Day 40-12/29/09

Show: Hair
Date: 8/16/09
Type: Live
Cast:
Jay as Claude
Katie as Crissy
Allison G as Mother/Buddahdalirama
Hannah in Katie's Track
Briana in Allison G's track
Michael in Brandon's track
Why: Well, I'm afraid I didn't actually get the chance for a show, but I do have a review to share. It's not like I didn't see it.


Okay, here goes for my review:
DISCLAIMER: This is my first time seeing the show officially. Before this I'd seen clips and performances on TV. So I apologize if I'm not 100% accurate, I sort of just drew a lot of conclusions based on everything I've seen/heard/read before this(I also think I go out of order in some places)

If I'm right (and I think I am) this weekend was the 40th anniversary of woodstock, so a really cool time to see the show. My mom got tickets that morning from the half-priced box office. She said the guy practically laughed at her when she asked if there were any orchestra seats. But we ended of with aisle seats in the mezz.
I knew Jay would be on as Claude, but I was really excited to see on the board about Kaitlin and Allison.
My mom said it looked like a full house. By the way, I have to say that it's really cool how different the theaters I've been in this summer are. I'm not sure if it's always the same, but there was so much love in the audience, lots of applause when the the show began and when Sasha walked out.
Aquarius was great. Sasha was stellar as usual. I took a second to notice Kaitlin's Crissy in the beginning. While Allison's is very smiley and (I'm stealing someone else's word here) perky--like people have said she is--I thought Kaitlin seemed more spirited with more varied expressions.
I know the basic's of Will's speech, and I thought I knew how it would go until the improv bits. But (to be honest) I was lucky and people were late.
"Hello, late people"
Will gave them a hard time for missing Aquarius (as they deserved);
"You just missed a great song. She sang the shit out of it."
there was tons of applause after that. I'm assuming that one of the late was pregnant, because he continued with
"Why were you late? Were you smoking? Nah, you can't smoke, you're pregnant. Is he the one who got you pregnant?.....I love having sex with pregnant people because you won't get them pregnant..."
I believe the two names he had this show were I-always-arrive-to-shows-on-time-Berger and I-don't-get-other-people-pregnant-Berger.
Will didn't get any money, but he got a hug.
Donna was good, not really anything to say. Except, I enjoyed watching everyone in the background. Especially Kaitlin and Jackie (I totally understand why people talk about her so highly, she's really entertaining)
When Bryce was introducing himself "I'm Neil..." some of the audience responded "Hi Neil" which reminded me of an AA meeting. (not that I've been)
Sodomy and Colored Spade were both good.
Jay's "accent" was so different than Gavin's. As it was pointed out, Gavin's is a little better because of Mary Poppins. It honestly didn't bother me much, because it's supposed to be a little fake. Although the accent was very different, his energy was basically the same (really fun.) Also Manchester, England was quite different. Sophie said that he did it in an american accent, I didn't really know that's what it was because I hadn't really heard his voice normally.
I'm Black/Ain't Got No was great.
I'm just going to say this part now so I don't have to try to bring it up again:
Jay's voice seemed quite different from Gavin's, but he sounded great anyway. And from where I was sitting he looked pretty comfortable.
Caissie was great in I Believe in Love, her voice is really strong.
Ain't Got No Grass was really fun. Usually when I'm at performances or concerts I don't like clapping along because I think it's annoying and disruptive, but the cast sets the mood so well.
Kacie was great in Air, I think she's really talented. I also really liked Kaitlin and Sasha in it. I like the scene after it a lot.
The scene with the parents is so good, Jay was great. and Andrew and Allison were both quite funny.
I thought Jay was excellent in I Got Life.
One question, During the "I'm gonna spread it around the world..." part, does Will always say "I love it when he spreads it!" ?
I've always loved Hair (the song.) it was the first song I recognized on the CD from when I was like....4. And I've always loved the performances of it that I've seen on T.V. Anyway, it was really great. One thing is, Jay and Will's chemistry is so different than Gavin and Will's. Like Sophie said, it seemed more like a cousin-ly or brother-ly relationship.
So I knew that they go out into the audience during Hair, but I didn't know precisely what they do with the audience members. But Briana was making her way up my aisle and touching people's heads and hair as moved. Then she got to me, and saw my really long hair and looked excited and started touching and playing with it. I shook my hair a little for her.
I love how well Andrew switches from the Dad to Margaret. He was great and really funny. And good in My Conviction. His "aaaaa..." was really good and he had to wait while there was applause to finish.
But, before he started I love how Kaitlin stood and announces "She's gonna sing" and she said it so simply and looked quite upset/disappointed after being shooed away.
I liked Going Down, but I wasn't so crazy about Josh's principal.
Absolutely loved Caissie's Easy to Be Hard. But I totally wasn't surprised.
I know Sophie said she didn't like Frank Mills, but I thought it was good. The this is that it was SO different than the Allison's. I'm not exactly sure what it was but the pitch and speed (or tempo, I'm not sure) seemed different.
Hare Krishna was good, I really love the dresses in this scene. So pretty!
Jay's Where Do I Go was really good, I saw the At This Performance clip which was good. I think it was even better.
Another thing I liked about Jay was that he looks more the right age for the character
Electric Blues was also really fun. I learned in the beginning of the show that it was really fortunate that I was in an aisle seat. Because I'm pretty tall and I couldn't fit my legs straight in front of me (I had to be slightly turned towards the aisle so my legs could have room) anyway, Anthony was coming down my aisle, goofing around with people (He took someone's hat and put it on someone else) when he got to me he grabbed/tickled my foot.
Oh Great God of Power was good, I love how well they use the flashlights
Kacie and Bryce are both so great in the scene where Jay gives his stuff out. I love how Kacie's so happy when he gives her the tambourine, despite him being mean to her before. And then how she tells him he's still a good person. And Bryce with the poster's just hilaropus
Loved Black Boys/White Boys. All the girls were great.
Another question:
Who's usually the third in Black Boys other than Jackie and Megan?
Walking in Space was so great, all the vocals were excellent and the lights were so cool.
I didn't know Saycon was leaving, but she was excellent as Abe.
I loved Allison's Buddahdalirama. She reminded me a little of one of those creepy bobble heads, but in a good way.
3500 was also awesome as well.
I really wish I had known about Saycon leaving, because I would have payed more attention during Good Morning Starshine. I really like Flesh Failures, it was so emotional and everyone was great.
I decided to dance onstage at the end, because I'm never going to see it again. It'd be a once in a life time opportunity.

I also waited at the stagedoor for awhile and met some of the cast. Jay said that it was his 18th show or something. I thought he was really great for his 18th.