping 
it.

Jim's 2001 rewrites (the most recent we have in the archives) has cut the 
slapping stage direction.

>4) About 5 years ago "Act This!" did a production at Los Angeles Valley
>College that featured a totally nude woman who "morphed" into a clothed
>Claude when he is summoned in the Second Act to the theme/chant of
>"Aquarius."

The Broadway production had a "character"  who was painted with dayglow 
paint and carried off stage during the song Oh Great God of Power. Claude 
entered from the back of the house in a gorilla suit (originally on a 
motorcycle!) down the center aisle. I have seen many recent productions that 
cut all of this, but had a nude or semi nude person morph into Claude for 
his enterance. The BRoaddway script (1966/69) reads like this after the 
explosion that ends Electric BLues:

"The Tribe comes from rear of house, singing [Oh Great God of Power]. They 
carry candles, wind chimes, moon oysters, and incense sticks. One MEMBER of 
the TRIBE appears on the stage, is disrobed, bathed, and/or touched and 
fondled, lifted aloft and carried slowly offstage in the ritual"

And before you ask, we have NEVER, dispite much research and even asking 
Jim, found out what moon oysters are! :-)

Claude enterance reads: "CLAUDE comes in from center aisle dressed in a 
gorilla suit. The TRIBE greets him with wild enthusiasm"

The 2001 script starts out similarly, but then reads:

"One MEMBER of the TRIBE appears on the stage, naked, painted in dayglow, as 
the Aquarian water ritual takes place. HE is lifted from the floor and 
carried over to be bound in dark net material"

Interesting that the dayglow paint is not mentioned in the Broadway script, 
although it was used in every performance I ever was at. The 2001 script 
continues:

"The naked Aquarian runs off as the lights bump up to bright. The TRIBE 
greets CLUADE who now stands in the Aquarian's stead, carrying a small 
duffle bag with BRitish flag on it."

The cop ending of ACT I is in the 1966/69, 1995, and 2001 scripts although 
no one frisks anyone.

Hope that helps!
XO,
Nina

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