Hair

photo: Joan Marcus

It's been over forty years since the birth of the cultural phenomenon of Hair but the wonderful outdoors production currently in Central Park doesn't smell like an antique: it very wisely emphasizes the show's immediate thematic current-day relevance. (Here we are again fighting an unpopular war, after all) Judiciously staged like a rag-tag happening rather than like a traditional musical, this production has been directed with a keen understanding of the show as a snapshot of a community: for the first time I understood the "tribal" aspect of this "American tribal Love-rock musical" and embraced rather than bemoaned the lack of a traditional narrative. I saw an early preview, so I won't comment on specific performances except to say that every one has been pointed in the same direction. Thanks to a sudden drenching downpour, the show had to be stopped with only ten minutes remaining. Before long the cast came back out on stage anyway and sang "Let The Sun Shine In" in the soaking rain, pulling people up from the audience to dance on stage with them. It was one of the most vivid and uplifting communal experiences I've ever had seeing theatre.

Greendale

Not open to review, and I respect that, so all I'll say is that Bruce DuBose and Katherine Owens of Undermain Theatre are in the process of adapting Neil Young's concept album Greendale (which Young also directed as a film) for the stage. Will this lo-fi album and amateur film find a place on the independent stage? Check it out; it's part of Soho Think Tank's Ice Factory festival.

What To Do When You Hate All Your Friends

I loved the cast, enjoyed the plot, and found the direction to be exactly what was called for, engaging with the pop-up book comedy of the plot and narrative. Weak spots? Sure. But what I won't forget for some time is the anonymous "Bert & Ernie" masturbation scene, in which I more or less shot a load of laughter.

[Reviewed for Show Business Weekly]

Damn Yankees

This year's Summer Encores! show may transfer to Broadway thanks to its two tv-famous stars, but Sean Hayes and Jane Krakowski do a lot less for the show than they do for its box office. He gets barely by on charm and on the enormous good will that the audience has for him after years of Will & Grace, but he's lightweight; he's less the Devil brokering deliciously for the soul of an average Joe turned baseball hero than he's a jaded brat. (He gets some of his laughs from camping some of his lines as if he's still on his tv show, but that gives his character's repeated advice to stay away from women an unintended, unpleasant subtext). Krakowski, who is regularly a delightful and engaging performer, has been asked to do the near-impossible: namely, to step into the Bob Fosse dances that were tailored for Gwen Verdon. She's fine in the book scenes, but her dancing is all exertion and no charm: we're aware of all the impressive work she is doing with her body and waiting for it to express what it means to express. The other two leads - Randy Graff and Cheyenne Jackson - are quite wonderful, and the supporting cast are uniformly terrific (with Veanne Cox and Kathy Fitzgerald especially fun and funny).

HAIR

***** (...out of 5 stars)

The Public at the Delacorte

This production kicks ass! After only ever seeing a couple of well-intentioned/poorly-realized regional community concoctions of this late sixties rock musical, sitting outside in Central Park at the Delacorte and watching this faithful, energetic, thrilling revival, I finally GOT why Hair was such a ground-breaking musical. And that makes me very happy. The sexy cast, led by Jonathan Groff and Will Swenson gyrates and wails and makes the audience feel like they're guests at a real live be-in. Staging this musical in Central Park under the moon at the Delacorte, with intermittent gusts of wind blowing through the fringe and the miles of wavy curls, is a perfect choice. I felt genuinely transported and was literally overcome with emotion by the end of it all. This is one of the best theatrical productions I have seen this year.

MITF/Writer's Block

In Shaun Gunning's Writer's Block, a playwright trying to meet the expectations (and deadlines) of his latest work struggles to turn his love-hate relationship with his agent into a means of inspiration. Mr. Gunning plays what very well may be himself--Daniel--a playwright tragically blocked by his ex-fiancee's sudden abandonment of him . . . for his brother. It's enough to drive anyone to drink one's deadlines away, even as the repo men take everything but an empty bookcase, and as the bathrobe starts to musk up around you. As he's egged on by his agent, Paula (Kate Dulcich), he stumbles his way through a series of comic failures, from a Shepard-like adaptation of his own life--in which Jack (Jack Marshall) loses his fiancee to his meth-addict brother, Gary (Steve Orlikowski)--to a sequel to a sophomoric gangster comedy, "Chicago, 1923," which playfully packs more fish-related puns into a ten-minute gag than a whole can of sardines (sans the stink). The play also spoofs the "murder mystery" play, but thankfully, the jokes aren't at anyone's expense, for they tie together into a classic showdown between a writer and his own creations, with a little romance thrown in for resolution.