Long hair. 1996.

 

 

Theater days in Cedar Rapids. Circa 1996.

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TGIF! presents..."The Beauty Within" from "Starmites"!

From the 1995 Theatre Cedar Rapids production of "Starmites" . Love this musical! I portrayed Space Punk, leader of the band of boys called Starmites. It was our holiday show and a huge success. Though nominated for multiple Tony awards, it failed to win any and closed on Broadway after two months.

You know, this musical is like "Blood Brothers" - another musical I appeared in. People either love it or hate it - no middle ground. Janelle Lauer(left) and Lisa Bohn (right) portray mother-daughter.....ohhhh it's all confusing. Look it up - and enjoy the song.

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B.K. to J.I. = "Great job!"

A few months ago, my friend Janelle received an email from Barry Keating, who wrote the music and book for the "Starmites". He had just watched the videotape of the Theatre Cedar Rapids "Starmites" production Janelle and I were in wayyyyy back in 1995. So I emailed Barry myself and he sent me this lovely note:

Barry Keating on Facebook
March 24 at 4:50pm
"Hey Jeff - Just saw your performance on a dvd yesterday. Great job!"

Nice. That's me in the foreground (1995) decked out in leather, as Space Punk, leader of The Starmites. Kick-ass show. One of those shows you either like or hate. Not unlike the musical "Blood Brothers" which I was in 3 productions of - once as Mickey (one brother) and twice as The Narrator.

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"HAIR" returns to Broadway!

"HAIR", the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical makes a triumphant return to Broadway, since first shaking up the establishment in 1968. For some reason I always want to put it "HAIR" in all caps. I don't think that's right, but it's my way of attaching more significance to one of my favorite musicals - and a musical I am proud to say I performed in back in 1995. And yes, I was nakey, nakey.

AND Theatre Cedar Rapids (my old stomping grounds) is performing it this May. So in celebration of everything that is "HAIR", here's a couple of previous blog posts on the show: a review of the show I saw in LA last year, the history behind the show and my involvement with it, an interview with James Rado - co-creator of "HAIR" - that I did over the phone back in 2007, and a post on The Cowsills, who I saw perform recently in LA and who had a #2 hit with their rendition of "Hair".

Oh - a review from the current Broadway production.


The Theatre Cedar Rapids cast of "HAIR". Welcome to the Tribe! Now the "let the sunshine in!"

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"Riverdance!" Original Eurovision footage.

This is the original Riverdance - the footage Americans saw for the first time (probably on PBS). I was blown away and immediately took the tape I had made of the show and made all my theater friends in Cedar Rapids watch it. Stars Michael Flatley and Jean Butler. You may want to pause the jukebox at the top of the screen, and if you want to skip the intro, Butler gracefully makes her entrance at the 1:40 mark, followed by Flatley.

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