title: Hair (musical)

text: "Hair" makes many references to Shakespeare's plays, especially "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet", and, at times, takes lyrical material directly from Shakespeare. For example, the lyrics to the song "What a Piece of Work Is Man" are from "Hamlet" (II: scene 2) and portions of "Flesh Failures" ("the rest is silence") are from Hamlet's final lines. In "Flesh Failures/Let The Sun Shine In", the lyrics "Eyes, look your last!/ Arms, take your last embrace! And lips, O you/ The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss" are from "Romeo and Juliet" (V: iii, 111–14). According to Miller, the "Romeo" suicide imagery makes the point that, with our complicity in war, we are killing ourselves.


title: Hair (musical)

text: Symbolically, the running plot of Claude's indecision, especially his resistance to burning his draft card, which ultimately causes his demise, has been seen as a parallel to "Hamlet": "the melancholy hippie". The symbolism is carried into the last scene, where Claude appears as a ghostly spirit among his friends wearing an army uniform in an ironic echo of an earlier scene, where he says, "I know what I want to be ... invisible". According to Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis, "Both ["Hair" and "Hamlet"] center on idealistic brilliant men as they struggle to find their place in a world marred by war, violence, and venal politics. They see both the luminous possibilities and the harshest realities of being human. In the end, unable to effectively combat the evil around them, they tragically succumb."


title: Hair (musical)

text: Other literary references include the song "Three-Five-Zero-Zero", based on Ginsberg's poem "Wichita Vortex Sutra", and, in the psychedelic drug trip sequence, the portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara, from "Gone with the Wind", and activist African-American poet LeRoi Jones.


title: Hair (musical)

text: In his introduction to the published script of "Viet Rock", Richard Schechner says, "performance, action, and event are the key terms of our theatre – and these terms are not literary." In the 1950s, Off-off Broadway theaters began experimenting with non-traditional theater roles, blurring the lines between playwright, director, and actor. The playwright's job was not just to put words on a page, but to create a theatrical experience based on a central idea. By 1967, theaters such as The Living Theatre, La MaMa E.T.C. and The Open Theatre were actively devising plays from improvisational scenes crafted in the rehearsal space, rather than following a traditional script.


title: Hair (musical)

text: Megan Terry's "Viet Rock" was created using this improvisational process. Scenes in "Viet Rock" were connected in "prelogical ways": a scene could be built from a tangent from the scene before, it could be connected psychologically, or it could be in counterpoint to the previous scene. Actors were asked to switch roles in the middle of a show, and frequently in mid-scene. In her stage directions for a Senate hearing scene in "Viet Rock", Terry wrote, "The actors should take turns being senators and witnesses; the transformations should be abrupt and total. When the actor is finished with one character he becomes another, or just an actor."


title: Hair (musical)

text: "Hair" was designed in much the same way. Tom O'Horgan, the show's Broadway director, was intimately involved in the experimental theatre movement. In the transition to Broadway, O'Horgan and the writers rearranged scenes to increase the experimental aspects of the show. "Hair" asks its actors to assume several different characters throughout the course of the piece, and, as in Claude's psychedelic trip in Act 2, sometimes during the same scene. Both "Hair" and "Viet Rock" include rock music, borrowed heavily from mass media, and frequently break down the invisible "fourth wall" to interact with the audience. For example, in the opening number, the tribe mingles with audience members, and at the end of the show, the audience is invited on stage.


title: Hair (musical)

text: In the original Broadway production, the stage was completely open, with no curtain and the fly area and grid exposed to the audience. The proscenium arch was outlined with climb-ready scaffolding. Wagner's spare set was painted in shades of grey with street graffiti stenciled on the stage. The stage was raked, and a tower of abstract scaffolding upstage at the rear merged a Native American totem pole and a modern sculpture of a crucifix-shaped tree. This scaffolding was decorated with found objects that the cast had gathered from the streets of New York. These included a life-size papier-mâché bus driver, the head of Jesus, and a neon marquee of the Waverly movie theater in Greenwich Village. Potts' costumes were based on hippie street clothes, made more theatrical with enhanced color and texture. Some of these included mixed parts of military uniforms, bell bottom jeans with Ukrainian embroidery, tie dyed T-shirts and a red white and blue fringed coat. Early productions were primarily reproductions of this basic design.


title: Hair (musical)

text: "Much has been written about that scene ... most of it silly," wrote Gene Lees in "High Fidelity". The scene was inspired by two men who took off their clothes to antagonize the police during an informal anti-war gathering. During "Where Do I Go?", the stage was covered in a giant scrim, beneath which those choosing to participate in the scene removed their clothes. At the musical cue, "they [stood] naked and motionless, their bodies bathed in Fisher's light projection of floral patterns. They chant[ed] of 'beads, flowers, freedom, and happiness. It lasted only twenty seconds. Indeed, the scene happened so quickly and was so dimly lit that it prompted Jack Benny, during the interval at a London preview, to quip, "Did you happen to notice if any of them were Jewish?" Nevertheless, the scene prompted threats of censorship and even violent reactions in some places. It also became fodder for pop-cultural jokes. Groucho Marx quipped, "I was gonna go see it, and then I called up the theater. ... They said the tickets were $11 apiece. I told them I'd call back, went into my bathroom, took off all my clothes, and looked at myself in the full-length mirror. Then I called the theater and said, 'Forget it.


