Hair on Broadway or at the Tibbits

Charles Burr here:

If you watched the Tony Awards back in June, you saw Hair win Best Revival of a Musical. I was very taken with Anne Hathaway's introduction to the the company's performance of the title song. It is exactly why I chose it to be part of the 2009 line up of plays.

She said:

"As we enter a new chapter in our Nation's history, the Public Theatre's production of a powerful and controversial show about the turbulent 1960's returns to Broadway. It's questioning of authority and message of hope urges us to accept the idea that if you change your life, you can change the world."

You can start by seeing one of the last three performances.....

Interview with Beau Hutchings from Hair

We thought our readers would be interested in getting the inside scoop about Tibbits Summer Theatre production of Hair from actor Beau Hutching's interview in Encore Michigan.

The interview can be found at www.encoremichigan.com

HAIR: 3-5-0-0 -- The End of Week 1

Hello readers. Patrick Young (Musical Director) here. Just wanted to give you a quick update on the rest of the week. It has been a very busy time, and I am excited to report a lot of great progress. On Saturday night, the cast had to work at the theater to help strike the Leading Ladies set so that we could load in the set for Hair. It went very quickly, but while they were working there, I had a chance to meet our band for the show. We are using a rock combo for this show - Electric Bass, Electric Guitar, Drums, and a Synthesizer. On Sunday, when we put the band and the cast together it was magic. Since I have heard them together, I have had all sorts of new ideas, and in listening to the music, have found some lyrics that really stick out, and I want to share some of my favorites with you.

3-5-0-0 --- Why write a song called 3-5-0-0? Through our research, we realized that this number is where many people consider the start of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. On March 8, 1965, President Johnson sent 3,500 marines (the first ground troops) to Da Ning airbase. They were greeted by Vietnamese women and 4 American advisers with a bed sheet saying "Welcome to the Gallant Marines".

Walking in Space --- This is the number in the show where Claude begins a bad trip. However there are some beautiful phrases in the song, including the writings of Shakespeare, that show just how educated the youth of the era were, and also what they were really protesting for, and why they used certain drugs. It wasn't to just get loopy, all though that is all we hear of when drugs are mentioned. One of my favorite lyrics is as follows. "WALKING IN SPACE WE FIND THE PURPOSE OF PEACE - THE BEAUTY OF LIFE YOU CAN NO LONGER HIDE - OUR EYES ARE OPEN WIDE".

So I am sure in reading this entry, if you aren't familiar with Hair already, you may be a bit surprised at all the controversial topics that are brought up in the show. Yes, we do talk about all of the following - Sex, Drugs, War, Government and Passive Resistance, Interracial Dating, and Discrimination. And for those of you wondering - we also perform the nude scene. Our director has been very clear from the first day of rehearsals that this scene must be there for a reason, and not just as an excuse to get naked on stage. I feel that the cast has done an amazing job in making an important scene very tasteful, and it shows a humans rebirth in a way that may seem shocking just thinking about it, but is beautifully done and very liberating to watch.

I hope to see you this week at the show, and as I mentioned in my last entry, on Saturday (July 25th) we invite any ticket holders to that performance to stay and talk with the cast and the artistic staff about putting the show together, as well as your thoughts on the production. EVERYBODY in the cast, crew, and artistic staff are very proud of this show, and we would love to share this story with as many people as possible.

Hair: GIVE ME A HEAD WITH LONG BEAUTIFUL HAIR

Rehearsal Days 2 and 3

Hello readers. Patrick Young here, Musical Director for Hair here at Tibbits. We have had a very busy couple of days, and I am excited to report some great progress. By the end of today's rehearsal we have already learned all of the music in Act 1, and have also staged and choreographed over 70 percent of the act. This can take much longer in some situations, but I give full credit to the effort of the cast in learning their parts, and doing their work at home.

Even though none of the performers lived through the Vietnam War (or as the government called it...a conflict), they are not only learning the music and movements needed for the show, but are also researching events of the time to see what the media reported at the time, as well as recollections and writings from people who lived during the era, or served in the military, in order to bring this show to you.

Since we have learned the music, we are now putting scenes and songs up on their feet, and moving away from just singing around the piano. It as amazing to watch our director, Ray, and our choreographer, Ali Gritz, getting the cast up on their feet and bringing the words and music to life. Hair, the title song of the show, is a number not to be missed as the cast not only tells their story, but also bring their happiness and excitement right out into the audience!

We also had a visit from our costume designer Erin Tucker today, who brought in wigs and other costume pieces for our performers to begin working with. It is amazing to see the difference having long hair can make, and how much more in touch with the character the performer can get. Most times, costumes are brought in during tech, but in a show such as this where so much is dependant on getting into the right mind set for the characters, every little bit helps - and let me just say that they look great!

