SASHA’S “HAIR”: UNTAMED & ELECTRIC

12 Mar SASHA’S “HAIR”: UNTAMED & ELECTRIC

Cast gets your chromosomes dancing in local revival of iconic Sixties musical. For a preview, watch Clint Viebrock’s video. (YouTube wasn’t cooperating- but the video is up now.)

“HAIR” at its roots:

Mock.

Shock.

ROCK!

The iconic Sixties musical is back and as baaaad as ever in the local revival directed by Telluride Theatre‘s Sasha Sullivan.

Go ahead and try. I double dare you not to get up on your feet to party down, sing along, clap your hands, high five your neighbor, kiss your date, kiss your neighbor’s date.

Pamela Simonson

Sasha, whose gift for entertainment is unmatched in the community, wastes no time getting down to (show) business, setting the bar high right from the get-go by featuring newbie Pamela Simonson as Dionne in the opening number, the anthemic “Age of Aquarius.” She opens her mouth and your jaw drops.

(And Sasha goes on to showcase Pamela as often as possible, but not so much as to run the risk of renaming the show in her honor.)

You think maybe out of the gate is as good as it gets, but Sasha’s emotionally rich production continues to soar as other members of the Tribe get their moments in the sun.

Claude is “Hair’s” divided soul, embracing his inner Peter Pan, but unable to ignore the voices of reason, his parents.

In Telluride Theatre’s production, Claude is a quietly commanding, always wistful, pure-voiced Jimmy Wilson.

Jimmy’s Claude hides in plain sight as a wannabe filmmaker from “Manchester England England,” but really from Flushing, New York. A waffling sort, not sure whether to burn his draft card and remain with his lower East Side New York “Tribe” or do the “right thing” and fight in Vietnam with the rest of the boys.

Jimmy’s character embodies the schizophrenia of the rest of the cast, his amigos, who are at once sweet and sour, wild and cowering, as their youth recedes in the rear view mirror and adulthood, which they fight kicking and screaming, protesting, tripping, and yipping, lurks just around the bend.

Mishky & Jimmy Wilson

Jimmy’s Claude sings two of “Hair’s” moving songs of affirmation, “I Got Life” and “Where Do I Go” with a clarity his character never really feels. In any case, Jimmy’s portrayal is too strong for his character to realize his wish to become invisible.

Mishky is Jimmy/Claude’s best friend Berger, and he plays him as a slightly hyperbolic version of himself – which is a good thing, a thing of joy. Berger is a wild and crazy guy, a flash point and flashy counterpoint to his beleaguered pal. The big surprise is that this over-the-top “psychedelic teddy bear” can really sing, something we discover early on when Mishky delivers (looking for my) “Donna” with bravado and insouciance.

Sasha confessed she stalked Will Evans until he gave in and agreed to integrate the cast by playing Hud, the Tribe’s defiant black man. Like Mishky, Evans is so cool, he’s hot. Evans sucks the limelight when he declares himself “president of the United States of love” in the wonderfully irreverent “Colored Spade.”

The third leg of the stool comprised of Berger and Hud is Woof, played for laughs (and benign wink winks from his peers) by veteran Telluride actor Ashley Boling.

Ashley’s Woof is a gentle soul who is sexually inchoate – although the way he moons over Mick Jagger (and Berger?) suggests an emerging bias. When Boling/Woof sings “Sodomy,” he casts saintly long-glance looks heavenward, suggesting a “second coming” –  any way you want to define it.

Sheila is Taylor Clay, the woman both Claude and Berger kinda, sorta love, a New York University student and earnest political activist. Her grand entrance – she is carried aloft Cleopatra-style on to the stage singing “I Believe in Love” – portends big things from this small package and she does not disappoint.

Caroline Moore, another one of the show’s gifted singers, is a natural as the perpetually stoned, but sage Earth Mother, who is in love in the active verb kind of way with Claude. Caroline plays the part as a perfect cross between madonna and militant, at once soft and hard. Her “Air” is one of the evening’s many fine numbers.