title: Hair (musical)

text: The nudity was optional for the performers. The French cast was "the nudest" of the foreign groups, while the London cast "found nudity the hardest to achieve". The Swedish cast was reluctant to disrobe, but in Copenhagen, the tribe thought the nudity too tame and decided to walk naked up and down the aisle during the show's prelude. In some early performances, the Germans played their scene behind a big sheet labeled "CENSORED". Original Broadway cast member Natalie Mosco said, "I was dead set against the nude scene at first, but I remembered my acting teacher having said that part of acting is being private in public. So I did it." According to Melba Moore, "It doesn't mean anything except what you want it to mean. We put so much value on clothing. . ... It's like so much else people get uptight about." Donna Summer, who was in the German production, said that "it was not meant to be sexual. ... We stood naked to comment on the fact that society makes more of nudity than killing." Rado said that "being naked in front of an audience, you're baring your soul. Not only the soul but the whole body was being exposed. It was very apt, very honest and almost necessary."


title: Hair (musical)

text: After studying the music of the Bantu at Cape Town University, MacDermot incorporated African rhythms into the score of "Hair". He listened to "what [the Bantu] called quaylas ... [which have a] very characteristic beat, very similar to rock. Much deeper though. ... "Hair" is very African – a lot of [the] rhythms, not the tunes so much." Quaylas stress beats on unexpected syllables, and this influence can be heard in songs like "What a Piece of Work Is Man" and "Ain't Got No Grass". MacDermot said, "My idea was to make a total funk show. They said they wanted rock & roll – but to me that translated to 'funk.'" That funk is evident throughout the score, notably in songs like "Colored Spade" and "Walking in Space".


title: Hair (musical)

text: MacDermot has claimed that the songs "can't all be the same. You've got to get different styles. ... I like to think they're all a little different." As such, the music in "Hair" runs the gamut of rock: from the rockabilly sensibilities of "Don't Put it Down" to the folk rock rhythms of "Frank Mills" and "What a Piece of Work is Man". "Easy to Be Hard" is pure rhythm and blues, and protest rock anthems abound: "Ain't Got No" and "The Flesh Failures". The acid rock of "Walking in Space" and "Aquarius" are balanced by the mainstream pop of "Good Morning Starshine". Scott Miller ties the music of "Hair" to the hippies' political themes: "The hippies ... were determined to create art of the people and their chosen art form, rock/folk music was by its definition, populist. ... [T]he hippies' music was often very angry, its anger directed at those who would prostitute the Constitution, who would sell America out, who would betray what America stood for; in other words, directed at their parents and the government." Theatre historian John Kenrick explains the application of rock music to the medium of the stage:


title: Hair (musical)

text: The music did not resonate with everyone. Leonard Bernstein remarked "the songs are just laundry lists" and walked out of the production. Richard Rodgers could only hear the beat and called it "one-third music".


title: Hair (musical)

text: John Fogerty said, ""Hair" is such a watered down version of what is really going on that I can't get behind it at all." Gene Lees, writing for "High Fidelity", stated that John Lennon found it "dull", and he wrote, "I do not know any musician who thinks it's good."


title: Hair (musical)

text: The score had many more songs than were typical of Broadway shows of the day. Most Broadway shows had about per act; "Hair"'s total is in the thirties. This list reflects the most common Broadway lineup.


title: Hair (musical)

text: The show was under almost perpetual re-write. Thirteen songs were added between the production at the Public Theater and Broadway, including "I Believe in Love". "The Climax" and "Dead End" were cut between the productions, and "Exanaplanetooch" and "You Are Standing on My Bed" were present in previews but cut before Broadway. The Shakespearean speech "What a piece of work is a man" was originally spoken by Claude and musicalized by MacDermot for Broadway, and "Hashish" was formed from an early speech of Berger's. Subsequent productions have included "Hello There", "Dead End", and "Hippie Life" – a song originally written for the film that Rado included in several productions in Europe in the 1990s. The 2009 Broadway revival included the ten-second "Sheila Franklin" and "O Great God of Power", two songs that were cut from the original production.


title: Hair (musical)

text: The first recording of "Hair" was made in 1967 featuring the off-Broadway cast. The original Broadway cast recording received a Grammy Award in 1969 for Best Score from an Original Cast Show Album and sold nearly 3 million copies in the U.S. by December 1969. It charted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the last Broadway cast album to do so (as of 2016). It stayed at No. 1 for 13 weeks in 1969. The album also peaked at number 2 in Australia in 1970. "The New York Times" noted in 2007 that "The cast album of "Hair" was ... a must-have for the middle classes. Its exotic orange-and-green cover art imprinted itself instantly and indelibly on the psyche. ... [It] became a pop-rock classic that, like all good pop, has an appeal that transcends particular tastes for genre or period." In 2019, the Library of Congress added the original Broadway cast album to the National Recording Registry.


