Hair Redux

One of the most anxiety producing moments at a Broadway theater is opening your Playbill and having one of the "At this performance the role of..." slips fall out. It's worse when a whole slew of them flutter out. Friday's performance of Hair was a first among the hundreds of Broadway shows I've seen. Six, including Claude, Berger, Hud and Crissy. Compounding this, I was taking a friend to his first Broadway show, and we had picked this performance specifically because it was before Gavin Creel's scheduled vacation (which was announced as starting today). An inauspicious start. (I've seen some great performances by understudies, and the Toronto Wicked but the Broadway In the Heights left me feeling kind of ripped off.)

And, indeed, the show was different. Both Jay Armstrong Johnson (Claude) and Steel Burkhardt (Berger) gave strong performances. The show was missing some of it's crispness (a missed cue here, a mic problem there), but if any show can accommodate these glitches, it's Hair. The emotional core of the show was perfectly intact. The vibe among Claude, Berger and Sheila (Cassie Levy) had a tenderness not apparent in my last visit to the show. Perhaps it's Will Swenson's harsher take on Berger, or perhaps it was Cassie Levy having pity on the understudies. Whatever. It worked, and it worked well.

In my earlier review of Hair, I noted that at the end of a successful production you should be feeling three things simultaneously: sadness that the production is coming to an end, grief at the death of a major character, and elation for having just experienced Hair. In this regard, the Friday night cast did not disappoint.

The run has been good to others, too. John Moauro was terrific. While his role is smaller than many, he struck the right note in every scene. His face showed the joy, the grief, the agony and the stoned giddiness of each moment.

Saycon Sengbloh also had a great night, with a profound "Abie Baby" and great smaller moments throughout the night.

The afterparty was great. The night was wonderful. The audience was intense. And my friend? Well, he'll be going to more Broadway shows, and now he crushes on both Gavin and Jay. Peace!