BWW Reviews: HAIR's Got Life--And Good Times, Man!

After a successful, three-week run at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, the U.S. National touring company of HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical has now set up its multi-hued tent at the 3,000-seat Segerstrom Center for the Arts, just a mere one-hour bus ride down in Orange County. This buoyant, oh-so-blissful revival has scheduled a two-week engagement here in Costa Mesa through February 6.

(For my unabridged thoughts on the HAIR tour's opening night performance in Los Angeles, click HERE).

What a difference a zip code makes. While it retains the exact same show many saw up in Los Angeles—it still revolves around a group of disenfranchised anti-war hippies and contains the same great cast who bring to life the same vibrant music created by Galt MacDermot and book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni—something feels a tad bit off here... and it's not at all the show's fault.

Is it possible to give a bad critique to an audience rather than to the show they're watching?

During Tuesday night's opener in understandably more conservative Orange County, "subdued" was the di rigueur behavior of the night, at least from the first twenty or so rows of the house. Sure, there were plenty of scattered screams and hollers erupting from every which tier in the massive Segerstrom Hall that any show would envy. But unlike the collective rock concert-like vibe that the L.A. venue rightly showered this show, here in the theater formerly known as the Orange County Performing Arts Center, getting the diamond-and-fur-wrapped patrons to even clap along to the beat of a fun, boisterous number seemed like the most difficult undertaking ever.

Ironically, because the theater's beautiful but odd design allows for just two aisles on either side of the orchestra, the ends of the first few rows also received most of the interaction with the cast. All of this prevented the kind of rush-to-the-front dashes a multi-aisled theater like The Pantages encourages, especially in the show's dance party finale.

Part of HAIR's wonderful appeal—one of several thoughtful masterstrokes orchestrated by director Diane Paulus—is its interactivity with its audience, and the infectiously joyful atmosphere that springs up by virtue of being surrounded by all this music, love, and harmless naughtiness. It's harder, then, to solicit this kind of joy from the restrained and unwilling. These love-all, be-in, drop-out, make-love-not-war sentiments aren't exactly anything new (or even that controversial), but apparently it was plenty offensive enough that a few audience members decided to leave during intermission.

To be fair, the sheer size of the Segerstrom Hall (as well as the aforementioned two-aisled orchestra) limits the cast's ability to really intermingle with and truly (and literally) touch the audience. And granted, those expecting a smooth, traditionally-structured narrative plot will be hard-pressed to really buy into the show's topsy-turvy forward trajectory. Still, it's quite perplexing to think any of these factors really contributed to this particular audience's responses to this show, considering this same theater has hosted such fan-frenzy inducing musicals like Wicked, Spring Awakening and Legally Blonde.

Nonetheless, the exceptional hippie tribe members of HAIR gave it their all—led by the incredibly talented Paris Remillard and the superbly charming Steel Burkhardt—in their quest for freedom, peace, equality, sex, and spiritual (and herbal) transcendence. One good side-effect, though, about seeing the show on this particular stage (with this quieter audience) is the better ability to hear the clarity of the cast's words and phrases. Backed by a hard-working, hard-rocking on-stage band, the cast sounded just absolutely perfect with every note, from Phyre Hawkins' truly amazing solo on the opening prologue, to the haunting fading chorus of "Let The Sun Shine In" at the finale.

Kacie Sheik, Darius Nichols, Caren Lyn Tackett, and Matt DeAngelis also sounded better than ever here in their respective solo moments. And getting the most energetic reaction of the night—waking up even the most sullen of patrons—is Josh Lamon, in a giddy illusionist surprise that had everyone in stitches. The heart of the show, of course, remains on Remillard's shoulders in the role of conflicted Claude, the young man at the center of this beautiful circus. His heartbreaking and perfectly-sung solos on "Where Do I Go?" and, later, at the start of "Flesh Failures/Let The Sun Shine In" are still powerful highlights in the musical.

Once again, this boldly whimsical and, at times, emotionally moving rock musical still delivers plenty of soulful goods, even while this particular audience on this particular evening practiced great restraint and calm. Of course, that's fine (and, in most shows, much appreciated, frankly) if this was Phantom or Les Misérables... but for goodness' sake, it's HAIR! This marvelous show deserves more than your polite, awkward golf claps.

"But it's an Orange County audience..." my friend whispers to me as an excuse during intermission. That may be... and granted, the last performance of the show I reviewed was an explosively over-the-top non-stop party that bloomed at the Pantages Theatre. And, yes, granted the O.C.'s opening night theater-going audience (especially at these big-budget musicals) tend to skew older, and may have come to the show a bit alarmed to have to sit through a louder antidote to something like, say, Easter Parade. Fortunately, though, many audience members—myself included—found it easy to get lost in this Tony® Award-winning Be-In. Good times, man, good times.

Photos by Joan Marcus. Top Main: Steel Burkhardt (left) & Paris Remillard.
Set-Top: Caren Lyn Tackett (left), Phyre Hawkins (center) & Kacie Sheik (right).
Middle: Steel Burkhardt (center) and cast. Bottom: Paris Remillard.

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The public is invited to attend a FREE, LIVE LUNCH-TIME PERFORMANCE by the cast of HAIR: THE AMERICAN TRIBAL LOVE-ROCK MUSICAL at South Coast Plaza on Thursday, January 27 at 1 p.m. The performance will take place at Carousel Court on the ground floor level of South Coast Plaza and will offer our community a new opportunity to get a taste of this award-wining production and see show-stopping numbers for free. Following the performance, cast members will be available to sign autographs and meet audience members. There will also be ticket giveaways to see HAIR during its Costa Mesa engagement.

Performances at The Segerstrom Center of the Arts (formerly the Orange County Performing Arts Center) continue through February 6, 2011 and are scheduled Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 7:30 pm, and Sundays at 1pm and 6:30pm.

Directed by Diane Paulus and choreographed by Karole Armitage, HAIR features a book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt MacDermot.

The HAIR National Tour is produced by The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Executive Director), Nederlander Productions, Inc., Carl Moellenberg/Wenlarbar Productions, Rebecca Gold/Myla Lerner, Rick Costello, Joy Newman & David Schumeister, Paul G. Rice/Paul Bartz, John Pinckard, Terry Schnuck, Joey Parnes and by special arrangement with Elizabeth Ireland McCann.

Ticket prices start at $20 and can be purchased online at www.SCFTA.org, by phone at 714-556-2787 or in person at the SCFTA box office (open daily at 10 am). A limited amount of Student/Senior Rush tickets are available for certain performances.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is located at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa.

For more information, please visit SCFTA.org or HAIR's official site at www.HairOnTour.com.

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