5.29.11
This is an Archival Site
There is now a new Rogovoy Report home
5.18.11
Weekend Preview May 19-24
Bob Dylan tributes, Deborah Voigt, Tom Paxton, Bill Kirchen, John Kirk and Trish Miller
5.18.11
Celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday in Style
Paying tribute to the greatest rock songwriter ever
5.17.11
FILM REVIEW: In a Better World and Of Gods and Men
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.17.11
'LIKE' The Rogovoy Report on Facebook
Click 'LIKE' to Receive Facebook feeds from The Rogovoy Report
5.12.11
Deborah Voigt Headlines Mahaiwe Gala
Opera star to sing arias, show tunes on Saturday, May 21
5.15.11
Famed Spiritual Teacher to Speak on Nonviolence
Mother Maya in free talk at Sruti Yoga in Great Barrington, Mass., on Friday May 20 at 7pm
5.12.11
Special Effects Wizard to Be Honored by Film Festival
Doug Trumbull to be Feted by BIFF
5.11.11
Weekend Preview May 12-16
Cultural Highlights of the Berkshire Weekend
6.4.09
Talk about a small world
Elaine and I grew up together, but only just recently met....
5.8.11
Berkshire Living to Cease Publication
A Farewell from Publisher Michael Zivyak
5.8.11
twiGs Branches Out
Lenox boutique launches new e-tail site
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
|
(Theater Review) HAIR
8.7.05
BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY
HAIR
The Tribal Love-Rock Musical
Stage II
Mahaiwe Theatre, Great Barrington
Berkshire Music Hall, Pittsfield
Barrington Stage's concert version of the pioneering rock musical HAIR is a spirited, lighthearted diversion, an entertainment that also raises some serious, even provocative questions about the role of culture in civic society.
It can't help but raise those questions as they are very much part and parcel of what HAIR is about. Even in this version, which primarily focuses on concert stagings of several dozen songs from the musical, those issues are raised and played out amidst an ensemble of young actors impersonating vintage Sixties hippies.
At the Mahaiwe, Barrington Stage's timely staging of this antiwar protest musical sparked frissons of nostalgia as it surprised listeners "with supreme visions of lonely tunes," tunes that had been long buried in the unconscious, only to come darting to the conscious as soon as they were heard.
Beyond the obvious, memorable hits like the title song, "Age of Aquarius," and "Good Morning Starshine," numbers like "Easty To Be Hard," "Frank Mills," "Where Do I Go?", "Walking in Space" and "Manchester, England" stand up as classics of musical theater, rock or not, and packed as much surprising wit as they did political impact.
The enthusiastic corps was aptly costumed in Sixties drag and went a long way toward capturing the prevailing ethos of the time. It was the portrayal of that ethos that is the most striking aspect of this production, reminding as it does that, for all the generational and political naivete, for all the misguided rebellion, for all the deluded experimentaion with drugs, this was a transitional moment in our culture, and one in which culture itself became the means as much as the ends of a revolution. How much weaker are we now that culture has been fully co-opted by the prevailing establishment; how unthinkable is it that culture can have any impact on social or political movements. HAIR reminds us of a time when in just a few short years an entirely new culture was formed around new language and vocabulary, new rhythms, new colors, new attitudes, and new sounds, to express new social, political and moral values.
At a time when we desperately need eloquence to describe a new socio-political consciousness, it is virtually unthinkable that we could turn to the arts, especially music or commercial theater, to express such sentiments. HAIR was both the beginning and the end; it's success and the success of those shows that followed in its wake insured the death knell. It was a short leap from HAIR to Coca Cola commercials that became pop hits.
But in the meantime, thanks go to Barrington Stage for reviving this period piece at a time when we need to be reminded of these things.
|
...sites that work