A couple of parting thoughts to think about until the next time I write - this show is all about Americans in the 60's, and because of this some very interesting issues can come up. Who were the hippies - Were they a group of delinquents? Were the sex and drug crazed maniacs? Or were they people who just wanted to make a statement and were willing to go to any length to get people to listen to them? We don't claim to know the answers to these questions, but once you see the show, you may see a different side to hippy culture that you may not have seen before. We open in just under a week, and hope to see you at one of our performances. Plus, mark you calenders for Saturday the 25th, when we will have a special talk back after the performance that will give you a chance to talk with the perfomers as well as some of the creative staff about their thoughts on the show, as well as more information on how we put together a musical here at Tibbits.

Rehearsal Diary for HAIR--Day 1

Hair: THE DAWNING OF THE AGE OF AQUARIUS - Rehearsal Day 1

Hi everybody! My name is Patrick Young, and I am the Musical Director for the upcoming production of Hair. This is only our first day of rehearsals and the cast is already sounding wonderful. I will be writing here throughout the rehearsal process to tell you about what goes into making a great musical here at Tibbits, and offer you a glimpse into our world as performers.

Today was the first day of rehearsals, and although all shows are put together differently, we almost always talk on the first day with our director (Ray Gabica) about their concept and ideas for the show as a whole. We are fortunate for this show, since all of our cast members are under 30, that we have a director who experienced the events of the late 60's, and is able to bring in past experiences, along with all of the research that has been done about the era, the Vietnam War, and what the mood was like in those times. We were quite fortunate to have a full hour to discuss this with him, ask questions, and then we got down to singing our first musical number.

As the Musical Director, I get a lot of freedom in how vocal rehearsals work, and since I am brand new to the theater, I got a chance to go through and talk with the cast members, do some scales on the piano, and figure out where peoples voices sat. We have a great group of singers in this show, and a lot of them have a broad vocal range, so it is a matter of figuring out when they will sing melody, and harmonies, and where they sound strongest. We got to work on "Age of Aquarius" which is the opening number to the show, and after an hour of rehearsal they already sound great on it! Being able to combine such amazing music along with the ideas of the director can sometimes be a challenge, but Ray, the tribe, and I seem to be on the same page, which helps things go quickly.

In addition to learning the opening number, and also teaching parts for a number of full cast songs, we also got a chance to figure out who says which lines. Most shows are set up so that when you cast the performers, they are given a certain role, and that is their track for the show. This is more of an ensemble piece, and although certain characters have already been cast (Claude and Berger for example) we still have to pick out trios, soloists, and various other parts.

Overall, today was an amazing first day, and I am looking forward to the rest of the process, and will keep you updated on how things are progressing.

I Love You.....Caps the Season

I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE

"If this show were a blind date, you'd feel relieved, grateful and pleasantly surprised." Newsday, 1996

I love this show. We produced it, one of the first productions in Michigan, in 2001. Obviously, our audience loved it too. It is the most requested musical to bring back that we‘ve ever had. To quote from the CD liner notes: "In a theatrical age of mammoth spectacles and brooding musical dramas, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change is a rollicking throwback to a nearly extinct theatrical genre: the musical comedy revue. With book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and music by Jimmy Roberts, I Love You... reinvigorates the revue by taking a hilarious and tuneful joyride through the dizzying spectrum of modern male-female relationships.

In 1995, I Love You... premiered at New Jersey's American Stage Company, where, in the middle of one early performance, a woman in the audience couldn't help but blurt out, "This is my life!" From that moment on, the creators knew they were on to something. The following season, I Love You...moved to New Haven's Long Wharf Theater, and then on August 1st, 1996, I Love You... opened off-Broadway at The Westside Theater, where it was hailed as "Entirely winning! A show for real people about real people." (Gannett Newspapers).”

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change played for 12 years--5,001 performances-- since it opened in 1996 to become the second longest running show and longest running revue in Off-Broadway history. The musical has been showcased in more than 400 cities world-wide including London, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Sydney, Seoul, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Mexico City, Barcelona, Budapest, Prague, Milan, Johannesburg, Dublin, Buenos Aires, Berlin, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Taipei. In addition to its enormous success, the Off-Broadway production has been the site of over 50 marriage proposals.

"It's SEINFELD set to pop music!"Newark Star Ledger, 1996"Hilarious! The most entertaining show on or off Broadway!"Gannett Newspapers, 1996

Hair on Broadway....or at the Tibbits....

