At Orlando’s Renaissance Theatre, the musical “Hair” opens with Matthew Lynxwiler blasting the nationwide anthem on his electrical guitar, despairing with distortion and gildings, from heart stage. It ends with performers crying round an outsized American flag.
It’s not too fanciful to assume their weeping is for the nation itself.
“Hair” was written within the Nineteen Sixties to protest the Vietnam Conflict, and as director Adonis Perez-Escobar mentioned in preshow remarks, the musical stays “an act of rise up, an act of affection.”
Perez-Escobar’s manufacturing efficiently seems like each: It’s vibrant, pointed and impassioned. “Hair” has a narrative line, however its magic at all times has relied on creating a specific vibe — an environment that mixes anger with hope, frivolity with a profound fact. And there are lot of magic moments on the Ren.
The story follows a bunch of anti-war activists, together with freewheeling Berger, performed by Bryan De Souza with a million-watt smile and corresponding lust for all times that radiates from the stage. One other of the group, Claude, is torn between burning his draft card or becoming a member of the army in Vietnam. As they protest the warfare, the members of their self-proclaimed “tribe” have a good time sexual freedom and different methods of non-conforming.
Jaxon Ryan portrays Claude with interesting cheerfulness however his inside battle doesn’t come via right here as strongly because it does in some productions. That lack of angst needs to be a downside, because it performs down essential battle from the plot.
However Perez-Escobar clearly has his focus elsewhere as he defiantly shifts the battle in one other course. This “Hair” finds its dramatic stress within the friction between the tribe’s beliefs of freedom and present authorities actions.
“No human being is against the law,” reads one protest signal carried by a performer. On the reverse aspect: “Abolish I.C.E.”
With protest within the air, ‘Hair’ involves the Renaissance Theatre
And there’s an undercurrent of anger behind the exuberance of the solid, at the same time as they strip down for the present’s famed nude scene. Really, exuberance could be an understatement. These performers are perpetually in movement; they leap up and down the tiers of the central stage with nearly unnerving ferocity.
As befits a present about individualism, Abby Money’s dynamic choreography leaves room for improvisation. However when the ensemble comes collectively, resembling within the boppy “Donna,” the impact is eye-popping. Backed by music director Alexander LaPlante’s rocking band, the ensemble additionally bursts with vocal energy on huge group numbers just like the anthemic “Let the Solar Shine In,” one in every of composer Galt MacDermot’s memorable songs.
Costumer J. Marie Bailey creates placing imagery by clothes the solid all in white for one phase. Philip Lupo’s color-saturated lighting provides drama to a warfare scene and trippy enjoyable in lighter moments.
The manufacturing’s ladies exhibit spectacular pipes: Taty Arroyo hovering via “Aquarius,” hoping for an age of peace and concord that also hasn’t arrived; Isabel Bernal, belting “Straightforward to Be Onerous.” Take heed to Lizzy Allen’s low notes, and Leigh Inexperienced’s excessive ones.
the Ren’s massive house, rock music and the lightning-quick lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado means selecting out each phrase is unimaginable. However that doesn’t sap the chaotic, rebellious vibe.
This “Hair” is a visceral reminder of why talking in opposition to the federal government isn’t anti-American however, the truth is, as American because it will get — freedom of speech and freedom of meeting being enshrined within the Structure. You don’t have to purchase into the free-love hippie motion to grasp that what’s actually at stake is the liberty to dwell the lives we select.
Observe me at fb.com/matthew.j.palm or e-mail me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Discover extra leisure information and opinions at orlandosentinel.com/leisure or signal as much as obtain our weekly emailed Leisure e-newsletter.
‘Hair’
- Size: 2:25, together with intermission
- The place: Renaissance Theatre, 415 E. Princeton St. in Orlando
- When: Via July 26
- Value: From $39.28 (together with charges)
- Information: rentheatre.com/hair