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Hair audience dancing on stage
Originally uploaded by Tavie

My first encounter with the musical "Hair" was via the 1990 "Head of the Class" episode, "From Hair to Eternity". I remember watching that show with my mom and asking her what the heck they were performing. That's when she whipped out her copy of that iconic record album:

She told me all about the musical, and hippies, and the sixties. Then she showed me the 1979 Milos Foreman movie, which I thought was pretty good, especially when Mrs. Garrett danced on the table.

In grade 6, our cool music teacher, Mr. Roseberg, used to end every class by whipping out his copy of that iconic record album and playing "Frank Mills" as thirty ring-pop-sucking, fade- or scrunchie-headed eleven-year-olds belted out the rhymeless tune in unison. What a cool musical. What a weird song.

Eventually, I listened to the album, bought the CD, and devoured every song with gusto. My sister and I learned we shouldn't sing "White Boys/Black Boys" in public, and picked out the harmony for "What a Piece of Work is Man". I wore a lot of tie-dye and peasant shirts and, when after leaving high school, identified a lot with "Goin' Down":

This is my doom
My humiliation
October, not June
and it's summer vacation...

Tonight I went with my sis and Myers to see the current Public Theatre revival of Hair at the Hirschfeld. I was prepared for a looser narrative than that of the Foreman film, and was surprised by how well it played without all those unnecessary plot additions. I was also very pleased with the lack of Tharpian leaping. (I have never really understood Twyla Tharp.)

I think that if I were writing a review of this production, the word "vibrant" would come up. The audience interaction wasn't even remotely awkward, and when the cutie Gavin Creel, playing Claude, visited us in the very top row of the theatre and threw himself across the laps of the girls to my left, I was delighted when he sang the lyrics, "You're full of piss!" right into my grinning face. (Although I wasn't - the Ladies' Lounge at the Hirschfeld is lovely, by the way.)

The audience play-out was the best I've ever seen in any show. The audience did not want to leave. Half the theatre was dancing on the stage with the cast. The rest of us were dancing our ways down the aisles. When Mr Creel finally made his BC/EFA spiel, he pointed out that although he didn't want to embarrass anyone, 'the writer of Hair is standing right there" - and pointed down to an old hippie shimmying center stage. Who would've gotten a standing ovation, had we not already been on our feet. How cool it must be, Myers and I mused, to have your work generate that kind of feeling 42 years later.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 12:12 AM | shower me with attention