HAIR LIVE! To Air On NBC Spring 2019- Page 4

[sabrelady]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 3:11pm

Nevah said he was part of the show,( "on board" in this case just means he wants it to happen) just that the person who had done the CONCERT version of this show was "SO happy" NBC was now doing it. 

We don't know fer shure HOW it will be done but a concert style version is the only one I can see going forward and even then w a buncha edits.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 1:01pm

Direction by Paulus actually makes this much more promising to me. 

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/NBCs-HAIR-Live-to-Air-May-19-2019-with-Direction-by-Diane-Paulus-and-Alex-Rudzinski-20180724

Updated On: 7/24/18 at 01:01 PM

[Solipsist234]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 1:05pm

Oh yeah. THIS is still happening!

Also, why is it airing in May? Who is honestly going to watch a live broadcast of Hair in May? To me, it probably should've aired in like early March or late August, but May is kind of random!

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 1:10pm

I bet they will do the production outdoors and May seems like a safety net for spring/summer weather.

[BwayLB]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 1:14pm

Now I seem to be interested with Diane Paulis returning as director. Her staging of Pippin was dazzling

[TheSassySam]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 1:20pm

BwayLB said: "Now I seem to be interested with Diane Paulis returning as director. Her staging of Pippin was dazzling"

Now Pippin would be a great LIVE! tv production. Imagine those final scenes.

[BwayLB]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 1:23pm

I saw the national tour four years ago of Pippin. And the circus style approach to telling the story was simply refreshing. When Lucie Arnez led the sing along of No Time At All, that was one unexpected moment. And seeing John Rubeinstein playing King Charles over 4 decades after playing the title role was surreal. And now I want to see Waitress since it looks so good

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 1:26pm

TheSassySam said: "BwayLB said: "Now I seem to be interested with Diane Paulis returning as director. Her staging of Pippin was dazzling"

Now Pippin would be a great LIVE! tv production. Imagine those final scenes."

Last update I saw was that Weinstein had the rights for PIPPIN... goes to show how long it's been.

[BwayLB]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 1:30pm

Maybe Zadan & Meron will find another place to do the Pippin movie.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 1:36pm

Curious what their approach will be for this version? Will it be cleaned up? Nudity? Will it be anti-Trump?

[Tag]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 1:52pm

Yes, there will be full-frontal nudity on network primetime tv.

*eyeroll*

[VotePeron]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 2:42pm

My immediate reaction is that this doesn't look good for a Jagged Little Pill broadway transfer, unless it happens in February. These TV programs take months to prep for, and I highly doubt Paulus could do double duty. Didn't someone say they heard she was keeping her schedule clear? Wonder if JLP fell through, or Hair was too good to pass up?

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 2:43pm

This is still happening?!?! Oh goodie! HAiR, Jr. will air live on NBC in May 2019. 

/sarcasm

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 3:46pm

JCS just scored 13 EMMY nominations, Im sure that was a nice carrot to dangle.

 

I wouldn't be shocked if from here on out JCS format is what NBC goes with. It was clearly a turning point for them.

[jbird5]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 5:05pm

Solipsist234 said: "Oh yeah. THIS is still happening!

Also, why is it airing in May? Who is honestly going to watch a live broadcast of Hair in May? To me, it probably should've aired in like early March or late August, but May is kind of random!"

May is sweeps.  

 

[Sondheimite]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 5:38pm

Another HAIR with 30+ year old body waxed theatre kids holding up a lot of peace symbols.

Another HAIR where it's painfully apparent that the team has never taken LSD.

I was kinda on bored until someone who's proven to not understand HAIR was chosen to direct again.

 

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 5:47pm

Sondheimite said: "Another HAIR where it's painfully apparent that the team has never taken LSD"

I mean, surely that’s not a prerequisite?

”Another SWEENEY TODD where it’s panifully apparent that the team has never slit someone’s throat.” 

[Owen22]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 10:05pm

Sondheimite said: "Another HAIR with 30+ year old body waxedtheatre kids holding up a lot of peace symbols.

Another HAIR where it's painfully apparent that the team has never taken LSD.

I was kinda on bored until someone who's proven to not understand HAIR was chosen to direct again."

Somehow Diane Paulis found a way to make Hair a structured Broadway musical...at least FEEL that way.  I love this show but had never seen a theatrically satisfying production until her's. I'm will to reserve judgement until I see it...

