Hair - Hope Mill MCR / National Tour

To be fair, it was already announced on Twitter that Spin was on in place of Marcus this week. He did Wednesday, but no idea why he wasn’t on on Thursday.

But the end of week cancellations rather sound like a bug going around.

paulbrownsey,totally agree..,MT in the regions is already suffering and this kind of thing will alienate audiences.Where’s the transparency from production companies?

Interesting, he’d announced it on his Twitter only earlier that same day.

I went last night in Sheffield to see this. I must admit it wasnt my choice to go as my other half booked, I dont know many of the songs so didnt know what to expect and wasnt particularly looking forward to it. Marcus wasnt on but Louise in his place,(2nd musical meant to have seen him in but he wasnt on!!) some stand out vocals especially Natalie Green and was surprised by how great Jake Quickenden was. Glad to have seen it to tick it off but not one would rush back to see.

I saw it Tuesday night and wasn't overly impressed although agree most of the cast were very good singers. The sound was so loud  that half the time I couldn't understand a word and only knowing the more popular songs. it didn't make a lot of sense. Or is it not supposed to?

I saw it again last night in Brighton (with a different understudy for Berger) and I liked it even more a second time. Daisy's accent was much better (though it still noticeably slipped a bunch during Easy to be Hard). Forgot to mention this last time but Natalie Green's voice is incredibly impressive. Everyone sounded great but she was on another level.

As I said before, Hippie Life still really bothers me. It's a fun song, but it belongs in Act I. Let The Sunshine In is literally a song about how the real point of the hippie movement wasn't the sex or the drugs, it was the fight for peace. And how that fight is a hard and exhausting fight that not everyone survives. Following that directly with a song about how much fun being a hippy is because you get to f*** and smoke is just dumb on so many levels.

Despite never having actually seen it with Jake Quickenden, I can't help but feel like Tom Bales (the understudy I saw in Brighton) is a much better choice for the role, since he actually looks like a kid. Berger is supposed to be high school aged and he is literally introduced by singing a song about how he wants to f*** a sixteen year old. I've heard his performance is great, but Jake just seems way too old for the role. It's the same problem I had with Will Swenson in the role on Broadway back in 2009: Donna is really creepy when it's sung by someone in their thirties.

On the topic of understudies, I'm incredibly intrigued by how this production basically has a modular cast. It seems like every actor knows every part incredibly well and can not only jump into any other role in the cast, but combine their role with the role of the absent actor, who's role is then eliminated entirely from that night's performance. It's seriously impressive.

For example, when I saw it in Dartford last month, Bradley Judge (who normally plays Woof) played Berger, David Heywood (who's normally the ensemble role of Jackson) played Woof, and Spin (who's normally the ensemble role of Taj) didn't appear at all. Since there are no swings, nobody filled in for Jackson or Taj, instead any solo lines/choreography each of them had were split up and given to the rest of the actors, and I never would have noticed that there were two roles completely missing from the show if I didn't look at the program.

Then, in Brighton last night, Tom Bales (who normally plays Margaret Mead) played Berger, Bradley Judge played both Woof and Margaret Mead, and David Heywood was completely absent.

This is all really impressive and the actors are all on top of their game being able to fill in for people so quickly and smoothly but I've seen several posts here about how performances have needed to be cancelled because a few actors got sick and it makes me wonder why they didn't just hire dedicated understudies/swings like most plays. Is it a money thing? If so, how does the salary of understudies/swings compare to the cost of all those lost ticket sales?

Made the trip to Milton Keynes last night to see the first show of the week there.

It's a modern theatre, probably too large a stage for this. But the seats were comfortable and the front row (where I sat) is close to the stage. Decent size crowd, although first shows of the week tend to be as there are always lots of TheatreCard discounts. A few people dressing up too. And the sound was good.

Programmes were back up to £4 here.

All of the cast were there apart from Marcus, with Hud covered by "Mr Spin" (as he was referred to on the cover sheet pinned up). Interesting, as he was meant to be on when I saw this in Oxford a few weeks ago. Pleased to have finally seen Spin cover a main role, having seen him many times in this and in In The Heights. He was decent enough, but more a dancer than a singer.

They seemed to be having a lot of fun for Bradley Judge's birthday as well. He was definitely getting kissed and touched a lot more than usual. A few line changes as well, like Margaret Mead (Tom Bales) saying "sexual experience" instead of "sensual experience" to describe why the hippies grow their hair long.

All good fun and, whatever you think about the plot, I think it's hard to argue against this having some of the best musical theatre songs of all time in it.

Only three weeks of the tour left (and one of those is Cologne). I may get to Wolverhampton, but if not, I'm booked for the close of the tour in Glasgow, hopefully with a muck up matinee too. And maybe there's still a chance this could still get a return engagement in London? It would fit perfectly in the Ambassadors.

I will report back if all the first casts seized the opportunity for a paid trip to Germany

They had a different poster at the venue, showing almost all of the cast and I notice Mr Collins wasn't on that poster.

Of course, the photo could just have been taken recently when he was away. The cover notice pinned up makes it look like he was expected.

I saw Hair in Brighton last Thursday and Mr Collins was present on stage for that performance!

Happy to report that your show made it safely to Germany and that Marcus Collins was indeed present. The show was stopped just after the cast began to sing Aquarius because the flimsy curtain that was hung across the stage wouldn't come down, but after 15 minutes they had fixed it.

I hadn't seen Hair since I first got into musicals about 30 years ago when it felt far more "contemporary". It's an odd show to be sure and dragged at times, but it's still THE show of that generation/period and I thought this version was great and the ending still packed a punch. Cast was universally great and the audience (most of them clearly of the 68's generation) lapped it up. Glad I could see it here for relatively little money.

Question: Is there an inlay with the cast photos and bios around in the UK? They were selling what passes for a souvenir brochure here (all in English) but it contained zero info on the cast.

A sad closing night in Glasgow, where I recognised a load of the super fans who’ve been following the show (and have seen it a lot more times than me). Lots of people dressed up (or down, depending how you class hippie clothes).

I’ve never seen the stage so full at the end with the audience joining the cast to dance! And most stayed until the band had finished playing.

All 14 actors were on, which I don’t think has happened since opening the show opened in Wimbledon. Felt great to be in the front row for both the very first and last nights of the tour. And got some hugs from some sweaty hippies as well (as did a lot of people), but as someone who doesn’t stage door, that was nice.

Fab Muck-up Matinee in the afternoon as well.

I’ll post some more thoughts, but let’s end with some big news which I heard from several people. The tour is expected to continue in Germany next year, so it’s not the end. But it may not be the same cast.