title: Hair (musical)

text: The 1993 London revival cast album contains new music that has been incorporated into the standard rental version. A 1969 studio album, "DisinHAIRited" (RCA Victor LSO-1163), contains the following songs that had been written for the show but saw varying amounts of stage time. Some of the songs were cut between the Public and Broadway productions, some had been left off the original cast album due to space, and a few were never performed onstage.


title: Hair (musical)

text: Songs from "Hair" have been recorded by numerous artists, including Shirley Bassey, Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross. "Good Morning Starshine" was sung on a 1969 episode of "Sesame Street" by cast member Bob McGrath, and versions by artists such as Sarah Brightman, Petula Clark, and Strawberry Alarm Clock have been recorded. Artists as varied as Liza Minnelli and The Lemonheads have recorded "Frank Mills", and Andrea McArdle, Jennifer Warnes, and Sérgio Mendes have each contributed versions of "Easy to Be Hard". "Hair" also helped launch recording careers for performers Meat Loaf, Dobie Gray, Jennifer Warnes, Jobriath, Bert Sommer, Ronnie Dyson, Donna Summer and Melba Moore, among others.


title: Hair (musical)

text: The score of "Hair" saw chart successes, as well. The 5th Dimension released "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" in 1969, which won Record of the Year in 1970 and topped the charts for six weeks. The Cowsills' recording of the title song "Hair" climbed to on the "Billboard" Hot 100. while Oliver's rendition of "Good Morning Starshine" reached . Three Dog Night's version of "Easy to Be Hard" went to . Nina Simone's 1968 medley of "Ain't Got No / I Got Life" reached the top 5 on the British charts. In 1970, ASCAP announced that "Aquarius" was played more frequently on U.S. radio and television than any other song that year.


title: Hair (musical)

text: Productions in England, Germany, France, Sweden, Japan, Israel, the Netherlands, Australia and elsewhere released cast albums, and over 1,000 vocal and/or instrumental performances of individual songs from "Hair" have been recorded. Such broad attention was paid to the recordings of "Hair" that, after an unprecedented bidding war, ABC Records was willing to pay a record amount for MacDermot's next Broadway adaptation "Two Gentlemen of Verona". The 2009 revival recording, released on June 23, debuted at on "Billboard"'s "Top Cast Album" chart and at in the Top 200, qualifying it as the highest debuting album in Ghostlight Records history.


title: Hair (musical)

text: Reception to "Hair" upon its Broadway premiere was, with exceptions, overwhelmingly positive. Clive Barnes wrote in the "New York Times": "What is so likable about "Hair" ... ? I think it is simply that it is so likable. So new, so fresh, and so unassuming, even in its pretensions." John J. O'Connor of "The Wall Street Journal" said the show was "exuberantly defiant and the production explodes into every nook and cranny of the Biltmore Theater". Richard Watts Jr. of the "New York Post" wrote that "it has a surprising if perhaps unintentional charm, its high spirits are contagious, and its young zestfulness makes it difficult to resist."


title: Hair (musical)

text: Television reviews were even more enthusiastic. Allan Jeffreys of ABC said the actors were "the most talented hippies you'll ever see ... directed in a wonderfully wild fashion by Tom O'Horgan." Leonard Probst of NBC said ""Hair" is the only new concept in musicals on Broadway in years and it's more fun than any other this season". John Wingate of WOR TV praised MacDermot's "dynamic score" that "blasts and soars", and Len Harris of CBS said "I've finally found the best musical of the Broadway season ... it's that sloppy, vulgar, terrific tribal love rock musical "Hair"."


title: Hair (musical)

text: A reviewer from "Variety", on the other hand, called the show "loony" and "without a story, form, music, dancing, beauty or artistry. ... It's impossible to tell whether [the cast has] talent. Maybe talent is irrelevant in this new kind of show business." Reviews in the news weeklies were mixed; Jack Kroll in "Newsweek" wrote, "There is no denying the sheer kinetic drive of this new "Hair" ... there is something hard, grabby, slightly corrupt about O'Horgan's virtuosity, like Busby Berkeley gone bitchy." But a reviewer from "Time" wrote that although the show "thrums with vitality [it is] crippled by being a bookless musical and, like a boneless fish, it drifts when it should swim."


title: Hair (musical)

text: Reviews were mixed when "Hair" opened in London. Irving Wardle in "The Times" wrote, "Its honesty and passion give it the quality of a true theatrical celebration – the joyous sound of a group of people telling the world exactly what they feel." In the "Financial Times", B. A. Young agreed that "Hair" was "not only a wildly enjoyable evening, but a thoroughly moral one." However, in his final review before retiring after 48 years, 78-year-old W. A. Darlington of "The Daily Telegraph" wrote that he had "tried hard", but found the evening "a complete bore – noisy, ugly and quite desperately funny".


title: Hair (musical)

text: Acknowledging the show's critics, Scott Miller wrote in 2001 that "some people can't see past the appearance of chaos and randomness to the brilliant construction and sophisticated imagery underneath." Miller notes, "Not only did many of the lyrics not rhyme, but many of the songs didn't really have endings, just a slowing down and stopping, so the audience didn't know when to applaud. ... The show rejected every convention of Broadway, of traditional theatre in general, and of the American musical in specific. And it was brilliant."


