In all we have fifteen options for you this weekend. How could you possibly be bored?

So here are this week’s Best Bets at Home: August 13th – August 16th:

Max von Essen Filmed Live at Birdland! – August 13th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT and On-Demand

New York’s Birdland launches a series of concerts filmed live in their venue. The series, called Radio Free Birdland!, begins with Tony Award-nominee Max von Essen. He’s joined by pianist/singer/music director Billy Stritch.

von Essen received his Tony Award nomination for his performance as Henri Baurel in the stage musical version of An American in Paris. He’s also appeared in Les Míserables, Evita and Anastasia. He recently starred in tour of the revival of the musical Falsettos.

Joining as a special guest in this concert will be Nick Adams who appeared with von Essen in Falsettos.

Tickets are $20 plus service charges to view the concert. Goldstar has discounted tickets available for $15 for this concert and the next two in the Radio Free Birdland! series: Monty Alexander (August 18th) and Natalie Douglas (August 20th.)

Adam Shulman Live from SFJAZZ – August 13th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SFJazz, which offers Fridays at Five, is launching a new live series this week with jazz pianist Adam Shulman performing a solo piano concert. Like their Friday series, this requires either a monthly membership ($5) or an annual membership ($60) to view the concert.

Shulman is a fixture in the jazz scene in San Francisco and has been for two decades. In addition to his work as a soloist and bandleader, he’s worked with such artists as Stefon Harris, Miguel Zenón, Luciana Souza, Paula West, Marcus Shelby, Larry Coryell, Mark Murphy, and Bobby Hutcherson.

This event is the first live event at SFJazz since having to suspend operations due to the pandemic. The concert is expected to run one hour.

For fans of Fridays at Five, this week’s concert features Bokanté who is joined by members of Snarky Puppy in a 2018 concert. For details of this show, please go here.

Marin Mazzie & Jason Danieley: Broadway and Beyond – Broadway on Demand – August 14th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

One of the great love stories in Broadway history is that of performers Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley. They were married nearly 21 years before Mazzie tragically died of ovarian cancer after a three-year battle with the disease.

The last concert they gave together was at Feinstein’s/54 Below and it was called Broadway and Beyond. The show celebrated their love and their careers on stage. Broadway on Demand is making that concert available this weekend.

Mazzie began her Broadway career as a replacement in the original production of Big River. She went on to originate roles in Stephen Sondheim’s Passion and the musical Ragtime. She received Tony nominations for both performances. She also starred in the very successful 1999 revival of Kiss Me, Kate! (another Tony nomination).

Danieley launched his Broadway career as a cast member in the revival of Kander & Ebb’s Chicago. He also appeared in the musicals The Full Monty, Curtains, The Visit and Pretty Woman.

He and Mazzie performed together in Next to Normal in 2010.

This concert is a fundraiser for the Cancer Support Community, Tina’s Wish and The Actors Fund through Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids. The price to stream the concert is $7.99 and allows for viewing for 48 hours.

Prior to the concert, Mazzie’s co-star from both Ragtime and Kiss Me, Kate, Brian Stokes Mitchell, will introduce the performance.

Lena Hall Presents Obsessed: Alanis Morissette – August 14th – 9:00 PM EDT/6:00 PM PDT

In 2018 Lena Hall (Tony Award-winner for Hedwig and the Angry Inch and star of television’s Snowpiercer), launched a series of recordings called Obsessed. Every month for a year she released EPs with her stripped down and acoustic performances of songs made famous by Nirvana, Pink, The Cranberries, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Elton John and more. (You should hear them, they are readily available for purchase and streaming.)

Hall is still obsessed with certain artists and now she’s performing live in our living rooms. Well, almost. On Friday she will perform live selection by Alanis Morissette. The songs she’s scheduled to perform include Thank U, Uninvited, You Learn, Head Over Feet, Right Through You and many more. Lena Hall will be joined by Music Director/ guitarist Daniel Palese.

The concert is scheduled to run approximately 90 minutes. Tickets are priced at $15 for the concert and $40 for to join Hall in her Zoom room and to have a post-show meet and greet.

