Hair, Hair, Hair, Hair, Hair, Hair, Hair
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| Image from here |
Last year for Christmas we gave ourselves season tickets to the Kennedy Center's musical series. We went to our first performance this weekend...Gypsy. Ha, just kidding, obviously it was Hair.
If you know me at all, you know there is nothing I love better than live, musical theatre. Okay, so not more than the family, but it's definitely up there.
Let me say it again, I love musicals. They are my vice, my favorite extravagance, the best way I can think of to spend spare time and $$$. And, in between the live performances, I love listening to the music from these shows. I am doing my best to brainwash my kids into loving them too. Every chance I get we tune the ipod to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sondheim, Schonberg and Boublil, Lloyd Webber and all the others only a crazy addict like myself would recognize by name.
We saw Hair in the Opera House at the Kennedy Center. The Opera House is massive, cavernous even. But, the rock music coming from the exceedingly talented band on stage and highly energetic cast (they must burn 2000 calories apiece each performance) more than filled the space. It took some doing for the cast to loosen up the staid DC audience, but they persevered and eventually prevailed. The cast were everywhere, jumping on and off the stage, running up and down the aisles, climbing on seats and railings, dancing with the audience and most of all touching everyone's hair.
This was the first time I had seen Hair, but I was not unaware of it's controversial moments. One of them, though, definitely caught me by surprise. There I was near the end of the first act blithely focused on the singer in the spotlight and then happened to casually glance at the other performers in the background, and BOOM, no clothes. Not a stitch. The lights were dimmed and blue, but even in a soft, azure glow, naked is naked. My gaze lingered long enough to 1) confirm the lack of clothing and 2) acknowledge that performing live every night in a show as fast-paced as Hair is good for the physique. Then the stage lights went out, the house lights came up and that was that.
The second act, too, had it's unexpected moments, though nothing as startling as the first. Overall the singing, dancing and general staging of Hair were excellent.
Next up: South Pacific
4 comments:
We went to it last night! Loved it.
How can one not appreciate the finely tuned body of a broadway actor? I'm jealous!
this is a fine example of the difference btw concert-goers and show-goers. at a concert, the performers are fully clad and women still throw their undies at the stage. i'll bet nary a bra was tossed at the kennedy center in the face of full nudity.
Surprise! Nudeness!!!
Andrea's comment killed me.
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