title: Hair (musical)

text: "Hair" challenged many of the norms held by Western society in 1968. The name itself, inspired by the name of a Jim Dine painting depicting a comb and a few strands of hair, was a reaction to the restrictions of civilization and consumerism and a preference for naturalism. Rado remembers that long hair "was a visible form of awareness in the consciousness expansion. The longer the hair got, the more expansive the mind was. Long hair was shocking, and it was a revolutionary act to grow long hair. It was kind of a flag, really."


title: Hair (musical)

text: The musical caused controversy when it was first staged. The Act I finale was the first time a Broadway show had seen totally naked actors and actresses, and the show was charged with the desecration of the American flag and the use of obscene language. These controversies, in addition to the anti-Vietnam War theme, attracted occasional threats and acts of violence during the show's early years and became the basis for legal actions both when the show opened in other cities and on tour. Two cases eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court.


title: Hair (musical)

text: The touring company of "Hair" met with resistance throughout the United States. In South Bend, Indiana, the Morris Civic Auditorium refused booking, and in Evansville, Indiana, the production was picketed by several church groups. In Indianapolis, Indiana, the producers had difficulty securing a theater, and city authorities suggested that the cast wear body stockings as a compromise to the city's ordinance prohibiting publicly displayed nudity. Productions were frequently confronted with the closure of theaters by the fire marshal, as in Gladewater, Texas. Chattanooga's 1972 refusal to allow the play to be shown at the city-owned Memorial Auditorium was later found by the U.S. Supreme Court to be an unlawful prior restraint.


title: Hair (musical)

text: The legal challenges against the Boston production were appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Chief of the Licensing Bureau took exception to the portrayal of the American flag in the piece, saying, "anyone who desecrates the flag should be whipped on Boston Common." Although the scene was removed before opening, the District Attorney's office began plans to stop the show, claiming that "lewd and lascivious" actions were taking place onstage. The "Hair" legal team obtained an injunction against criminal prosecution from the Superior Court, and the D.A. appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. At the request of both parties, several of the justices viewed the production and handed down a ruling that "each member of the cast [must] be clothed to a reasonable extent." The cast defiantly played the scene nude later that night, stating that the ruling was vague as to when it would take effect. The next day, April 10, 1970, the production closed, and movie houses, fearing the ruling on nudity, began excising scenes from films in their exhibition. After the Federal appellate bench reversed the Massachusetts court's ruling, the D.A. appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 4–4 decision, the Court upheld the lower court's decision, allowing "Hair" to re-open on May 22.


title: Hair (musical)

text: In April 1971, a bomb was thrown at the exterior of a theater in Cleveland, Ohio that had been housing a production, bouncing off the marquee and shattering windows in the building and in nearby storefronts. That same month, the families of cast member Jonathon Johnson and stage manager Rusty Carlson died in a fire in the Cleveland hotel where 33 members of the show's troupe had been staying. The Sydney, Australia production's opening night was interrupted by a bomb scare in June 1969.


title: Hair (musical)

text: Local reactions to the controversial material varied greatly. San Francisco's large hippie population considered the show an extension of the street activities there, often blurring the barrier between art and life by meditating with the cast and frequently finding themselves onstage during the show. An 18-year-old Princess Anne was seen dancing onstage in London, and in Washington DC, Henry Kissinger attended. In St. Paul, Minnesota, a protesting clergyman released 18 white mice into the lobby hoping to frighten the audience. Capt. Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert, after dubbing Apollo 13's lunar module "Aquarius" after the song, walked out of the production at the Biltmore in protest of perceived anti-Americanism and disrespect of the flag.


title: Hair (musical)

text: An Acapulco, Mexico production of "Hair", directed by Castelli, played in 1969 for one night. After the performance, the theater, located across the street from a popular local bordello, was padlocked by the government, which said the production was "detrimental to the morals of youth." The cast was arrested soon after the performance and taken to Immigration, where they agreed to leave the country, but because of legal complications they were forced to go into hiding. They were expelled from Mexico days later.


title: Hair (musical)

text: "Hair" effectively marked the end of stage censorship in the United Kingdom. London's stage censor, the Lord Chamberlain, originally refused to license the musical, and the opening was delayed until Parliament passed a bill stripping him of his licensing power. In Munich, authorities threatened to close the production if the nude scene remained; however, after a local "Hair" spokesman declared that his relatives had been marched nude into Auschwitz, the authorities relented. In Bergen, Norway, local citizens formed a human barricade to try to prevent the performance.


title: Hair (musical)

text: The Parisian production encountered little controversy, and the cast disrobed for the nude scene "almost religiously" according to Castelli, nudity being common on stage in Paris. Even in Paris there was nevertheless occasional opposition, however, such as when a member of the local Salvation Army used a portable loud speaker to exhort the audience to halt the presentation.


title: Hair (musical)

text: A Broadway revival of "Hair" opened in 1977 for a run of 43 performances. It was produced by Butler, directed by O'Horgan and performed in the Biltmore Theater, where the original Broadway production had played. The cast included Ellen Foley, Annie Golden, Loretta Devine, Cleavant Derricks and Kristen Vigard. Newcomer Peter Gallagher left the ensemble during previews to take the role of Danny Zuko in a tour of "Grease". Reviews were generally negative, and critics accused the production of "showing its gray". Few major revivals of "Hair" followed until the early 1990s.


