Sofa Snark: 'Hair' Spreads Love Nationally (HuffPo)
By: James Sims Jul. 15, 2009
James Sims hasn't figured out what's more entertaining, Hollywood buzz or Broadway chatter. So he's decided to start blogging about both. Sofa Snark is an entertainment biz blog covering everything from prime-time TV to Broadway reviews. If you can figure out anything that falls in between, he's bound to have an opinion about that too. As a Senior Editor at BroadwayWorld.com, and with gigs at "Entertainment Tonight" and the Hollywood Reporter under his belt, he's ready to unleash his wit on the world, one blog at a time.
Visit http://www.simsscoop.com/blog/ for daily blogging and follow James on Twitter at @columbiajames.
It started last summer. A thick blanket of humidity covered New York City. The war in Iraq carried on. President Bush was nearing the end of his eight-year reign. America was ready for its next chapter. With all of the elements aligned, a raucous musical sprouted up in the middle of Central Park. It aimed to celebrate life and provide a rallying cry for change. A free production, presented by the Public Theater, played to anyone willing to wait in line. The show was Hair. Everyone was welcome.
Equality is a key message running throughout Hair, the 1967 musical that originally forced people to look at so-called “hippies,” not with disdain or fear but with understanding. While the days of the original Haight-Ashbury culture is gone, Hair remains culturally relevant. And now it's another alternative lifestyle that has found meaning in the period piece.
Producers of the current Broadway revival of Hair will cancel the show’s October 11th performance and send the cast to Washington D.C. to participate in the National Equality March.
The unprecedented decision to cancel a performance in order to join the National Equality March comes on the heels of another admirable move by the Hair team. They packed the show up, for one night, and traveled to Los Angeles where the Broadway cast performed on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. While on the west coast, Hair members joined in on a Los Angeles equality rally along with Cleve Jones, organizer of the upcoming march…
Continue reading this blog post at The Huffington Post.
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