'Hair' and Beard Love

To round off my week away from work we went to see 'Hair' tonight - yes, again, but it definitely rewards repeat viewings and this time we were in the fifth row, nice and close to the stage. As seems to be traditional with my visits to 'Hair', someone was off and this time it was Caissie Levy who plays Sheila, Democracy's Daughter, and she was replaced by Megan Reinking. Berger was played by Steel Burkhardt now that Will Swenson has left the show and he's a very able replacement, easily making the role his own and having an effective relationship with Claude.

Sasha Allen's voice is as big as ever, Gavin Creel is as energetic as ever, Kacie Sheik is as pregnant as ever, Darius Nichols is as cool and sexy as ever and Allison Case wins the award for being lovely because she is. Allison plays Crissy who sings about her lost love, 'Frank Mills' - I hope they meet again sometime - and who is also the hippy featured on all the posters with her arms in the air welcoming the sun.

It was great being so close to the stage to see all the little ad-libs and the friendships on stage, people who've worked together for ages and know where they can bring their personality to bear on their part without throwing everything out of kilter. It was also fun to see Gavin re-starting the big song of the show, 'Hair'. because he'd been thrown off his step by one of the lads having dirty hair while he was fondling his way along the cast (or that's what he said anyway) - no disaster, he made everyone laugh instead. He then crawled out into the audience just along from where I was sitting, stroking and fondling everyone's hair. I didn't get a fondle but I did get a hippy flower that is now sitting in a glass of water in my kitchen.

At two points tonight my mind conjured up Alex Harvey (just as Jeanie conjures Claude). Alex was in the London HairBand and recorded a few 'Hair' songs (including on the 'Hair Rave-up' record) and whenever I hear 'Donna' and 'Electric Blues' I think of Alex. The current HairBand look a bit, um, mature, and I wonder if any of them played with Alex back in the day. At the first sign of falling snow at the end of the show I can't help but think about when I saw the show in New York on the eve of Snowmaggedon with everyone laughing at the references to a snow storm which was developing outside the theatre.

One of the joys of the show is being able to join the cast on stage at the end for a mass freak out and I'm pleased to say I did it again tonight. At the end we met Alison (again) and when I turned round there was Woof (aka Luther Creek) saying, 'I like your beard, man' to me. I said thanks, I had meant to put some beads in it ('Mmm beads' he said, eyes widening with interest) but that I'd just trimmed it so it was too short. He stroked his own beard ( a Van Dyke, I think) and said he'd just trimmed his so he understood. It's nice to share beard love.

It's a great show, full of life and love and no little sorrow, but leaves you uplifted and going out into the night with a big smile on your face - or at least it does me. I'll be sad to see it close. At least I have the cast recording from the cast I've seen.

Now all I need to do is learn how to levitate a building and yip up the sun. I shall take lessons.