HAIR - Hollywood Bowl Aug 2014 - Casting Ideas?- Page 3

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 6/26/14 at 11:21pm

What exactly about it being "post 9/11" makes him being laid out on the flag offensive? The last Broadway revival had the same ending, though he wasn't nude.

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/26/14 at 11:45pm

The play is a time capsule into the 60s, hippies, Vietnam era. So, once you start bringing 9/11 into the mix, you've left the show...

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 3:36am

30 seconds of tableau under dim lighting is a brief flash. Sorry, honey.

Also, what production did you see that took the extra step of Claude being laid out naked on that flag? I've never heard of such a thing.

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 6/28/14 at 2:32pm

Claude's corpse juxtaposed against the flag is a crucial bit of imagery for HAIR, I think. It lays bare the fact that our military consists of people who are only conduits for the interests of our government. It's a subversion of the practice of placing the flag over the coffin of a fallen soldier, which obscures the fact that this was a human being first and foremost, and a soldier second. This was more so the case when the draft existed in 1968, when most of these kids would have had very different life trajectories had the U.S. not decided to enter Vietnam. More than four decades have passed, and it's still business as usual. We don't have a draft, but the young people in the military are still being asked to do often horrible things on our behalf.

It's not a desecration of the U.S. flag. It's a consecration via the blood of youth. "The Flesh Failures" is about how our lives become increasingly co-opted by falsehoods, and it's ultimately a plea asking us to question and reevaluate what it is we are asking of our young people. I felt the revival was a bit milquetoast and smoothed out too many of this show's rough edges (and I expect Shankman's version with its celebrity casting to be even more smoothed over), but "The Flesh Failures" was still as moving as ever.

Updated On: 6/28/14 at 02:32 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/28/14 at 3:34pm

The naked body on the flag seems like a half-assed effort to take that rather meaningful image- the soldier's corpse ON the flag, instead of vice versa- and just make it "shocking" and "edgy."

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 6/28/14 at 3:50pm

Hm... okay I missed the part about having Claude naked on the flag. The revival did not have Claude naked on the flag. (And I doubt that will happen in the Hollywood Bowl production.) Is this some other production? If so, it's not a standard practice, IME, and I've seen plenty of HAIRs.

Plus, I think I would remember seeing Gavin Creel naked on an empty stage, hah!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/28/14 at 3:52pm

"In 1968, it made sense, but post 9/11, it's offensive. The production I'm thinking of had Claude lying naked and dead on a US flag at the end. I just about went ballistic."

Why on earth would pieces of cloth most likely manufactured in China and assembled into a corporate logo put on Ralph Lauren outfits also made in sweatshops in other countries have such a hold on you now (when it apparently wouldn't have in 1968?) that it would make you go ballistic? Was it a silent, slow burn or did your fellow theatergoers get lucky enough to see you on the verge?

Updated On: 6/28/14 at 03:52 PM

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 6/28/14 at 5:56pm

It's some other production, MikeInTheDistrict.

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 6/28/14 at 8:39pm

Ah thanks g.d.e.l.g.i. I agree that that seems like it would be a lame attempt at shock and distracts from the message. I saw a college production in which Claude was revealed "crucified" on the peace sign hovering above the stage. It was shocking in the moment, but I'm not sure how I feel about the blatant "Claude was a martyr" message.

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 2:55am

Rehearsals start today. Just FYI.