title: Hair (musical)

text: A 20th anniversary concert event was held in May 1988 at the United Nations General Assembly to benefit children with AIDS. The event was sponsored by First Lady Nancy Reagan with Barbara Walters giving the night's opening introduction. Rado, Ragni and MacDermot reunited to write nine new songs for the concert. The cast of 163 actors included former stars from various productions around the globe: Moore, Vereen, Williams and Summer, as well as guest performers Bea Arthur, Frank Stallone and Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Ticket prices ranged from $250 to $5,000 and the proceeds went to the United States Committee for UNICEF and the Creo Society's Fund for Children with AIDS.


title: Hair (musical)

text: A 1985 production of "Hair" mounted in Montreal was reportedly the 70th professional production of the musical. In November 1988, Michael Butler produced "Hair" at Chicago's Vic Theater to celebrate the shows' 20th anniversary. The production was well received and ran until February 1989. From 1990 to 1991, Pink Lace Productions ran a U.S. national tour of "Hair" that included stops in South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky. After Ragni died in 1991, MacDermot and Rado continued to write new songs for revivals through the 1990s. "Hair Sarajevo, AD 1992" was staged during the siege of Sarajevo as an appeal for peace. Rado directed a $1 million, 11 city national tour in 1994 that featured actor Luther Creek. With MacDermot returning to oversee the music, Rado's tour celebrated the show's 25th anniversary. A small 1990 "bus and truck" production of "Hair" toured Europe for over 3 years, and Rado directed various European productions from 1995 to 1999.


title: Hair (musical)

text: A production opened in Australia in 1992 and a short-lived London revival starring John Barrowman and Paul Hipp opened at the Old Vic in London in 1993, directed by Michael Bogdanov. While the London production was faithful to the original, a member of the production staff said the reason it "flopped" was because the tribe consisted of "Thatcher's children who didn't really get it". Other productions were mounted around the world, including South Africa, where the show had been banned until the eradication of Apartheid. In 1996, Butler brought a month-long production to Chicago, employing the Pacific Musical Theater, a professional troupe in residence at California State University, Fullerton. Butler ran the show concurrently with the 1996 Democratic National Convention, echoing the last time the DNC was in Chicago: 1968. A 30th Anniversary Off-Off Broadway production was staged at Third Eye Repertory. It was directed by Shawn Rozsa.


title: Hair (musical)

text: In 2001, the Reprise! theatre company in Los Angeles performed "Hair" at the Wadsworth Theatre, starring Steven Weber as Berger, Sam Harris as Claude and Jennifer Leigh Warren as Sheila. That same year, "Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert" ended its 2001 City Center season with a production of "Hair" starring Luther Creek, Idina Menzel and Tom Plotkin, and featuring "Hair" composer Galt MacDermot on stage playing the keyboards. An Actors' Fund benefit of the show was performed for one night at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City in 2004. The Tribe included Shoshana Bean, Raúl Esparza, Jim J. Bullock, Liz Callaway, Gavin Creel, Eden Espinosa, Harvey Fierstein, Ana Gasteyer, Annie Golden, Jennifer Hudson, Julia Murney, Jai Rodriguez, RuPaul, Michael McKean, Laura Benanti and Adam Pascal.


title: Hair (musical)

text: In 2005, a London production opened at the Gate Theatre, directed by Daniel Kramer. James Rado approved an updating of the musical's script to place it in the context of the Iraq War instead of the Vietnam War. Kramer's modernized interpretation included "Aquarius" sung over a megaphone in Times Square, and nudity that called to mind images from Abu Ghraib. In March 2006, Rado collaborated with director Robert Prior for a CanStage production of "Hair" in Toronto, and a revival produced by Pieter Toerien toured South Africa in 2007. Directed by Paul Warwick Griffin, with choreography by Timothy Le Roux, the show ran at the Montecasino Theatre in Johannesburg and at Theatre on the Bay in Cape Town. A two-week run played at the Teatro Tapia in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, in March 2010, directed by Yinoelle Colón.


title: Hair (musical)

text: Michael Butler produced "Hair" at the MET Theatre in Los Angeles from September 14 through December 30, 2007. The show was directed and choreographed by Bo Crowell, with musical direction from Christian Nesmith (son of Michael Nesmith). Butler's production of "Hair" won the LA Weekly Theater Award for Musical of the Year.


title: Hair (musical)

text: For three nights in September 2007, Joe's Pub and the Public Theater presented a 40th anniversary production of "Hair" at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. This concert version, directed by Diane Paulus, featured Jonathan Groff as Claude and Galt MacDermot on stage on the keyboards. The cast also included Karen Olivo as Sheila and Will Swenson as Berger. Actors from the original Broadway production joined the cast on stage during the encore of "Let the Sun Shine In." Demand for the show was overwhelming, as long lines and overnight waits for tickets far exceeded that for other Delacorte productions such as "Mother Courage and Her Children" starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline.