If you want more Lena Hall, she also has a Virtually Live concert on Thursday, August 13th, where she will sing songs from movies. This is party of her weekly concerts benefitting the Ali Forney Center. Tickets range from Pay What You Can to $50 if you want to request a specific song be performed. For this week’s concert those song requests tickets are sold out.

Hidden Truths – Roundabout Youth Ensemble – August 14th – August 28th

New York’s Roundabout Theatre’s Youth Ensemble is presenting Hidden Truths, a play written and produced by New York youth.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s Othello, writers Jaden Tench, Nicaulis Mercedes and Xavier Chavez re-imagine a play about fidelity and deception for our 2020 world and apparently has a twist related to our current pandemic.

Shai Graham plays Omari who faces racial animus and discrimination. He’s in love with Destiny (Lia Spahn), but is forced to choose between her and his pursuit of education as a result of the harsh judgement he faces from her racist father.

The entire project, which is directed by Tyia  Boateng, has been created, designed and assembled following social distancing guidelines. The streaming of Hidden Truths will launch with a live event on Friday, August 14th at 5:00 PM EDT/2:00 PM PDT. The play will remain available through August 28th.

As of press time, the website we’ve linked to above says “ticket information will be available soon.”

92Y Jazz Concerts – 92Y – August 14th – August 17th

This weekend New York’s 92Y is making available five different concerts that will certainly appeal to jazz fans:

Dee Dee Bridgewater and the Dee Dee Bridgewater Trio from February 14, 2019.

This concert finds Bridgewater celebrating love. Of course. It’s from Valentine’s Day.

The songs include What a Little Moonlight Can Do, Sometimes I’m Happy and, of course, My Funny Valentine.

This concert will be available on the 92Y Facebook page August 14th at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT.

Eddie Palmieri – 80th Birthday Celebration from December 15, 2016

Latin Jazz pianist and composer Eddie Palmieri celebrated his 80th birthday with this concert at the 92Y. The concert begins with Palmieri playing solo piano and by the time it is over, a full band has joined him and the party is in full swing.

Paquito D’Rivera and Friends from April 8, 2017

In this concert you will travel the world of music with Cuban jazz musician Paquito D’Rivera. This 14-time Grammy Award winner plays clarinet and saxophone. With his friends they perform music that finds influences from Asia, South America, Africa and Cuba.

Dick Hyman and Bill Charlap: Duo Piano from October 14, 2017

The music of George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and more gets the two-piano treatment in this concert featuring two of jazz music’s finest: Dick Hyman and Bill Charlap. You don’t often hear two piano jazz performances, so this concert should be quite special and feature a variety of musical styles within the jazz idiom.

Cécile McLorin Salvant, Renee Rosnes & Artemis from March 2, 2018

On September 11, 2020, Blue Note Records will release the debut album by all-female jazz ensemble Artemis. This supergroup has as its members pianist and musical director Renee Rosnes, clarinetist Anat Cohen, tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller and vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant.

Those who attended this concert in 2018 already know how special this night was. Now we can all get a chance to see what happens when these women jam together.

Coffeehouse Chronicles: HAIR 50th Anniversary – La MaMa – August 15th – 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

In 2017 La MaMa in New York celebrated the 50th anniversary of the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, Hair. They held a 50th anniversary reunion with members of the creative team and the cast. Not only were stories told, but performances were given of songs from the musical.

The creators who participated were co-author James Rado; composer Galt McDermot (who passed away in 2018) and producer Michael Butler. Chris Kapp and Michal Gamily moderated the event.

Performers who participated included Shelley Ackerman, Shaleah Adkisson (Member of the Tribe in the 2011 return engagement of the 2009 Broadway revival), Debbie Andrews, Andy Berger, singer Peppy Castro, Richard Cohen, bassist Dave D’Aranjo, Hair archivist Nina Machlin Dayton, Tony Award-winner Andre De Shields, poet Magie Dominic, drummer Aaron Drescher, Lauren Elder (Member of The Tribe in the 2009 revival), Ellen Foley (Sheila in the 1977 revival), Merle Frimark, Annie Golden (Jeannie in the film), Walter Michael Harris (youngest member of the original Broadway cast), Ula Hedwig (Member of The Tribe in the original Broadway production), Antwayn Hopper (Member of The Tribe in the 2009 revival), Rev. Marjorie Lipari (Member of The Tribe in the original Broadway production), Melba Moore (the original Dionne), Natalie Mosco (Member of The Tribe), guitarist Thayer Naples, Allan F. Nicholls (played Claude and Berger during the original run on Broadway), Jill O’Hara (Sheila in the original off-Broadway production), Robert I. Rubinsky (five roles in the original production), Dale Soules (played Jeannie during the original production), Charles Valentino, conductor Balint Varga and singer-songwriter Jared Weiss.

