Theater Reviews

Mar 8, 2008 - Truckee Meadows Community College presents its colorful version of the American Tribal Love-rock musical "Hair"

By Jack Neal

Forty years after “Hair” exploded onto the scene as a New York Public Theater presentation, the musical still attracts large audiences hoping to find out what all the fuss was - and is - about.

Not so much a musical as a revue, not so much a revue as a happening, “Hair” attempts to recapture a moment in time that is no more possible to recapture than any other legendary and happily remembered moment.

Truckee Meadows Community College Performing Arts, in a production directed by Paul Aberasturi, produced by Carolyn Wray, choreographed by Catherine Eardley with musical direction and supervision by Theodore Owens, presents a colorful version of the American tribal love-rock musical that glories in an era without really tapping into the underlying meaning of a cataclysmic time that was the greening (not the environment, but the coming of age) of America.

How can a production find meaning when a musical’s meaning is obscured by a rambling, formless book? Short of writing its own script, it can’t. All that can be hoped for is gluing together one musical number after another into some kind of mosaic that will ultimately make sense – “Let the sunshine in” - to an audience.

That’s what this pull-out-all-stops production attempts to do. It’s big. It’s lavish. It’s noisy (oh, gawd, is it noisy). It has some excellent portrayals. It has some so-so portrayals. But most of all it has heart. Lots, and lots, and lots of heart. What it doesn’t have is cohesiveness of storytelling that might give insight to America’s coming of age.

The show’s central figure is Claude, a long-haired bewildered hippie rebel against The Establishment. Claude fashions himself from Manchester, England with speech patterns to match. He lives in a small New York apartment with his friend, Berger, and Berger’s girlfriend, Sheila. His own girlfriend, Jeanie, is pregnant with someone else’s child. “Hair” touches on poverty, homosexuality, free love, drugs, war, you name it, without motivation or connection with plot. Claude’s dilemma is whether or not to burn his draft card and join the draft-evasion movement.

To love “Hair” one must skip cohesion of thought and go directly to the show’s eventful cohesion of music by Galt MacDermot, with lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado. MacDermot’s memorable melodies ride the incessant throbbings of rock orchestrations, beautifully captured in this presentation by Theodore Owens and his vital five-piece band. Ragni and Rado’s words, attached to MacDermot’s music, bring a sweet optimism to “Good Morning, Starshine” and hopefulness to “Aquarius” that lifts “Hair” to a threshold of belief in the future.

It’s that infectious belief in the future that’s the saving grace of TMCC’s “Hair.” Aberasturi’s direction is vibrant, if not sculpting enough to dynamically storytell. Eardley’s choreography is a study in how to move the masses (an appropriately large cast for a school) and do the moving with interest and exuberance. The show’s conceptual designs by Wray, Aberasturi and Ty Hargar, are knock-outs of glitz and shimmer.

As Claude, Ryan Kelly is excellent and a noteworthy singing presence (“I’m Aquarius – destined for greatness or madness.”). John Frederick is a charismatic, magnetic Berger. Singing “I Believe in Love” Josie Williams is a standout Sheila. In the hapless tag-along role of Jeanie, Jenny O scores points for loyalty and singing. Karen Donathan is an effective Dionne.

As Claude’s hippy buddy Hud, Tony Johnson does his spin on “Colored Spade” with enough gusto to win a medal for valor. Woof (“Sodomy”) is played and sung by a properly over-the-top Bernardee Bacardi. As a transvestite dubbed Margaret Mead, Owen Bryant does his mother proud. Parodying Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” Kimberlee Pechnik is good enough to be investigated by the Bush Administration. “Hair’s” only major musical disappointment is Crissy’s (Summer Schopper) what could be show-stopping “Frank Mills.” Not Schopper’s fault, the number is not staged to anything near its full potential. Ms. Schopper has just learned why legendary performers make demands.

The entire wonderful troupe of highly energized hippy gypsies looks (and probably smells by show’s end) like the real ‘60’s thing. The show’s famous nude scene is very much intact only this time gussied up with lots of chiffon.

“Hair,” the TMCC happening, can be experienced at the Redfield Performing Arts Center, 505 Keystone Avenue (in the Keystone Shopping Center), Reno, Nevada, Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through March 16, 2008. (Review performance March 7, 2008.) For information call 775-789-5671.