title: Hair (musical)

text: Nine months later, The Public Theater presented a fully staged production of "Hair" at the Delacorte in a limited run from July 22, 2008, to September 14, 2008. Paulus again directed, with choreography by Karole Armitage. Groff and Swenson returned as Claude and Berger, together with others from the concert cast. Caren Lyn Manuel played Sheila, and Christopher J. Hanke replaced Groff as Claude on August 17. Reviews were generally positive, with Ben Brantley of "The New York Times" writing that "this production establishes the show as more than a vivacious period piece. "Hair," it seems, has deeper roots than anyone remembered". "Time" magazine wrote: ""Hair" ... has been reinvigorated and reclaimed as one of the great milestones in musical-theatre history. ... Today "Hair" seems, if anything, more daring than ever."


title: Hair (musical)

text: The Public Theater production transferred to Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, beginning previews on March 6, 2009, with an official opening on March 31, 2009. Paulus and Armitage again directed and choreographed, and most of the cast returned from the production in the park. A pre-performance ticket lottery was held nightly for $25 box-seat tickets. The opening cast included Gavin Creel as Claude, Will Swenson as Berger, Caissie Levy as Sheila, Megan Lawrence as Mother and Sasha Allen as Dionne. Designers included Scott Pask (sets), Michael McDonald (costumes) and Kevin Adams (lighting).


title: Hair (musical)

text: Critical response was almost uniformly positive. The "New York Daily News" headline proclaimed ""Hair" Revival's High Fun". The review praised the daring direction, "colorfully kinetic" choreography and technical accomplishments of the show, especially the lighting, commenting that "as a smile-inducing celebration of life and freedom, ["Hair" is] highly communicable"; but warning: "If you're seated on the aisle, count on [the cast] to be in your face or your lap or ... braiding your tresses." The "New York Post" wrote that the production "has emerged triumphant. ... These days, the nation is fixated less on war and more on the economy. As a result, the scenes that resonate most are the ones in which the kids exultantly reject the rat race." "Variety" enthused, "Director Diane Paulus and her prodigiously talented cast connect with the material in ways that cut right to the 1967 rock musical's heart, generating tremendous energy that radiates to the rafters. ... What could have been mere nostalgia instead becomes a full-immersion happening. ... If this explosive production doesn't stir something in you, it may be time to check your pulse." "The Boston Globe" dissented, saying that the production "felt canned" and "overblown" and that the revival "feels unbearably naive and unforgivably glib". Ben Brantley, writing for "The New York Times", reflected the majority, however, delivering a glowing review:


title: Hair (musical)

text: The Public Theater struggled to raise the $5.5 million budgeted for the Broadway transfer, because of the severity of the economic recession in late 2008, but it reached its goal by adding new producing partners. Director Diane Paulus helped keep costs low by using an inexpensive set. The show grossed a healthy $822,889 in its second week. On April 30, 2009, on the Late Show with David Letterman, the cast recreated a performance on the same stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater by the original tribe. The production won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical and the Drama League Award for Distinguished Revival of a Musical. By August 2009, the revival had recouped its entire $5,760,000 investment, becoming one of the fastest-recouping musicals in Broadway history. Its cast album was nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.


title: Hair (musical)

text: When the Broadway cast transferred to London for the 2010 West-End revival, a mostly new tribe took over on Broadway on March 9, 2010, including former "American Idol" finalists Ace Young as Berger and Diana DeGarmo as Sheila. Kyle Riabko assumed the role of Claude, Annaleigh Ashford played Jeanie, and Vanessa Ray was Chrissie. Rachel Bay Jones later played Mother and other roles. Sales decreased after the original cast transferred to London, and the revival closed on June 27, 2010, after 29 previews and 519 regular performances.


title: Hair (musical)

text: A U.S. National Tour of the production began on October 21, 2010. Principals included Steel Burkhardt as Berger, Paris Remillard as Claude and Caren Lyn Tackett as Sheila. The tour received mostly positive reviews. The show returned to Broadway for an engagement at the St. James Theatre from July 5 through September 10, 2011. After that stop, the tour resumed. The tour ended on January 29, 2012.


title: Hair (musical)

text: The 2009 Broadway production was duplicated at the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End. Previews began on April 1, 2010, with an official opening on April 14. The producers were the Public Theater, together with Cameron Mackintosh and Broadway Across America. Nearly all of the New York cast relocated to London, but Luther Creek played Woof. The London revival closed on September 4, 2010.


title: Hair (musical)

text: The production received mostly enthusiastic reviews. Michael Billington of "The Guardian" described it as "a vibrant, joyous piece of living theatre", writing, "it celebrates a period when the joy of life was pitted against the forces of intolerance and the death-dealing might of the military–industrial complex. As Shakespeare once said: 'There's sap in't yet.'" Charles Spencer in "The Daily Telegraph" agreed: "This is a timely and irresistibly vital revival of the greatest of all rock musicals. ... The verve and energy of the company ... is irresistible." Michael Coveney of "The Independent" wrote that "Hair" is "one of the great musicals of all time, and a phenomenon that, I'm relieved to discover, stands up as a period piece". In "The Times", Benedict Nightingale commented that "it's exhilarating, as well as oddly poignant, when a multihued cast dressed in everything from billowing kaftans to Ruritanian army jackets race downstage while delivering that tuneful salute to an age of Aquarius that still refuses to dawn."


