Hair! Leaving London on a High!

Hair in London just ended on the fourth of September (My Birthday). The musical was very energetic which left me whistling their tunes all night.  I've seen 'Hair' twice before at my university, so it was really cool to have something to compare this American, all original Broadway cast, to. Due to its popularity, the cheapest tickets that were for my to buy were forty pounds; I'd say more higher than a kid like me should be seating. In the Grand Circle where I sat, it was filled with a lot of older ladies and gentleman enjoying their wine. Theres no way I regret buying these 'high priced for a starving college student-priced' tickets because the show was absolutely amazing and I felt like I had one of the best seats in the house.

There are many things I had to say about this musical. What makes this musical a lot different than the other musicals like wicked is that Hair is supposed to contain tons of nudity (not the reason I wanted to see this play that badly). However, this version of Hair I saw at the Gielgud Theatre, as compared to my Universitie's (UCSC) rendition was very toned down in both nudity and vulgarity. This, however did not affect how spectacular this play was. A huge part of the musical that I found that made it as successful as it was, was the fact that the cast was amazing at getting the audience involved. They would come down to the stage and dance on some older ladies and gentleman which I found was very amusing. Lastly, at the last bit, Hair ended with a BANG! At the last song, Let the Sun Shine In, they pulled up everybody onto the stage (including me) and it was pretty much a huge fiesta on the stage for a good 10 minutes. My ex-girlfriend who I brought to the play was in tears.

Furthermore, I noticed that the 'British' would find other parts of the play more hilarious to them than to me, and vice-versa.  Everything the character Claude put on a British accent and was claiming he was from 'Manchester England England! across the Atlantic Seaaaaaaaaaaa' (sorry that's one of the songs, got carried away) the crowd would find it funnier than I. I mean his accent was definitely not the best I've heard, and I think that was the point, but the crowd found it absolutely hilarious. Moreover, after reading the 15 things not to do at a play, i noticed that going to musicals is way different than when we went to go see Merry Wives of Windsor (which was also brilliant). I saw many people who were in suits and ties dancing, singing, and clapping along with the Hair cast. At first I felt guilty because I knew every song by heart so I started out by humming out the songs, but as I looked around, I was not alone. Definitely, as their slogan said, left me with a high!

-Bryan Sadiua
bsadiua@ucsc.edu