I thought it would be interesting for you to read what one of the co-authors wrote about the creation of Hair....

The origins of Hair by the author, James Rado:

"A guy from Washington, D.C. (James Rado) and a kid from Pittsburgh. Pa. (Gerome Ragni) met in New York City when they were cast together in a new off-Broadway endeavor, HANG DOWN YOUR HEAD AND DIE, a musical revue whose theme was Capital Punishment. Following the shortest run in show biz (one night), the two young men continued their friendship and soon set out to write their own show, a musical they entitled HAIR. The two became three when they joined up with a cat from Montreal, Canada (Galt MacDermot) who had settled into the New York area to live and who set their songs to music…

The show opened at the Public Theater and began to stir some excitement, earning largely favorable reviews, with a great one from Clive Barnes (who had some reservations mixed in with his praise), lead critic of the New York Times. Downtown (even without the "nude scene") HAIR proved to be a very warm ticket.

But after a 6-week run, Joseph Papp was done with it…. No show had ever gone from off-Broadway to Broadway before. Still Jerry and I were determined and knew that somehow, some way, we would find someone who would be able to help us move it uptown … Jerry and I had rewritten the text, and, with Galt, had added 13 new songs, expanding the score from 20 to 33 numbers.…We wanted a new director whom we had chosen, Tom O'Horgan…We installed and experimented with the new script of HAIR. Tom used various "sensitivity exercises."… The Tribe was taught how and encouraged to work organically with us on the material. It was a very exciting, smooth-going, yet tumultuous, rehearsal process. We opened at the Biltmore Theatre on April 29, 1968 (6 months after off-Broadway), and Clive Barnes, who had some reservations about the off-Broadway version, raved about our transformative work, which was hugely gratifying. For the most part, the critics hurrahed. HAIR was a hit!

HAIR has played pretty much continuously ever since its opening at Broadway's Biltmore Theatre on West 47th Street. It was translated into many languages and produced around the world, from Japan and Australia to South & Central America, from Europe to Israel."

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Charles adds: With it’s freewheeling story line and barbed comments on sex, drugs, military service, money, religion and other contemporary concerns, it’s vibrant and often memorable rock score, and a sprinkling of nudity, it shattered Broadway conventions and ran 1750 performances, while the London company performed it 1997 times. It’s back on Broadway. And here at the Tibbits for the first time, July23 thorough August 1.

'Leading Ladies' Strut Their Stuff this July

Leading Ladies is about Leo and Jack, two British actors whose careers are so far on the skids that they're performing "Scenes from Shakespeare" on the Moose Lodge circuit in Pennsylvania's Amish country. They think their luck might change, however, when they hear about Florence, an old lady in a nearby town who is about to die and leave a considerable legacy to her nephews from England. Leo convinces Jack that they should impersonate the heirs--Max and Stevie. Their foolproof plan hits a snag, though, when they arrive on the scene and realize the woman's long-lost relatives are nieces and not nephews….should they give up? Never! They don skirts and become Maxine and Stephanie. The plot only complicates as they fall in love with two beautiful girls…

So what is it about men in skirts? Charley’s Aunt. Some Like It Hot. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The Coldwater Rotary Show….There are certain things that are always funny…men walking in heels for the first time, bad wigs on “women” who are outlandishly tall, the locals enamored of these new glamazons…

I could write about how the tradition goes back to the plays of Ancient Rome---but it’s summertime. This strikes me as the perfect farce for this summer. A play with no hidden messages, just lot and lots of laughs. And boy, do we need that now!

"Ken Ludwig gives the audience something powerful and potent: laughter and a guiltless evening of Theatre-going."--Village News

"Leading Ladies is a highly combustible and continuously hilarious new comedy by Ken Ludwig, Broadway's reigning comic writer."--The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Jack Benny in the film of Charley's Aunt, 1941--Twentieth Century Fox

Top image is Arthur Askey in the British film Charley's Big Hearted Aunt, 1940

Tibbits Professional Summer Theatre 2009

GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES

I was amazed to learn that the Tibbits has never produced this show. It, of course, is based on the Anita Loos novella of the same name. Written in 1925, it has never gone out of print. It has been the basis of a Broadway play, a silent movie, a Broadway musical and finally a big screen Hollywood version of the musical (Well, sort of. More on that later.)

It is all about a comic gold-digger's trip to Paris where she exercises her potent claim "that diamonds are a girl's best friend." There are countless P.G. Wodehouse-type characters who provide her with the aforesaid diamonds. Loos was supposedly inspired to write the book after watching a sexy blonde turn American journalist and essayist H.L Mencken into a lovestruck schoolboy. Mencken, a close friend, actually enjoyed the work and saw to it that it was published. >Originally published as a magazine series, it was published as a book in 1925 and became a runaway best seller earning the praise of no less than author Edith Wharton who dubbed it "The great American novel."