This program will be found on La Mama’s Facebook page.

Christopher Jackson: Live from The West Side – August 15th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

If you’ve watched Hamilton on Disney+, you know Christopher Jackson as the Tony-nominated actor who portrayed George Washington in the musical. He’s long collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda having appeared in In the Heights and as a member of Freestyle Love Supreme.

In conjunction with performing arts organizations around the country, Washington is performing a concert from New World Stages in Manhattan. Each organization will handle tickets sales and share in the proceeds. Tickets run $40 per household and will enable viewing of the concert for 72 hours.

Those organizations include: Paper Mill Playhouse – Millburn, NJ, Dallas Summer Musicals – Dallas, TX, Theatre Under the Stars – Houston, TX, Texas Performing Arts – Austin, TX, Segerstrom Center – Costa Mesa, CA, Broward Center – Fort Lauderdale, FL, Straz Center – Tampa, FL, The Kimmel Cultural Campus- Philadelphia PA, Shea’s Performing Arts Center – Buffalo, NY, Hennepin Theatre Trust – Minneapolis, MN, Popejoy Hall – Albuquerque, NM, Marcus Performing Arts Center – Milwaukee, WI, Northlight Theatre – Skokie, IL and The Oregon Shakespeare Festival – Ashland, OR.

Advance word has it that in addition to performing Broadway show tunes and telling stories from his collaborations with Miranda, he’ll also perform some original songs and pop hits.

Rather than put a link in the title, we have BroadwayWorld.com links to details for each individual venue.

Hamlet – Glyndebourne Opera – August 16th – August 23rd

Numerous composers have given serious thought to turning Shakespeare’s Hamlet into an opera. Some even tried writing an opera. Amongst them were Berlioz, Bizet, Brahms, Debussy, Glinka, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Respighi, Schumann, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi.

Enter Brett Dean. With this, his second opera, Dean appeared to accomplish what no other composer could – he made a real opera that is both its own work and is also faithful to the meaning and spirit of Shakespeare’s text.

In June of 2017, Glyndebourne gave the opera its world premiere. It was a work they commissioned and according to the critics, it was money well spent.

Erica Jeal, writing for The Guardian, said of Dean’s work, “Dean’s music is many-layered, full of long, clear vocal lines propelled by repeated rhythmic figures in the orchestra, and has moments of delicate beauty…”

Allan Clayton sings the role of Hamlet; Barbara Hannigan sings Ophelia; Sarah Connolly sings Gertrude and Rod Gilfry sings Claudius.

Neil Armfield directed the production and the London Philharmonic Orchestra is lead by Vladimir Jurowski

Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak in Èze, France – Metropolitan Opera – August 16th – 1:30 PM EDT/10:30 AM PDT

As part of the Metropolitan Opera’s Met Stars Live In Concert series, husband and wife Roberto Alagna and Alessandra Kurzak will perform with the Vienna Morphing Quintet from Èze, France.

Alagna is one of the most popular tenors of our time. Soprano Kurzak made her Met Opera debut in 2004 and has since performed all over the world. They were married in 2015 and met during a 2012 production of L’Elisir d’Amore.

The program will feature selections from Madama Butterfly, Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, L’Elisir d’Amore, La Fanciulla del West, Cavalleria Rusticana, Otello, The Merry Widow and two very well known songs to which we can all sing along.

Tickets are $20 per household and allow for viewing of the concert live as it happens and repeated viewing for 12 days.

Stephanie J. Block with Seth Rudetsky – August 16th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

When Stephanie J. Block finally won a Tony Award for her portrayal of the star version of Cher in The Cher Show, the entire Broadway community was thrilled. She’s long been one of the hardest working women in Broadway. This was her third nomination having previously been nominated for the revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Falsettos.