title: Hair (musical)

text: In August 2014, the 2009 Broadway version returned for a three-night engagement at the Hollywood Bowl. Directed by Adam Shankman, the cast included Kristen Bell as Sheila, Hunter Parrish as Claude, Benjamin Walker as Berger, Amber Riley as Dionne, Jenna Ushkowitz as Jeanie, Sarah Hyland as Crissy, Mario as Hud, and Beverly D'Angelo and Kevin Chamberlin as Claude's parents.


title: Hair (musical)

text: A 2016 production in Manchester, England, at the Hope Mill Theatre, directed by Jonathan O'Boyle and choreographed by William Whelton, starring Robert Metson as Claude, Laura Johnson as Sheila and Ryan Anderson as Berger, earned positive reviews. In 2017, the musical's 50th anniversary, the staging was repeated Off West-End at The Vaults theatre in London, with Metson and Johnson repeating their roles and Andy Coxon as Berger. The production won the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Off-West End Production.


title: Hair (musical)

text: A UK national tour of the production began in March 2019, starring Jake Quickenden as Berger, Daisy Wood-Davis as Sheila, Paul Wilkins as Claude and Marcus Collins as Hud.


title: Hair (musical)

text: "Hair" has been performed in most of the countries of the world. After the Berlin Wall fell, the show traveled for the first time to Poland, Lebanon, the Czech Republic and Sarajevo (featured on ABC's Nightline with Ted Koppel, when Phil Alden Robinson visited that city in 1996 and discovered a production of "Hair" there in the midst of the war). In 1999, Michael Butler and director Bo Crowell helped produce "Hair" in Russia at the Stas Namin Theatre located in Moscow's Gorky Park. The Moscow production caused a similar reaction as the original did 30 years earlier because Russian soldiers were fighting in Chechnya at the time.


title: Hair (musical)

text: Rado wrote in 2003 that the only places where the show had not been performed were "China, India, Vietnam, the Arctic and Antarctic continents as well as most African countries." Since then, an Indian production has been mounted.


title: Hair (musical)

text: A musical film adaptation of the same name was released in 1979. Directed by Miloš Forman with choreography by Twyla Tharp and a screenplay by Michael Weller, the film stars John Savage, Treat Williams and Beverly D'Angelo, with Golden, Melba Moore, Dyson, Foley, Dorsey Wright, Don Dacus, Nell Carter and Cheryl Barnes. It was nominated for two Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture (for Williams), and Forman was nominated for a César Award.


title: Hair (musical)

text: Several songs were deleted, and the film's storyline departs significantly from the musical. The character of Claude is rewritten as an innocent draftee from Oklahoma, newly arrived in New York to join the military, and Sheila is a high-society debutante who catches his eye. In perhaps the greatest diversion, a mistake leads Berger to go to Vietnam in Claude's place, where he is killed. While the film received generally positive reviews, Ragni and Rado said it failed to capture the essence of "Hair" by portraying hippies as "oddballs" without any connection to the peace movement.


title: Hair (musical)

text: "The New York Times" noted, in 2007, that ""Hair" was one of the last Broadway musicals to saturate the culture as shows from the golden age once regularly did." Songs from the show continue to be recorded by major artists. In the 1990s, Evan Dando's group The Lemonheads recorded "Frank Mills" for their 1992 album "It's a Shame About Ray", and Run DMC sampled "Where Do I Go" for their 1993 single "Down With the King" which went to on the "Billboard" rap charts and reached the top 25 in the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. In 2004 "Aquarius", from the 1979 film version, was honored at number 33 on AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Songs.


title: Hair (musical)

text: Songs from the musical have been featured in films and television episodes. For example, in the 2005 film "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", the character Willy Wonka welcomed the children with lyrics from "Good Morning Starshine". "Aquarius" was performed in the final episode of "Laverne and Shirley" in 1983, where the character Carmine moves to New York City to become an actor, and auditions for "Hair". "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" was also performed in the final scene in the film "The 40-Year-Old Virgin", and Three Dog Night's recording of "Easy to Be Hard" was featured in the first part of David Fincher's film "Zodiac". On the "Simpsons" episode "The Springfield Files", the townspeople, Leonard Nimoy, Chewbacca, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder all sing "Good Morning Starshine". The episode "Hairography" of the show "Glee" includes a much-criticized mash-up of the songs "Hair" and "Crazy in Love" by Beyoncé. In addition, "Head of the Class" featured a two-part episode in 1990 where the head of the English department is determined to disrupt the school's performance of "Hair". The continued popularity of "Hair" is seen in its number ten ranking in a 2006 BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "[United Kingdom]'s Number One Essential Musicals".


title: Hair (musical)

text: Because of the universality of its pacifist theme, "Hair" continues to be a popular choice for high-school and university productions. Amateur productions of "Hair" are also popular worldwide. In 2002, Peter Jennings featured a Boulder, Colorado, high school production of "Hair" for his ABC documentary series "In Search of America". A September 2006 community theater production at the 2,000-seat Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, was praised by original producer Michael Butler, who said it was "one of the best "Hair"s I have seen in a long time." Another example of a recent large-scale amateur production is the Mountain Play production at the 4,000-seat Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre in Mount Tamalpais State Park in Mill Valley, California, in the spring of 2007.


