I had to put the embarrassment of missing almost 3 weeks on this blog behind me and sit down and do this today. As someone who is modestly ADD, I can easily get into a spiral of procrastination on certain things, especially if I have missed a few milestones. Each day becomes a bigger hurdle and makes it harder to get back to it. Sigh...
However, after this weekend, I HAD to put a stop to it and get this blog back on track. We are now five weeks out and I will try to post a recap of the past few weeks when I can, but this weekend demanded documenting and so here I sit, finally making the effort and doing it.
This past weekend, the Muwekma tribe had the phenomenal experience of meeting and visiting with Jonathon Johnson, the author of the book "Good HAiR Days" (one of only four books I have come across that are specifically about HAiR, the others being Mary Lorrie Davis' book Letting My HAiR Down, Barbara Lee Horn's academic treatise The Age of "Hair": Evolution and Impact of Broadway's First Rock Musical, and director Scott Miller's book Let The Sun Shine In).
Jonathon grew up in Seattle and was a budding rock and roller in the late 1960s. He graduated high school in 1969 and started looking for something to do. He stumbled onto HAiR, which was about to open in Seattle, and it changed his life in many ways. He ended up playing in several companies of HAiR, including Seattle, Chicago, Miami, many stops on the Mercury Tour, before finally closing the show on Broadway in 1972. During that time he principally played Woof, but in the end, he was the last Claude to appear in the first-run Biltmore Theatre production, on July 1, 1972.
We were introduced to Jonathon by Nina Machlin-Dayton of the HAiR Archives and her description of Jonathon as one of the most gracious and wonderful men she has ever met was, if anything, an understatement. I had read Jonathon's book early in the process of deciding to do HAiR and I already knew much about him, including the unbelievable ordeal he went through in losing his wife and one-year-old daughter to an arsonist-caused fire at their hotel while performing as Woof in the Cleveland stop of the Mercury Hair Tour. I felt like I already knew this man, both his pain and his eventual triumph over it as he put his life back together. I couldn't really believe I might have the opportunity to meet him, let alone share more than a few moments with him.
After Nina's introduction, I contacted Jonathon by email and asked if he might be willing to come to see our show when we opened and possibly participate in an audience talkback session after the show. I pointed out that we couldn't really afford anything in the way of an appearance fee, and was overwhelmed when Jonathon responded saying that he would never consider taking a fee for what he considered a labor of love, and that all he asked was to cover his basic expenses. He then offered to come up TWICE, once for the show and once to talk to the tribe during our rehearsal period.
Fortunately airfare from San Diego to San Jose (thank you Southwest Airlines!) is relatively inexpensive. Hotels however, can be expensive, and Jonathon had offered to stay wherever we could afford, not to worry. In an attempt to keep expenses down, I tentatively extended an offer to him to stay at our home and he graciously accepted!
Friday night, Barb and I had to do our last duty as house ushers/box office at Bobbi Fagone's Thunderbabe at Theatre on San Pedro Square. After the show started (we had already seen it three times and decided that was sufficient - it was good, but not something we really wanted to see a fourth time), we had dinner at Speido near the theater. As we sat there, we chatted about what was upcoming for the weekend. We certainly had good feelings from our email exchanges with Jonathon, but as the time to pick him up at the airport drew near, we realized that we certainly couldn't be sure how it would go. We also wondered how the tribe would take to spending time with this man who was not part of our relatively tightly knit group.
On Saturday morning, we had to put the finishing touches on the house (we had just redecorated my son's bedroom after he left for his punk rock band's summer tour of the country - see Arsonists Get All The Girls). Barb went shopping for dinner for the tribe and I drove to San Jose Airport. Jonathon's plane arrived on time and as soon as I saw him walking up the corridor (I easily recognized him from the picture on the back of his book), I waved and he came up to me and gave me a hug. I pretty much knew from that moment that this was going to be an incredible visit.
We stood at the baggage claim waiting for his luggage and in less than 10 minutes we were chatting about things as if we had been friends for years. I have rarely met anyone who made me feel so at ease so quickly (well, recently this is becoming a quite common occurrence when it comes to members of the HAiR "family" as that seems to be the norm judging by our experiences in Los Angeles and New York and Massachusetts!)
