REVIEW: "Hair" hails its hippy heroes at Out North
Posted by arts_reviews
Posted: October 6, 2007 - 4:20 am
Dawnell Smith
Anchorage Daily News
The sexually savvy, politically savage rock musical "Hair" shouted its first "Hell no, we won't go!" off Broadway forty years ago in New York City. A lot has changed since then.
A lot more has not.
War, sex, drug use and generational strife make the musical as relevant as ever, and this month's production by Theatre United Artists proves ambitious, timely and a wonder to behold.
The play takes place in 1968 Greenwich Village, New York, where a group of hip cats experiment with drugs, sex and ideology while longing for freedom and peace while protesting the Vietnam War. Whether from within or without, these hippies confront the contradictions within us all.
At opening night on Friday, Anthony Lounsbury nailed the roll of Claude, the boy who calls himself Aquarius and suffers the symbolic weight of his draft card. Despite belting out "Manchester, England" to a dead microphone in his first song out, Lounsbury rebounded with a muscular performance that defined the tone of the play—certain but supple, defiant but earnest.
Equally at ease, Leo Tareev plays the incorrigible, pot-smoking long-hair, Berger, who flounces about in flowery trousers and a headband.
Others, like Veronica Page as Sheila and Waylon Waddell as Woof command the stage through voice and presence alone, but the heart of the show belongs to the Tribe. At its best, the cast coalesces into a swell of good vibes, like when Rebekah Franklin as Jeannie leads the group through the opening song, "Aquarius," or when the whole mob belts out "Hair" with raunchy abandon.
All the while, bodies move, groove and collapse, always at the whim of some greater force, some deeper mystery.
Some of the cast member inhabit that mystery more fluidly and thoroughly than others, but what more can we expect from local theater than a solid show? Well, hearing the songs would help. Unfortunately, poorly placed or adjusted microphones made it impossible to hear some of the lyrics on opening night, and who wants to miss lines like this from "What A Piece Of Work Is Man:"
This most excellent canopy
The air-- Look you!
This brave o'erhanging firmament
This majestical roof
Fretted with golden fire.
Why it appears no other thing to me
Than a foul and pestilent congregation
of vapors.
Fortunately, the four-piece band sounded virtually flawless on the sidelines, providing a musical thread even when the voices got lost in the crowd. The set and costumes also create a simple but exuberant backbone by alluding to the hues and styles of 1968 without trying to replicate it.
Most of all, "Hair" asks a lot from its director; patience, for one thing, and an ability to coax complexity from even the silliest moments. Christian Heppinstall pulls it off admirably here by orchestrating over twenty performers through over twenty songs.
A full house at Out North Friday night seems to speak to the play's staying power, if not its bearing on our times. If you saw the musical many years ago, you probably remember the songs, but what about the sex, drug use, warfare, comic tangents, hallucinatory weirdness and scene where several characters mess with an American flag.
A few people gasped at the upside down flag the other night.
A lot has changed since "Hair" first hailed its hippy heroes four decades ago. A lot more has not.
Theatre Artists United's production of "Hair" by James Rado and Gerome Ragni, music by Galt MacDermot, continues at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, until October 27 at Out North (3800 DeBarr Road). Tickets cost $22.50 online and $25 at the door (279-3800, www.outnorth.org). Find out more about Theatre Artists at www.myspace.com/theatre_artists_united or www.youtube.com/theatreartistsunited.
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2 October 7, 2007 - 9:22pm | nickcoper
Bigger then ever Hair
This show was absolutly amazing, I saw both the preview night on Thursday and the opening show on Friday and both nights I was laughing and clapping to the songs and at the end of the show each night it brought me to tears, and I'm sure it will every time I go to watch again!
I agree with what Dawnell Smith had to say about the show, yet I felt there was one name that wasn't mentioned that should be... Luke Bartholomew. Although he did not have the lead, he stole the show with his hilarious take on different charactors and at the end of the show when he has the leading solo in the song The Flesh Faluires (which leads into Let the Sun shine in) he was able to capture the feeling so perfectly that I was able to feel his pain, and it brought me to tears!
Christian Heppinstall does deserve praise for this show as he really did pull it off!
bravo cast, I can't wait to watch it again!
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