"Hair' grabs gold ring
By TOM CHESEK
CORRESPONDENT
What a piece of work is "Hair: the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical"
that caught Broadway with its pants down more than 40 years ago.
Welded to its Summer of Love origins, devoid of all but the barest-
bones plot points, populated by the sketchiest of characters, the
1967 show created by James Rado and Gerome Ragni might have been
little more than a vanity project for its writer-stars if it weren't
for one crucial distinction those songs.
Working with composer Galt MacDermot, the authors crafted a set of
generational anthems, emotional ballads and satiric sing-alongs that
stand very well on their own, even as they shoulder the entire weight
of moving the show along. All this, without owing a thing to the
conventions of Tin Pan Alley's Golden Age.
Along the way to revolutionizing the whole musical template as
practiced in postwar America, "Hair" managed to shed a number of
Broadway bugaboos against sex and drug references, interracial
romancing and liberal dropping of the f-bomb, to name but a few. Most
of all, it's famous for the shedding of clothing, which the cast does
during the "Be-In" sequence that forms the climax to the first act.
ReVision Theatre Company, the new professional troupe based in Asbury
Park, has selected this unorthodox show as its first extended-
engagement production and they've opted to do it in an unorthodox
venue, the Carousel building that adjoins the old Casino at the south
end of the boardwalk.
Unless you're a recovering 1990s skate punk, you probably haven't
been inside that historic roundhouse for many years; not since the
hand-painted ponies of the old wooden ride stampeded out of state.
Boardwalk developer Madison Marquette has done a tremendous job
getting the unique structure up to speed as a live performance venue,
a purpose it was never designed for.
Director Andy Goldberg (whose 1970s-retro tribute to the Aussie pop
group Boney M was a smash on European stages) and the ReVision team
have also worked hard in orienting this show to its unusual space,
keeping the cast of 17 actors mostly above the audience on a central
riser, side platforms and scaffolds.
As Claude, the conflicted "Tribe" member whose drafting into the
Vietnam-era army forms the crux of the drama here, Casey Gensler
shares the spotlight with Scoop Slone, who displays some solid rock-
star cred as the Puckish, self-centered Tribesman Berger. If
anything, however, "Hair" is an unusually democratic show in which
pretty much everyone gets their turn to shine with stand-out
moments delivered by Kyle Taylor Parker ("Colored Spade"), Julia
Arazi ("Air"), Mike Russo ("Don't Put It Down") and Ephie Aardema
("Easy To Be Hard").
Special kudos should go out to lighting designer George Hansel, who's
met the considerable challenges of rigging and illuminating this
oddball space with an effort that pays off in full during the
extended "trip" and hallucination sequences of the second act.
TICKETS: on-line at www.ReVisionTheatre.org
By Phone: 732-455-3059
Thursdays at 8pm, Fridays at 8pm
Saturdays at 7pm & 10:30pm
Sundays at 7pm
Final performance Sunday Agust 31.
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
