Hair film on DVD

Three tribal rock musical films in a row, and the best is the third. Hair lets itself unfold slowly, rather than pounding its point across from the start. You think in the beginning its just a score of loosely connected songs strung together with a bit of character interaction between; but by the end you realize it has brought you along to its side, whether you be a Claude, a Sheila, a Berger, or a Charlotte Rae.

This film also uses its New York locations much better than does Godspell. Hair shows us people who are part of the city, not apart from it, which is the sense I got from the Gospellians.
I was shocked to see that Twyla Tharp had choreographed this film. There is a lot of dance in it. Sometimes, I thing there is too much dance and that it gets in the ways of the songs. It's certainly more than you could get away with on stage, because no one could sing and do what Twyla has them do. But points for incorporating modern dance into a tribal rock musical of love.

Hair

Music by Galt MacDermot

Book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado

Film directed by Milos Forman

Choreographed by Twyla Tharp

Cast: Treat Williams, Beverly d'Angelo, John Savage, Nell Carter, Charlotte Rae

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown 1999 Broadway Cast Album

Perhaps this production was more famous for who was in it than for itself. Kristin Chenoweth, Roger Bart, BD Wong and Anthony Rapp. All had been on Broadway prior to this revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, but only Anthony Rapp (Rent) and BD Wong (M. Butterfly) had had lead roles. Rapp and Wong have kind of been left in the dust now by Bart and Chenoweth.

This is another show that says "intimate" to me, although I've never seen it staged, although it did an out of town try-out in Chicago before going to Broadway. I think fluffing it up to fill a larger house would take away some of the show's innocence. But then the high-wattage Chenoweth would seem a little out of place--particularly in the brassy role of Sally, which was created for this revival. Did the show need another brassy female when it already had Lucy--the archtypal brassy female? The male roles are all rather soft-spoken characters, aren't they? Except Snoopy, I guess.

The album was recorded a couple of weeks before the show's official opening. I wonder why?

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Music and Lyrics Clark Gesner, additional music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa
1999 Broadway Cast Album
Released by RCA Victor
Cast: Kristin Chenoweth, Stanley Wayne Mathis, B. D. Wong, Roger Bart, Ilana Levine, Anthony Rapp