First the brief weight loss update: another 2 lbs. down this week and we are on a roll! :D That's a total of 41.8 lbs. gone. That's a five year old boy. O_O That's a lot of weight. In another 1.4 lbs. I will have lost 20% of the total weight I was carrying when I started this thing. ^_^ Yay!
And now on to what you came here for... or not. ^_^
OK... so, trying to approach this objectively is going to be darned near impossible, so I'm not even going to try. I acknowledge, right up front, that I went into this performance with every preconceived notion possible. I was also too churned up emotionally to notice even half the things I wanted to. And you know what? That's OK. ^_^
First things first: Hair is still Hair. Old cast, new cast, concert-in-the-park cast, community cast... it doesn't matter. It's still a wild ride and it still makes me feel. Feel what? Feel everything, man. ^_^ From laughter and joy to tears and sorrow to swelling, irrational anger. It's an emotional roller coaster and it always will be. And I adore every damned second of it. No one performer (or two or three) can ruin that. Being in that theatre again, watching this show, was like coming home.
That being said, let's take a closer look. ^_^ And please keep in mind, this is all strictly my own opinion and has been colored by the opposing forces of a) still being depressed over the loss and consequent breakdown of the original revival cast, b) still being shocked and depressed that in one week Hair will be gone from the Al Hirschfeld and c) being ashamed of myself for resenting the new cast so much that I didn't see them sooner... and the thought that perhaps we, as fans, let the Starshine Tribe down in some way by not filling their audience the way we ought to have. Again, strictly my own thoughts -- it's my journal, that's what it's for. *g*
( Snipping now an extremely long discourse on individual actors/characters that I really liked, felt 'eh' about, and didn't appreciate as much. )Overall thoughts:
This cast is not our original revival cast. There's no way they ever could be. But that shouldn't have made such a difference. I don't know when the show was originally slated to close, but the fact that it happened so unexpectedly leads me to think that it wasn't this soon. The shame of it is that there were some really great moments in this show and this Tribe and I can't help but wonder if the transition had been handled differently, if it might not have turned out better. Maybe if they hadn't taken the whole cast. Maybe if they'd transitioned more slowly, one at a time, (like with Vanessa Ray and Rachel Bay Jones) it wouldn't have been such a shock and maybe we could have kept this show a little longer.
Maybe, maybe, maybe. If, if, if.
The truth is, we'll never know. We'll never know if given a chance this Tribe could have been something just as great as the one we love, now in London. In another week, they're going to be gone and the Al Hirschfeld will be empty until the next show comes along to brighten its stage. A chapter is ending, the book is closing. But not forever. No story as lasting and soul-touching as this one can stay unread for long. Someday, some time in the future, someone will open that book again and we'll all open our hearts to let the sun shine in once more. In Central Park? At the Public Theatre? Maybe at the Al Hirschfeld. Who knows? I don't. But I do know one thing. The next time round, I'll be there for every beautiful, love-spreading, blissed out second of it.
Peace.
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