Watch her performance of I’m Breaking Down in Falsettos:

Block joins Rudetsky for his continuing series of conversations and performances with some of Broadway’s biggest names.

Her Broadway debut came in 2003 when she portrayed Liza Minnelli in The Boy From Oz. Wicked, The Pirate Queen, 9 to 5 and the revival of Anything Goes all lead up to Drood.

If you are unable to catch the performance live at 8:00 PM EDT on Sunday, there is an encore streaming scheduled for Monday, August 17th at 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT. Some of these shows have remained available on demand for up to a week after they originally took place. You may have more than these two options to check out Stephanie J. Block.

If those aren’t enough Best Bets at Home: August 13th – August 16th, a few reminders for you:

This weekend’s operas from the Met Opera are Puccini’s Turandot on August 13th; Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde on August 14th; Puccini’s La Bohème on August 15th and Verdi’s Luisa Miller on August 16th. Our preview can be found here.

I hope these Best Bets at Home: August 13th – August 16th will keep you entertained through the weekend. Enjoy!

Photo of Artemis by Keith Major/Courtesy of Blue Note Records

The post Culture Best Bets at Home: August 13th – August 16th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Hair – 1969 Tony Awards

Nominated for Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical, Hair opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre and ran for 1,750 performances. The show, directed by Tom O’Horgan, did not win any Tonys. Amongst the original cast members were two of its creators Gerome Ragni and James Rado, Diane Keaton and Paul Jabara. The 2009 revival of the musical won the Tony Award for Best Revival.

Purlie – 1970 Tony Awards

Purlie was nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Musical. Cleavon Little and Melba Moore won Tony Awards for their performances. The show, directed by Philip Rose who co-wrote the book, first opened at the Broadway Theater and later moved to the Winter Garden and the ANTA Playhouse.

Chicago – 1976 Tony Awards

The original production of Kander and Ebb’s musical Chicago was nominated for 11 Tony Awards. It won none of them. Directed by Bob Fosse and starring Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach, the show ran for 936 performances at the 42nd Street Theatre.

A Chorus Line – 1976 Tony Awards

This is the reason Chicago didn’t win any Tony Awards. Michael Bennett’s show, with music and lyrics by Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban, was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and won nine of them. Its run of 6,137 performances made it the longest running Broadway musical. It is now number six on that list. Ironically, the revival of Chicago, still running in New York, is currently number two on that list with 9,692 performances so far.

The Act – 1978 Tony Awards

This is also a Kander and Ebb musical with the unique distinction of being the only Broadway show directed by Martin Scorsese. The show received six Tony nominations with the only win being for Liza Minnelli. The Act played at the Majestic Theatre and played for 233 performances.

Sweeney Todd – 1979 Tony Awards (though I have no idea who is sitting in as Sweeney)

Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s musical was nominated for nine Tony Awards. The show won eight of them including Best Musical, Best Actress for Angela Lansbury and Best Actor for Len Cariou. Directed by Harold Prince, Sweeney Todd played at the Uris Theatre (later renamed The Gershwin Theatre) for 557 performances.

Evita – 1980 Tony Awards

Evita, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, was nominated for 11 Tony Awards. The show won seven including Best Musical, Best Actress for Patti LuPone and Best Featured Actor for Mandy Patinkin. Directed by Harold Prince, Evita played at the Broadway Theatre and ran for 1,567 performances.

Dreamgirls – 1982 Tony Awards

Dreamgirls was nominated for 13 Tony Awards and won six of them. The show, directed by Michael Bennett, played the Imperial Theatre and ran for 1,521 performances. The Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen musical featured the staggering Tony-winning performance by Jennifer Holliday as “Effie White.”

Cats – 1983 Tony Awards

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical inspired by T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won seven including Best Musical. Trevor Nunn directed Cats which played the Winter Garden Theatre. The musical broke A Chorus Line‘s record for longest-running Broadway show with 7,485 performances. Betty Buckley won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella who sings the show’s best-known song.

Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur – 1988 Tony Awards

Jerry Herman’s musical Mame opened in 1966 and was nominated for eight Tony Awards. Amongst the three winners were co-stars Angela Lansbury (as Mame Dennis) and Bea Arthur (as Vera Charles). 22 years later they reunited on the 1988 Tony Awards and performed their classic duet from the show. (This was the year The Phantom of the Opera won Best Musical.)

Grand Hotel – 1990 Tony Awards

Grand Hotel was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and won five including two for director and choreographer Tommy Tune and one for Michael Jeter as Otto Kringelein. The show opened at the Martin Beck Theatre and later transferred to the Gershwin Theatre. Grand Hotel ran for a total of 1,017 performances

Kiss of the Spider Woman – 1993 Tony Awards

Kander and Ebb won yet another Tony Award for this musical based on Manuel Puig’s novel (which also inspired the Academy Award-winning film.) Kiss of the Spider Woman received 11 Tony nominations winning seven of them including Terrence McNally for Best Book of a Musical and for the performances by Chita Rivera as “Spider Woman/Aurora,” Brent Carver as “Molina” and Anthony Crivello as “Valentin.” The musical, directed by Harold Prince, opened at the Broadhurst Theatre and ran for a total of 904 performances.

Passion – 1994 Tony Awards

The film Passione d’Amore by Ettore Scola was the inspiration for this Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical. The musical opened at the Plymouth Theatre near the end of Tony season and ran for only 280 performances. Donna Murphy, Jere Shea and Marin Mazzie starred in Passion. All three were amongst the 10 Tony nominations the show received with Murphy taking the Tony for Best Performance by an Actress. The musical won Best Score, Best Book and also Best Musical.

The Wild Party – 2000 Tony Awards

Composers Michael John LaChiusa and Andrew Lippa wrote musicals called The Wild Party. Both were based on Joseph Moncure March’s poem of the same name and both were produced the same year. LaChiusa’s show, directed by George C. Wolfe, made it to Broadway’s Virginia Theatre where it was nominated for seven Tony Awards. It did not win any and closed after a run of only 68 performances. The cast featured Toni Collette, Mandy Patinkin and Eartha Kitt.

Caroline, Or Change – 2004 Tony Awards

Playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and composer Jeanine Tesori teamed up for this 2004 musical (also directed by George C. Wolfe) that received six Tony Award nominations. Anika Noni Rose was the sole winner for her performance as “Emmie Thibodeaux.” Caroline, or Change was scheduled to have a revival this season, but those plans have been postponed until next season. For anyone who saw the show at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre during its brief 136 performance run, Tonya Pinkins‘ performance of “Lot’s Wife” will stand as one of the greatest performances in modern Broadway history.

Fela! – 2010 Tony Awards

Fela! electrified audiences when it opened at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in 2009. The musical was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won three (including Best Choreography by Bill T. Jones). Jim Lewis collaborated with Jones (who also directed) on the book of this musical about legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. The show ran for 463 performances.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch – 2014 Tony Awards

It took 16 years for this Stephen Trask and John Cameron Mitchell musical to finally make it to Broadway. The show began its life off-Broadway at the Jane Street Theatre in 1998. Directed by Michael Mayer and starring Neil Patrick Harris and Lena Hall, the show was nominated for eight Tony Awards. Harris and Hall both won and Hedwig and the Angry Inch was awarded the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. The show ran for 507 performances at the Belasco Theatre.

The Color Purple – 2016 Tony Awards

Alice Walker’s novel inspired this musical by playwright Marsha Norman and composers/lyricists Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. This revival, directed by John Doyle, opened at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre and was nominated for four Tony Awards. It won for Best Revival of a Musical and for Cynthia Erivo’s performance as Celie. The Color Purple ran for 450 performances.

Hamilton – 2016 Tony Awards

Much like A Chorus Line (which also began its life at The Public Theater), Hamilton was the juggernaut at the Tony Awards that couldn’t be beaten. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical was nominated for 16 Tony Awards and won 11 of them. The show, directed by Thomas Kail, is still running at the Richard Rodgers Theatre with 1,919 performances so far.

What makes this performance particular emotional is that the Tony Awards took place just after the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. Given the recent events the cast opted not to use the prop guns that are usually seen in the show.

