Frank Mills: The Song, The Source Material, and the Cat

     In the spirit of living up to the blog title of “Confessions of a Broadway Musical Junkie,” I have a confession to make.  I own six different recordings of Hair.  If there are more out there, I want them.  I think it’s such a genius musical, and I’m enthralled by how the show evolved over time.  Not all of the songs are in all of the recordings.  Some songs are only on one or two.  But one song that I happen to love a particularly large amount which also happens to be on all six recordings is “Frank Mills.”  For those of you who are only familiar with Allison Case’s fabulous version of the song, which is on the new Broadway cast album, or even for those of you who are well-acquainted with the original Broadway cast album, I want to encourage you to check out how some others sing the song.  I love Allison Case’s version, but hers is the most “mature” Crissy, to me (bear in mind that I’m going just off the recording and I haven’t seen any of these performers live – Vanessa Ray played Crissy when I saw Hair in December of 2009).  Case brings a unique idea of who Crissy is and why she is looking for Frank Mills.  It is clear that she really thought about the character on her own terms.  The original off-Broadway recording by Shelley Plimpton, for me, makes Crissy seem much more young and innocent, and really captures the feel of the source material.  Additionally, I think that Annie Golden’s version from the Actor’s Fund of America benefit recording brings that same naivety, but you can feel that her Crissy wants to seem older, she feels trapped by teenager-ness.  Check out the source material, I hope you’ll think it’s as cool as I do.  You can find it here: Frank Mills.

                I have another confession to make.  I have a cat, and his name is Frank Mills.  His collar has peace signs on it.  It’s probably not all that surprising at this point that I would name a pet after a Broadway musical.  Here’s a picture of him:

For any of you who are curious, these are the six recordings of Hair that I have:

-original off-Broadway cast

-original Broadway cast

-original London cast

-Film soundtrack

-Actors Fund of America benefit recording

-new Broadway cast

If you know of one I don’t have, let me know!