Too many cuts, no context damage 'Hair'
Photo credit: Photo by Sundance Channel | New troupe rehearsing in the film in "Hair: Let the Sun Shine In" on Sundance Channel. (Photo by Sundance Channel)
THE SHOW "Hair: Let the Sunshine in"
WHEN | WHERE Monday night at 9 on Sundance Channel
REASON TO WATCH Anyone who has followed a little musical called "Hair" - which reached 30 million people internationally from 1967-1972 - should enjoy the archival footage in Pola Rapaport's hourlong documentary.
There are poignant, informative interviews with creators Gerome Ragni (who died at 48 in 1991) and James Rado, along with useful memories from director Tom O'Horgan, composer Galt MacDermot and - a lost figure in recent "Hair" history - producer Michael Butler. And the music is still really good.
WHAT'S MISSING Everything else. The film is scattershot and incoherent. Worse, it's dishonest. It completely omits any reference to the hit revival now on Broadway. The documentary was released in 2007 and appears now to have been hauled out of the vault to capitalize on interest in the Broadway hit. Without a word of update, there is no context for the history.
Even as a period piece, the thing is pretty sloppy. There are lots of generic shots of euphoric flower children, raging anti-war demonstrations and bloody battlegrounds. We hear the words of LBJ and Nixon. We see the shooting, again, at Kent State. And every so often, lest we miss the connection, there is footage of modern war protests and blood in Iraq.
As scholarship, this is too much and not nearly enough. There are plenty of political and social explanations by authors of books about the show. But there isn't a word about Joseph Papp, the powerhouse who produced "Hair" as the first show at his brand new Public Theater. Instead, there are extended interviews with the French promoter in charge of international tours, and amusing - but tangential - snips of a French news conference held years ago with Rado and Ragni and one of the early casts.
One of the talking heads is Keith Carradine, who is very smart. But, typically, we are not told which character the actor played and when. Nor do we have the slightest idea why we're watching Rado and O'Horgan auditioning and rehearsing modern young actors for a new production that is never identified. These newcomers dance ecstatically around the streets of Manhattan. We know not why.
BOTTOM LINE Split ends damage "Hair's" roots.
GRADE C-
