Hair

Before I get into my review of Hair, I would just like to say that it is my conviction that the weekend of April 24 was joyful, meaningful and so very special. A friend said it was "sublime". I saw two extraordinary shows, two fine exhibits at the Modern, and had two wonderful meals with friends and two intimate meals with my, hmmm, husband. Talk about recharging your batteries!

I have seen many productions of Hair over the years. All of them were fun, but only one was transcendental--until last Saturday. A perfect production of Hair (though Hair is not a perfect musical can be determined in a single, tiny moment of feelings. As the the tribe sings the first note of "Let the Sunshine In" your body must be walking in space and firmly planted in the harsh reality of the moment. Your heart must have extraordinary joy, tremendous grief, and this bittersweet recognition that the show is coming to an end. Almost all productions will give you a moment of joy. After all, these are the songs of our lives and the greatest hits of the 60's.

In the amazing production of Hair currently at the Hirschfeld those moments come together so eloquently and poignantly that you can truly have a transcendental experience without mind-altering chemical assistance.

Everything that leads up to this moment is pitch perfect. The music, the choreography, the vision, the love!

The emotional heft of Hair is in the performances. But the cast, with the exception of Berger, Claude and Sheila, is given only brief moments to present a full character. But they do. In Diane Paulis's vision, the members of the tribe are all over the place all the time, and somehow it feels that every character is richly developed. The connection is powerful.

Will Swenson (Berger), Gavin Creel (Claude) and Caissie Levy (Sheila) form the core of the tribe. They bring a complexity to the performance that isn't usually there. When Sheila is wounded by Berger's callousness, she asks "How can people be so heartless?" ("Easy to be Hard") The irony of the song is that she's doing the same to Claude. Hair is filled with these multidimensional moments.

The supporting members of the tribe all make the most of their moments, never a dull moment and rarely a weak one.

The problem with most productions of Hair over the last 30 years since it first left New York is that they de-emphasize the sex and the drugs for a regional, suburban audience. Not here! Free love is back. Berger and Claude connect just as erotically as each does with Sheila. The pairings in the choreography are gender neutral and emotionally powerful.

Hair is raw, joyous and heart-wrenching. The rest is silence. The rest is silence....

(By the way, for a groovy online experience, check out Hair on Broadway.