Pamela, Mishky, Will and Anna

The role of Anna Robinson, Sasha’s vocal director is to reinforce the play’s inherent dichotomy through two of the lady leads – unimpeachable authority versus assertive insecurity – playing the fretful needy Crissy to Simonson’s openly self-confident Dionne. Her solo, a pleading “Frank Mills,” is achingly beautiful. Crissy’s and Dionne’s duet, “Black Boys,” is a showstopper.

As is Bob Saunder’s “My Conviction.”

Margaret Mead (Bob Saunders)

Truth be told, Saunders has a history of show stoppers: as the governor in “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” “The Sidestep” and as Roxie Hart’s husband Amos, “Mr. Cellophane.” But Bob takes the cake (once again) as the tourist lady/Margaret Mead, who observes that long hair is natural, like the “elegant plumage” of male birds.

My conviction is that the whole cast, working as a tight knit ensemble, including The Tribe  (Stewart Barbour, Eileen Burns, Suzanne Cheavens, Karen Clarke, Mark Goldfogel, Laura Idema, Cat Lee-Covert, Dino Ruggeri, Pamela Sante, Bob Saunders, Melissa Sumpter), The Dancers (Elissa Dickson, Teresa Frank, Meghan Heller, Kristine Hilbert, Danielle Jenkins, Cat Lee-Covert, Shelby Tullous), and The Chorus (Summer Colt, Baerbel Hacke, Susan Rahmann), with their big personalities (and yes, they project as individuals), uninhibited voices, and saucy moves, is what ultimately makes Sasha’s production so much fun to watch.

But regardless of everyone’s Olympian efforts, “Hair” would have been flat and dull without the wonderful, tight band – Sam Burgess, Phil Hamilton, Bobbie Shaffer – under the able direction of Ethan Hale.

No doubt, Telluride Theatre’s version of “Hair” succeeds because Sasha Sullivan was in the driver’s seat. Her big first decision was to take the musical at face value, changing very little from the 1968 original, but focusing on the musical’s primary asset – its timeless score – to put across its universal messages about youth versus age and authority, sex, love, the draft, race, and drugs. And that was a wise choice because “Hair” is a “concept” musical and, as such, the book has always been thin, more an attempt to describe a way of life than to tell a story. As a result, Sasha’s production, filled with wistful naivete, wonderment, smugness, and yes, desperation, has an insistent, primitive beat that vibrates through the crowd, on stage and off.

But Sasha did not function in a vacuum. Her success is tied to the efforts of her choreographer, Lyndia Peralta, costume designer Melissa Sumpter, set designer Buff Hooper (who played Claude 14 years ago in the Rep’s production) and lighting designer Tree Priest.

In fact, Lyndia’s choreography could well be the most compelling and convincing Telluride has ever seen, so good all the loose-limbed moves appear spontaneous. (Which means everyone rehearsed within an inch of their lives.) In the end, the cast manages to gyrate explosively disco style, unfurls fetally, stretches catlike and/or crawls languidly, strokes languidly and suggestively, and always harmoniously.

Buff’s work is spare and as pinpoint-accurate as Lyndia’s choreography, creating a platform to showcase solos and a place for dance, ladders to climb and nests for rests. Suddenly the entire Palm – including aisles and seats – becomes an extension of the large stage.

It was a stroke of genius for Melissa to have chosen a beige/brown palette for the costumes. That meant all the color came from the performers (and Buff’s backdrop). Another righteous decision was her choice of fabrics, soft and drapey so the principal movers had freedom of movement.

Tree’s palette puts the right complexion on every moment – particularly in the controversial nude scene, which was, yes, balls out (oops) but tasteful and beautiful.

All in all, Telluride Theatre’s “Hair,” a cross between Bacchanalian revel and a Baptist revival, is a worthy tribute to the musical that resuscitated and transformed Broadway forever. Take a walk down memory lane or be thrilled for the very first time. If you have a pulse, you will love “Hair.”

Congratulations all.

Showtime is 8 p.m. nightly.

Tickets $20, General Admission at  http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/317863 or call 970-708-3934.

Note: 18+ only – Under 18 requires an accompanying parent or adult guardian. This play contains adult material – hard language, sexual content, nudity, and hard drug use.