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 11:00pm

I fell down a HAIR rabbit hole lately, and realized how much she changed of HAIR. Is Claude as big of a part as in the original? I noticed he doesn't sing at all on the Tony Awards HAIR performance from the original. 

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 11:25pm

TheQuibbler said: "Another SWEENEY TODD where it’s panifully apparent that the team has never slit someone’s throat."

Only chiming in to say this made me laugh obnoxiously.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 7/24/18 at 11:33pm

I wonder how this might affect the transfer of JLP

[BJR]

Posted: 7/25/18 at 8:48am

Well, this just got much more promising indeed.

Her revival was immediate, fresh and political. I recall seeing so many productions before hers that always felt like 1960s, The Boardgame. And hers found the vital spark in the current generation of youth (then Millennials, though now would be Gen Z) and connected their wakening political energy to the spirit of the show. Not to mention, it's true, she managed to make it feel like it had a book.

[BwayLB]

Posted: 7/25/18 at 9:06am

BJR said: "Well, this just got much more promising indeed.

Her revival was immediate, fresh and political. I recall seeing so many productions before hers that always felt like 1960s, The Boardgame. And hers found the vital spark in the current generation of youth (then Millennials, though now would be Gen Z) and connected their wakening political energy to the spirit of the show. Not to mention, it's true, she managed to make it feel like it had a book."

Now that you nebtokned it, I’m starting to regret not seeing the national tour when it came to California seven years ago. Only because I was 18 thinking most of the shows themes would go over my head. I’m 25 now. I normally do like musicals that have a real story and I didn’t think I would like the fact that Hair is a loosely connected story. But now I am interested in this production for Diane Paulis. I don’t have fantasy casting ideas right now.

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

Posted: 7/25/18 at 10:31am

For what I hope is the last time, but probably won't be...

Hair is, always has been, and always will be "a structured Broadway musical." It has, always has had, and always will have a book.

Period. End of report.

It is not a "non-" or "un-book," as popular as it was to throw that term around in its heyday. It is no more a collection of loosely connected vignettes than Company. People just don't understand the structure, and I'm sorry that they don't, but you would think, especially after Paulus' revival (which, at least to me, proved that the problem is not that the plot doesn't exist, but that it needs to be brought to the fore instead of buried in fluid-abstract staging), that someone would finally have gotten at least a hint. Just goes to show that if wishes were fishes, the ocean would be full.

The sole difference between Hair and most traditional book musicals is that, at least in its Broadway form, it attempts to cover a lot of historical -- and plot -- exposition early in the show using songs instead of dialogue, and talking more about themes than character. In a very short succession from "Aquarius" on, we:

* Meet a cross-section of the individuals the hippie movement was made up of (extroverts looking for a chance to flaunt their individuality, young people of color and diverse sexual orientations looking for a movement that would accept them and their causes, the nerdy misfits who just want to maybe make movies and the crazy pregnant chicks who love them, and so forth).

* Get some exposure to the mind-altering substances that opened them up to new things about themselves and others.

* Watch as the world inevitably turns against the kids when they realize these entitled little $#!+s have new values they don't agree with, much less understand, and the kids respond by attempting to prove that this isn't empty sloganeering from navel-gazers with weird fashion sense and they do want to change the world. (Sound familiar?)

* See their lives disintegrate as the things they've been protesting and re-examining cut close to home.

In short, a potted history of the hippie movement compressed for time, through which our characters emerge.

By the time Claude sings "I Got Life," you should have no confusion as to who to follow and what's going on, no matter how psychedelic, free-form, what-have-you, the show is, as the revival proved by portraying a couple of characters more realistically and making things in the book a touch more linear (compare the revival script to the original, and aside from some missing ad-libs that were a hit back in the day and some ill-advised edits to the book, they are virtually the same in form, meaning, and spirit).

If you still can't follow it, then I dunno what to tell ya.

Updated On: 7/25/18 at 10:31 AM

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

Posted: 7/25/18 at 10:49am

As for LSD being a prerequisite to directing Hair properly, I'll simply say this...

One of the earliest -- and best -- revivals of the show (1980, played Harry Streep's space at the Brook on West 17th Street; Jackie Hoffman played Jeanie, and later dined out on bad-mouthing the director when he'd been nothing but kind to her) was very nearly derailed by Gerry Ragni dosing the unwitting actor playing Berger with LSD and both authors doing their number where they subtly attempted to turn the cast against the management.

Does it help? Eh, eye of the beholder. But it can certainly harm, no question about it.