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MARTIN DUBERMAN
Claude). Each of the two versions had its strong and weak points.
On
the whole, I preferred the original production: its relaxed pacing and
honest discontinuities seemed a more appropriate re-creation of the
disjunctions of East Village life than the military precision and hysteric–
ally pitched antics of the Broadway version. Yet the latter benefited
from an imaginative set by Robin Wagner, striking costuming by Nancy
Potts (whose work throughout the season - she was also principal de–
signer for the APA company - was impressive), and the highly inven–
tive,
if
manic direction by O'Horgan.
In any case, neither version amounted to more than decent samp–
ling of the healthier (and less creative ) aspects of hippie life. The
score, which may be thought revolutionary by Broadway standards, is
hardly innovative in the context of the rock scene. Some numbers–
like "Good Morning Starshine" are pure Fantasticks schlock. And
certain lyrics ("how dare they try to end this beauty" - i.e., pot)
confirmed my feeling that
Hair
is a packaged version of What die
New Generation Is Up To, scaled not to the patrons of Fillmore East,
but to those of the musical comedy theater.
Yet in terms of authenticity,
Hair
is to
Your Own Thing
(winner
this year of the New York Drama Critics Circle "best musical" award)
as
My Fair Lady
is to
Hallelujah Baby!.
Only
in
the context of the
worst season in years for musicals, can
Your Own Thing
be called out–
standing. It does boast a witty and ingratiating final half hour, but the
caliber of most of the evening is on a par with this representative lyric:
"Me, I'm not afraid to be; Me, I'm not afraid to see." Such fatuous
wholesomeness is, to put it mildly, somewhat at odds with what seems
to be the evening's chief intent: to make a case for androgyny.
THE APA REPERTORY COMPANY
The APA continues to seem to me not so good as its legion of
defenders claim, not so bad as its few harsh critics insist. I thought the
production of de Ghelderode's
Pantagleize,
for example, frequently
striking, especially in its deliberate fusion of historical styles, which
succeeded in giving a heavy-handed script more universal applicability
than I suspect it innately has (though apparently the APA used a
bowdlerized version ) . I had similar feelings about the
Show-Off.
The
play is a dated bit of sentimental realism, without enough invention to
warrant its length - though in the construction of one or two scenes,
Kelly shows surprising daring in the way he mixes humor and pathos.
The APA production,
in
its careful pacing and attention to detail,
made the play look better
than
it is - as did the strong performances by
Jennifer Harmon and Gwyda Donhowe. Helen Hayes'S much heralded
