Holy love making musical gloriousness my friends! Last night I saw the musical HAIR at the Public Theatre in Central Park. It was incredible! I left with such a buzz from the excitement I was wondering if they somehow slipped drugs to the audience.
I'm a theatre snob so every time the directing seems a little off or the character isn't totally there I take notice and ruin the moment for myself but I have to tell you, this story is so damn good you love it no matter what.
Let me tell you the set up of the stage. The Public Theatre is outside and is fairly small. The stage is level with the first row of seats making the whole show feel very intimate. All you see on stage as far as a set goes is grass and at the back a little paint splattered raised section for the band. The cast spent a lot of time running around the audience and getting you involved. At the end it turned into a giant dance party. It was one of those moments where my head spins in circles and I keep saying "Is this really happening?" Only in New York!
Before the show began the director gave a speech saying how this is the 40th Anniversary of Hair and so much has changed since the original production. He went on to compare the war we are in now to the war we were in then and gee do they sound similar. It certainly brings a whole new perspective to the show. The draft may be gone but we are still watching children die for us. That isn't completely what the show is about though. It's about bohemian life, sexual revolution, poverty, racism, religion, environmentalism, politics, and the youth of America. Just to name a few.
I truly love this show in every way. I think it can be summed up pretty well in the following quote:
"...be free, no guilt, be whoever you are, do whatever you want, just as long as you don't hurt anyone."
Why can't we all live by that? Why do we get class, skin color, religion, and various other crap in the way? I better not get started on that topic. I will leave you with a video of one of my favorite bits from the show. This is from the movie version.
16 comments:
That is one young Nell Carter. Not sure what to think about that. I'll have to rent this and watch it.
It looks like the adult version of Hairspray.
Knot
I'm so glad you got to go and even more excited to hear that you thoroughly enjoyed it!
And towards the end of this post I thought you were going to do a "Dana," but then you came to your senses!
I'm glad you got to go and it was as awesome as you hoped it would be.
I would love to go too. I think the only thing that keeps me from becoming some kind of a hippie is the area I live in. I'd probably get shot or something. LOL ;-)
I knew you get to see it! Congrats.
I love that you call yourself a "Theatre Snob" I too love the Theatre, but being from Indiana we really don't get the quality that you do. We have to drive to Chicago to really enjoy it.
See happy for you and hope that maybe you get to see it one more time, before ending.
If I go and see a show i really like, I always try and go back at least one more time.......being that I have to drive to Chicago it can be quite costly, so it has been a while for me.
Last time I was in New York City......and this will tellyou how long ago it was....I seen "Cats" can you believe it! I had a wonderful time and my Husband took me to "Tavern on the Green" it was quite special.
Sounds awesome!!
I KNEW you'd get your ticket!
I'd have loved to have seen this but then I just lived a boit of it through your words... thanks.
YAAAYYYYY!!! Sounds like a blast! I'm so glad you got to go!!!
that's awesome. good for you for taking that show in.
wonderful!! I want to catch some theater very soon, our Opera house is under construction so None for awhile!!!
Ne
you lucky dog...
it is something else isn't it!?
I knew you would love it as long as they did it right
does the mesh still come down on the nude scene? that was very controversial back when
Love me some Nell Carter. What a loss.
Glad you had a great time - what a great guy that Casey is!
WOOHOO! Sounds like a great night! Thanks for posting about it. I'm living vicariously through your theatre-going right now. :)
I never did get into many musicals, but go to a lot of the comedies here. They put on about two of them a year.
The quote is good but I don't think it's wise to tell some folks to do whatever they want. If I did whatever I wanted I would be causing a lot more damage to the planet so I restrict what I do.
Happy Naked Pagan Dancing.
I love the movie and it's kind of pathetic how much hasn't changes since then and how in a lot of ways we seem to be stagnating or even moving backwards.
I am so glad you got to go and enjoy it. Of course, I can't believe that it's been 40 years, 'cause that would make me - well, old! Even though I was under ten, it doesn't seem possible.
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