The novella was adapted into a three act play called (surprise) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Loos and her husband, John Emerson. It opened in September of 1926 and ran for 199 performances--a very respectable run for a show in the 1920's. It featured Frank Morgan (immortalized years later as the Wizard of Oz) as Henry Spofford.



Loos spearheaded the musical adaptation in the 1940's with Broadway playwright, Joseph Fields. It was the second musical for the great composer, Jule Styne. Lyrics were handled by Leo Robin, who wrote with great comic flair. Carol Channing starred. It roared into the Ziegfeld Theatre on December 8, 1949 and stayed there for almost two years, racking up 740 performances.


Hollywood, of course, took notice. Twentieth Century-Fox bought it for Marilyn Monroe. (Don't you always think of Carol Channing and Marlyn Monroe in the same breath? (I believe I did. Once. When I had a fever of 104......) They took the surefire property--and threw out all but two songs. Updated to the 1950's, retaining only the basic story, it is still a fun film if only to see Jack Cole's musical numbers.

Lorelei Lee still had one more incarnation on Broadway. In the 1970's, instead of doing a revival, they rewrote the book, so Carol Channing could still be in it---telling the story in flash back and now called Lorelei. A couple of interesting songs were written by Styne with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, but it proved a very troubled undertaking. It has a small footnote in Broadway history for being one of the few shows to have two cast albums....one recorded before the break in tour...and then another after it, since it had changed so much...

I think it's a great old fashioned musical, a true musical COMEDY--and what a great way to start off the summer season. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes opens June 25 and plays through July 3.

Hair and Tibbits Summer Theatre

I think for the first time in the history of Summer Theatre, we will be doing a show in Coldwater at the same time that a revival of the same show is the hottest ticket in New York City. Hair is back on Broadway.

Usually the agents who license the shows to us are very protective of the rights. They want to have no other productions. If the show is on tour, they will not allow other professional theatres the rights to do the show until the tour closes. They want no competition. This is why we are still not allowed to do Chicago.

Well, for what ever reason, Tams-Witmark is letting us do Hair concurrently. You can "Let the Sunshine In" right here in Coldwater. Oh, and I'm told by the box office, that it has quite a nice pre-sale...

Tibbits Summer Theatre Gearing Up

I’m a bad person. (Well, that’s a little strong…)

I’m a bad writer. (Well, I like to think not…)

I’m a bad blogger. (Well, perhaps that’s the right term. And the right tone…)

I have not gotten into the habit of being able to record events that might be of interest to those reading this blog who are looking for potentially fun facts about how Tibbits Summer Theatre is put together.

I will go back and catch you up on some of the things I've been doing to get ready for summer, but let me say that casting is complete, the design teams are in place and I just have a few orchestra members to hire! We start in 30 days! YIKES!!!

Charles Burr--AD

The American flag flew today on top of the Tibbits…on top of its newly installed cupola. What a glorious sight! And a sight which hasn’t been seen in more than 70 years.

I first saw the flag from several blocks away as I left city hall. I confess, I spent part of the morning driving around town to see from what distance I was still able to see the dome and the flag. (I could see it from south-bound I-69.)

The cupola, the dome which sat on the original opera house, was removed from the building in the mid 1930s along with much of the other architectural detail as the already 50-year-old theatre was renovated into a movie house. Many volunteers have been raising funds and working on the restoration of Tibbits to bring it back to its original grandeur. A great deal has been done but nothing is as visible as the accomplishment of this past week.

On Friday the cupola was raised to the top of the building. What a glorious day and an awesome sight. People gathered in the parking lot, on the rooftops, along Chicago Street and at many of the businesses in the city to witness the occasion. It’s hard to explain the exhilaration I felt witnessing the 23,000 pound structure being lifted and set into place. And then the flagpole with its gold eagle on top, raised to the crown of the structure.

This is truly a restoration milestone.

There are photos and a video of the construction and installation on the home page… www.Tibbits.org. Please let me know if you watched on Friday, what you think of Tibbits’ new look, or from what locations you have been able to see the dome or the flag.

By the way, the ‘S’ stands for Smith…Barton Smith Tibbits, the man who built the building. The ‘B’ and the ‘T’ will be restored when we raise the rest of the funds—only $450,000 to go. More information on that is also on the web site on the restoration page http://www.tibbits.org/restoration.htm.

Christine Delaney

Executive Director