'Hair' Today: Revived Musical Still Resonates On Tour
by FRANK RIZZO, courant.com
April 24th 2011
The national tour of the Broadway revival of "Hair" opens Tuesday at the
Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford. )
"I was a 'Hair' fanatic," says Diane Paulus, director of a touring revival of
the '60s peace-love musical that plays the Bushnell Center for the Performing
Arts in Hartford Tuesday through May 1.
Five years ago, when Paulus got a phone call from Peter DuBois of New York's
Public Theater asking her to direct a concert version of the show, she leapt at
the chance. (DuBois is now artistic director of Boston's Huntington Theatre
Company, across the river from where Paulus oversees operations at the American
Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass.)
"I thought, 'Oh, my God. Yes!'"
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That was followed by a stint at Central Park and then a Broadway run in 2009,
when it won the Tony Award for best Broadway revival.
Paulus, born in 1966, was too young to have seen the original Broadway show,
which ran from 1968 to 1972. But "I remember my older brother taking me to the
movie [released in 1979, directed by Milos Forman and choreographed by Twyla
Tharp]. I came home singing 'Sodomy.' The music is so infectious! I then grew
up with the original cast album and the soundtrack from the film."
The original production, which began off-Broadway at the Public Theater in 1967
(directed by Gerald Freedman), was a cultural and box office sensation. It then
moved briefly to the Cheetah nightclub, then to Broadway (where it was directed
by Tom O'Horgan). Part of the show's revolutionary appeal was because, says
Paulus, "it was taken from the streets of life."
While the score (music by Galt MacDermot, lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James
Rado) was brimming with hits ("Good Morning Starshine,""Let the Sun Shine In,"
"Aquarius," "Hair"), the loosely structured book, slight story and limited
dialogue went through many versions over the years.
Paulus got to work accessing the various scripts, reshaping the show and
working with Rado, who co-wrote the libretto with the late Ragni. "James had
things that he wanted to change or strengthen, and so together we created a new
version of the script," says Paulus. "He gave me license to re-imagine."
Forming The Tribe
But how do you cast 21st-century young actors to not only fill the role of '60s
hippies but establish a sense of "tribal unity" that isn't exactly taught at
Juilliard?
"I was always looking for people who were connecting to the show as a person,
not just as an actor," says Paulus, who made the auditions as much to do with
talking as singing the high notes. "I was looking for certain qualities in them
as people. I wanted to know who they were inside. It was incredible to see
those performers who could plug into the work and bring themselves to it. You
cannot do the show and say 'acting.' You have to care deeply in what the show
is all about."
Heading the cast on tour are Steel Burkhardt as Berger, Paris Remillard as
Claude, Kacie Sheik as Jeanie, Caren Lyn Tackett as Sheila, Matt DeAngelis as
Woof, Darius Nichols as Hud, Kaitlin Kiyan as Crissy abnd Phyre Hawkins as
Dionne.
The sense of a tribal unit remained strong, Paulus says, with 22 of those who
started with her i staying through the various incarnations during the three
years the show went from a summer engagement in Central Park to Broadway, then
London, then the national tour — and back to Broadway. Earlier this month, it
was announced that the show will return after the national tour ends for a
summer run in New York beginning in mid-July.
Because the musical is only about 40 years old, the actors could tap into the
experiences of their parents, aunts, cousins, grandparents and others who were
youths during the turbulent '60s.
"What was so exciting was that some of the actors said things like, 'My dad
never talked about Vietnam until now,' or 'I just learned my Dad was a
conscientious objector,' or 'My mom was a nurse in Vietnam.' It opened up
communications for a lot of them."
Paulus says not just young people are coming to the show to take in the
twentysomething cast but also many older generations who were youths when the
musical first bowed.
"Whether you like it or not, it's not a revival," says Paulus, "especially when
you see what's going on in the world now. Current events — especially in the
Mideast — have had an enormous effect on the tour. I sat for three hours with
the cast recently when the tour played Boston, and that's a lot of what they
talked about.
"The day the U.S. started military action in Libya, the show felt so present.
That's what we were chanting about in the show, and that's what the young
people [in the Mideast] were saying, too. The show has that youthful energy of
protest, saying, 'We won't take it anymore.' 'Hair' is still a cry for peace
and a fight for freedom. We try to capture on stage that energy, aliveness and
connection to the present."
Reaction On The Road
It's one thing to be a cool hit in New York with a rocking counterculture show.
But is the rest of the country ready for a troupe of touring flower children in
an anti-establishment, anti-war show with a touch of nudity?
"That was the big question," says Paulus. "Will they come out to see the
hippies? But not only did they come; they want to hang out with them, dance on
stage with them."
Some audiences were a bit more resistant than others, Paulus admits. "In Tempe,
Ariz., and Washington, D.C., audiences were more reserved. It was a different
energy, like 'Don't touch me; back off,' But sometimes it just takes time. It's
all about trying to get the audience to let go. But that makes the
transformation of the audience at the end all the more amazing, when the
daisies come out, and it becomes a love fest."
Keeping the "Hair" spirit on the road was easier than Paulus expected because
the cast-tribe had to travel together rather than go to their individual homes,
as they did when the show was in New York. "They've come to care and love each
other like family. And all types of love happened along the way. They're young
and gorgeous and experiencing life to the fullest."
"HAIR" opens Tuesday and continues through May 1 at the Bushnell Center for the
Performing Arts, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Tickets are $17 to $70, not
including fees. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday
at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Information:
860-987-5900, http://www.bushnell.org or http://www.HairOnTour.com.
>> Read Frank Rizzo's blog on theater, the arts and entertainment at
>> http://www.courant.com/curtain. And be the first to know by following him at
>> http://www.Twitter.com/ShowRiz.
Original Page:
http://www.courant.com/entertainment/arts/hc-hair-tour-0424-20110421,0,3683717.story
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