Those are 18 of my favorite Tony Awards performances. Let me know what your favorites are by posting your thoughts in our comments.

The post My Favorite Tony Award Performances appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The following musicals all have one thing in common:  Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, Pippin, Grind, Jelly’s Last Jam, Fosse and Wicked. At one time or another, they all had Tony Award-winning actor Ben Vereen as part of their cast. The man who also charmed people with his performance as Chicken George Moore in the original television miniseries Roots, will be performing for two nights at Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood. The shows are on Friday and Saturday.

Vereen won his Tony Award for his performance at the Leading Player in Pippin. The musical was written by Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson. Pippin was choreographed and directed by Bob Fosse (who won Tony Awards in both categories for the show.)

Vereen has been highly acclaimed for his cabaret shows. He’s had an amazing career and has also suffered some real setbacks including a very bad day in 1992 where he crashed his car and six hours later was hit by a car and critically injured while walking in Malibu near his home.

Ever-resillient, Vereen made a complete comeback and returned to film, television and the Broadway stage. In other words, he still has plenty of magic to do.

Main photo courtesy of BenVereen.info

“Pippin” photograph by Martha Swope. Courtesy of the New York Public Library.

The post An Evening with Ben Vereen! appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

“Hair has always been on our list and this was the year the stars aligned for us,” says Grohl. “We decided last fall that Hair was going to be the show for this summer.” When it came to selecting a director, the choice was obvious. “Adam does such fresh, creative, and unencumbered things with material that existed in other forms. Bringing the show into a new space but staying true to its initial spirit was really what brought us to him.”

Hair began its life at the Public Theatre in New York and went to the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway within a year. For a musical with hippies protesting the Vietnam War, polyamorous relationships, and nudity at the end of the first act, it was a surprise success and ran for nearly 2,000 performances. Among the show’s best known songs are “Aquarius,” “Easy to Be Hard,” “Let the Sunshine In,” and “Good Morning Starshine.”

In 1979 Hair was turned into a film directed by Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus) and choreographed by Twyla Tharp. Thirty years later it returned to Broadway after playing the Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park Series the previous year. The Broadway production won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical in 2009.

Understanding the show’s history and how to adapt it to the vast expanse of the Bowl stage was Shankman’s first challenge. “We don’t have the ability to go into the audience much,” he says. “There’s a lot of direction about [that] written into the script. Instead of us going out to them, we blow past the walls. We try to invite them to us.”

This production will have a larger cast than usual with 35 tribe members (including Kristin Bell, Sarah Hyland, Hunter Parrish, Amber Riley, and Jenna Ushkowitz) plus Kevin Chamberlin and Beverly D’Angelo (who played Sheila in the film) in what Shankman calls “advanced cameo roles.”

Shankman’s second challenge was time: He had to put the show together in only two weeks. Rehearsals began last week and the show opens this Friday (August 1). “I don’t want to cry in this interview,” he says. “It is surreal. I can’t speak for everybody who’s been before me, but I vastly underestimated the amount of work. I think in the past they have often hired principals or large groups from other iterations of the show. I happened to not have done that by accident. But I love my cast and the enthusiasm couldn’t be higher.”

Shankman never saw the 2009 revival of the show, but he was familiar with the film. “The book of the play is literally nothing like the movie. There are things I liked about the movie like the amount of dancing. So we’ve added that. The costuming was really brilliant. We are trying to tone down the psychedelic nature of the costumes. This is just a staged celebration. It’s like a concert with some dancing in it.  Something’s happening over there and over there. There’s always something to look at.”

Created by Gerome Ragni, James Rado, and Galt MacDermot, Hair was an overt critique of the Vietnam War. Given the current state of global affairs, does Shankman worry the play is outdated? “One of the things I’ve discovered is that the politics of power are always going to be fear-driven. A notion of a utopian society is a fictional notion. It seems to eliminate all notions of human behavior and instinct and fear. You’d have to eliminate fear in order for this play not to be relevant. So topically I don’t think the play will ever not be relevant. On top of that the music is so glorious it doesn’t ever feel dated.”

Photo by Ed Krieger

Originally published at LAMag.com on July 30, 2014

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