Phillyist Reviews... HAIR

I’ve always liked the music from HAIR. Not just the songs that were later released as singles (“Hair,” “The Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” and “Good Morning, Starshine”), but all of the other songs from the musical, as well. They’re catchy and you find yourself singing them, even if you don’t necessarily “get” them. (“Sodomy, Holy Orgy”, for instance, made me reach for a dictionary when I was in middle school.) And so it was with great anticipation that I awaited the Prince Music Theater’s production of HAIR.

Anticipation can be a bad thing. It sets you up for disappointment.

Of course, the primary fault I found in HAIR wasn’t actually in the production itself. It was in the play. I’d never actually seen the play, only the film, and so I hadn’t realized exactly how flimsy and dated the book is. Despite the argument posed in the director’s note, the play hardly feels relevant anymore. (Yes, we are, once again, in the midst of an unpopular war. But the draft no longer exists. It was abolished in, I believe, 1973. And this is a play more about being drafted to fight an unpopular war than it is about actually fighting said unpopular war. Therefore, like I said, the play hardly feels relevant anymore.) It’s a shame, too, because the overall production values were high, the cast was generally talented and attractive, and the pit band (which played, not in a pit, but upstage left) was one of the best I’ve seen in some time.

I do have to point out, however, that other than the lack of topicality to the show, the production had one other significant flaw: while there were some truly standout solo performers (Gabrielle Hurt's performance of “Aquarius,” Lindsey Gordon's very funny Jeannie, Da'Vine Joy Randolph's vocal stylings on “Initials,” Jonathan Shade's surprising “My Conviction,” Alyse Wojciechowski's very pretty “Frank Mills,” and Thom Miller's standout performance as Berger, to name a few), whenever the whole ensemble came together, they were nearly impossible to understand. No matter how pretty the overall sound of the ensemble is, getting the harmonies right is only half the battle. Elocution needs to be attended to as well. Shame about that, too, because with a book as weak as the book to HAIR is, when you can’t hear the lyrics (which are often very clever), there’s not much left for anyone in the audience to do, other than await the nudity that they know is coming eventually.

But despite that, I had fun. It’s hard not to tap your toes to the music, and when the cast encourages you to clap along, goddammit, you’re going to clap along, even if you don’t want to. That’s a testament to the catchiness of the music and the charm of the cast, more than it is to the overall production. But if the audience is loving it, then in the end, what does it matter?

From left to right: Thom Miller as Berger and Ashley Robinson as Claude in HAIR. Photo by Mark Garvin, via Prince Music Theater.