By Steven Suskin
19 Jun 2011

That American tribal rock musical Hair opened at the Biltmore in April 1968 and closed after 1,750 performances on July 1, 1972. It didn't take long before more Hair was in the offing, with the Milos Forman film version coming in 1979. Hair the musical, was a free-form entertainment with a sketch-like quality; given the predilections of the lyricist/librettists/original stars Gerome Ragni and James Rado, the script for Hair was not exactly written in stone, or in permanent ink.

The motion picture Hair [M-G-M], on the other hand, was altogether different. The screenplay came from Michael Weller, author of Moonchildren, which centered on eight college students coping with the tumultuous social issues of the late '60s. Moonchildren was shatteringly good when it reached the Royale in early 1972, but it met a stone wall of generational apathy and closed after a mere two weeks. The play was almost immediately revived Off-Broadway in 1973, meeting great success both in New York and around the country.

This made Weller a logical choice for the Hair screenplay, although I suppose R & R expected to write it themselves. (They didn't seem especially happy with the results; but then, it wasn't in their nature to be happy with anyone altering their work.) Weller took many of the songs and some of the characters — or their names, anyway — and created a new story. His Hair told of a boy from Oklahoma, one Claude Hooper Bukowski (John Savage), who travels to Central Park where he meets some hippies led by Berger (Treat Williams). In the musical, Claude comes from Flushing, Queens. And so on.

The film, now available on Blu-ray, had a mixed reception; over the decades, though, it seems to have found a wider degree of popularity. It is "Hair," yes; but to me, it has never quite seemed to be Hair. To today's audience, though, it might as well be a nostalgic period piece.

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Now that we have Priscilla Queen of the Desert playing at the Palace, here's the Blu-ray of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert [M-G-M]. I, myself, find that the stage musical works, more or less, but the film is far stronger. But see for yourself. Either way, the Oscar Award-winning costumes by Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel are just as perfect as the Tony Award-winning costumes by Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel.

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Also new to Blu-ray is Martin Scorsese's 1977 musical New York, New York [M-G-M], starring Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro. Something of a mess of a movie, and a major failure in its day. But with Scorsese, Minnelli, De Niro and new songs by John Kander & Fred Ebb (including that ubiquitous title anthem to — well, New York, New York), one can hardly say this film is without interest. This is the 1981 re-release version, including the restored song "Happy Endings" (with Liza joined by Larry Kert). To celebrate the failure of the film, Scorsese and Minnelli, and Kander & Ebb, went full speed ahead to Broadway with the musical The Act. Which was really troubled.

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There are also two additions to the Warner Archive collection that will be of interest to at least some readers. Soldier in the Rain is one of those little-known movies that you stumble upon and think: this is good, why have we never heard of it? Jackie Gleason, Steve McQueen and Tuesday Weld might not sound like a compelling combination, especially here and now. But this 1963 Army-buddy film works. With a script co-authored by Blake Edwards, and composer Henry Mancini in top form.

Also from Warner's made-to-order department comes Jean Renoir's Woman on the Beach. Renoir — whose masterpieces include "Grand Illusion" and "Rules of the Game," and who is the only 20th century film director whose portraits, painted by dear old dad, can be found on the walls of the world's great museums — spent most of the 40s in Hollywood, with less-than-spectacular results. "Woman on the Beach" (1947), his fourth and final American film, is fascinating but muddled; the studio (RKO) took this moody psychodrama and reshot it, diminishing what Renoir had in mind. But it is certainly arresting. Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan and Charles Bickford make up the triangle.

(Steven Suskin is author of the recently released Updated and Expanded Fourth Edition of "Show Tunes" as well as "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations," "Second Act Trouble" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He also pens Playbill.com's Book Shelf and On the Record columns. He can be reached at ssuskin@aol.com.)

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