We talked about the 60s, the current world situation and of course, HAiR. Jonathon clearly shares many of my views about why HAiR's message is so important today, and as a former first-run tribe member, and someone who personally knows (knew) Gerry Ragni, Jim Rado, Galt MacDermot and Michael Butler, he is passionate about the show remaining true to its spirit and its roots.
We drove back to the house and never stopped talking. In fact, I can say that except for a few hours of sleep Jonathon finally submitted to that evening, we never stopped the discussions until Barb drove him away to take him to his return flight.
The tribe started arriving around 6 PM and we put the food on the grill (Barb made mountains of shish kabob along with corn, garlic bread and salad). I never saw Jonathon stop engaging with groups of tribe members. Later in the evening, I sat at the piano and played for some of the tribe who wanted to sing and we got the whole group warmed up and sang several songs from the show for him. Towards the end, we implored him to sing for us and while declining to do Sodomy (he claims his falsetto deserted him many years before), he gave us a hearfelt rendition of Where Do I Go. When the tribe joined in singing the backing parts, I got chills sitting there realizing that we were all doing something that not many people who have done this show have had the chance to do: sing with someone who had sung the very same song on Broadway, on the closing night of the Broadway production, no less.
Later on, we made our way to Kiva Retreat in Santa Cruz where we all spent a few hours chilling (well, more like cooking ;-)) in the hot tubs and sauna.
The following morning, I awoke about 8:30 and found Dudley Brooks, our choreographer (who had sacked out on our couch so he didn't have to do a round-trip to San Francisco before our Sunday morning rehearsal), and Jonathon sitting downstairs talking about guitars! We finally all got up and drove to Hoover for the rehearsal.
When the tribe assembled, we got to put on a mini-show for Jonathon, running through most of the big tribe numbers that we had already completed staging. He watched and applauded! He gave us some terrific feedback on some of the numbers and we plan to incorporate as much of it as possible.
When we did I Got Life, he noticed immediately that we were not doing the raised hands at the end of the song (during "I Got Life - Life - Life - Life - Life!") as he remembered it. We had Claude and the tribe raising their hands together on each Life and he pointed out that they should alternate hands which is a much more effective visual presentation.
We explained to him that we had tried to do that, but had a problem: with Claude trying to say his line "Life!" with his hands up, he couldn't sing into the microphone (we are using handheld mics as was done in the original Broadway and tour productions).
At this moment, Jonathon made a comment that made us realize why this opportunity was so unique. He solved our problem in less than a few seconds by pointing out (something which we had never been told) that in the original productions, Woof held the mic for Claude during the song! DUH! Of course! A small trivial detail, but one which will make at least that song much better and slightly more authentic as well. And there would have been no way to guess that, we would have had to stumble on it ourselves or settle for the compromise in the choreography that we had worked out.
After a short break, and with Jonathon's departure time bearing down on us, we gathered in a circle and I asked Jonathon to talk about the nude scene, a continued source of concern for the tribe. Jonathon reiterated that the scene had always been voluntary but that he felt it was an important part of the show and the song, noting that the last line of Where Do I Go is everyone singing out loudly "Freedom!" and he always felt that the nudity in the show at that moment clearly expressed the sense of tribal freedom. We all exchanged feelings about it, and I think it definitely helped to at least explain for us how people felt when doing this scene almost 40 years ago. We also talked about the war in Iraq as compared to the war in Vietnam and we got a lot from Jonathon about his sense of that era.
As we prepared to say goodbye, the tribe surrounded him in a huge group hug and I snapped this picture! (picture will be posted soon!)
We walked back to the car and I thanked him for being so gracious to take his valuable time to spend with us. He thanked me for giving him the opportunity! What a delight to meet someone who would say that!
Fortunately, our time with Jonathon is not over. He will return to us on July 28th and participate with us in the Monterey Summer of Love Festival concert and see our show as well. It will also be an opporunity for him to meet up again with one of his friends, (Walter) Michael Harris who sang the original What A Piece Of Work Is Man on Broadway with Ronnie Dyson. Michael will also be visiting us that weekend. What will happen on stage in Monterey is ANYBODY'S GUESS!
They say that all good things must end, but I have a strong sense that this wasn't an end, but just a beginning.
Beads, Flowers, Freedom and Happiness to all!
Jon
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