title: Hair (musical)

text: "Hair" was Broadway's "first fully realized" concept musical, a form that dominated the musical theatre of the seventies, including shows like "Company", "Follies", "Pacific Overtures" and "A Chorus Line". While the development of the concept musical was an unexpected consequence of "Hair" tenure on Broadway, the expected rock music revolution on Broadway turned out to be less than complete.


title: Hair (musical)

text: MacDermot followed "Hair" with three successive rock scores: "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (1971); "Dude" (1972), a second collaboration with Ragni; and "Via Galactica" (1972). While "Two Gentlemen of Verona" found receptive audiences and a Tony for Best Musical, "Dude" failed after just sixteen performances, and "Via Galactica" flopped after a month. According to Horn, these and other such "failures may have been the result of producers simply relying on the label 'rock musical' to attract audiences without regard to the quality of the material presented". "Jesus Christ Superstar" (1970) and "Godspell" (1971) were two religiously themed successes of the genre. "Grease" (1971) reverted to the rock sounds of the 1950s, and black-themed musicals like "The Wiz" (1975) were heavily influenced by gospel, R&B and soul music. By the late 1970s, the genre had played itself out. Except for a few outposts of rock, like "Dreamgirls" (1981) and "Little Shop of Horrors" (1982), audience tastes in the 1980s turned to megamusicals with pop scores, like "Les Misérables" (1985) and "The Phantom of the Opera" (1986). Some later rock musicals, such as "Rent" (1996) and "Spring Awakening" (2006), as well as jukebox musicals featuring rock music, like "We Will Rock You" (2002) and "Rock of Ages" (2009), have found success. But the rock musical did not quickly come to dominate the musical theatre stage after "Hair". Critic Clive Barnes commented, "There really weren't any rock musicals. No major rock musician ever did a rock score for Broadway. ... You might think of the musical "Tommy", but it was never conceived as a Broadway show. ... And one can see why. There's so much more money in records and rock concerts. I mean, why bother going through the pain of a musical which may close in Philadelphia?"


title: Hair (musical)

text: On the other hand, "Hair" had a profound effect not only on what was acceptable on Broadway, but as part of the very social movements that it celebrated. For example, in 1970, Butler, Castelli and the various "Hair" casts contributed to fundraising for the World Youth Assembly, a United Nations–sponsored organization formed in connection with the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the United Nations. The Assembly enabled 750 young representatives from around the world to meet in New York in July 1970 to discuss social issues. For about a week, cast members worldwide collected donations at every show for the fund. "Hair" raised around $250,000 and ended up being the principal financier of the Assembly. Cast and crew members also contributed a day's pay, and Butler contributed a day's profits from these productions. Moreover, as Ellen Stewart, La MaMa's founder, noted:


title: Apricot

text: An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus "Prunus".


title: Apricot

text: Usually, an apricot is from the species "P. armeniaca", but the fruits of the other species in "Prunus" sect. "Armeniaca" are also called apricots.


title: Apricot

text: "Apricot" first appeared in English in the 16th century as "abrecock" from the Middle French "aubercot" or later "abricot", from Spanish "albaricoque" and Catalan "a(l)bercoc", in turn from Arabic الْبَرْقُوق (al-barqūq, "the plums"), from Byzantine Greek βερικοκκίᾱ (berikokkíā, "apricot tree"), derived from late Greek "πραικόκιον" ("praikókion", "apricot") from Latin "[persica ("peach")] praecocia" ("praecoquus", "early ripening").


title: Apricot

text: Apricots are species belonging to "Prunus" sect. "Armeniaca". The taxonomic position of "P. brigantina" is disputed. It is grouped with plum species according to chloroplast DNA sequences, but more closely related to apricot species according to nuclear DNA sequences.


title: Apricot

text: The apricot is a small tree, tall, with a trunk up to in diameter and a dense, spreading canopy. The leaves are ovate, long, and wide, with a rounded base, a pointed tip, and a finely serrated margin. The flowers are in diameter, with five white to pinkish petals; they are produced singly or in pairs in early spring before the leaves. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) similar to a small peach, diameter (larger in some modern cultivars), from yellow to orange, often tinged red on the side most exposed to the sun; its surface can be smooth (botanically described as: glabrous) or velvety with very short hairs (botanically: pubescent). The flesh is usually succulent, but dry in some species such as "P. sibirica". Its taste can range from sweet to tart. The single seed or "kernel" is enclosed in a hard shell, often called a "stone", with a grainy, smooth texture except for three ridges running down one side.


title: Apricot

text: The most commonly cultivated apricot "P. armeniaca" was known in Armenia during ancient times, and has been cultivated there for so long that it was previously thought to have originated there, hence the epithet of its scientific name. However, this is not supported by genetic studies, which instead confirm the hypothesis proposed by Nikolai Vavilov that domestication of "P. armeniaca" occurred in Central Asia and China. The domesticated apricot then diffused south to South Asia, west to West Asia (including Armenia), Europe and North Africa, and east to Japan.


title: Apricot

text: Japanese apricot "P. mume" is another widely cultivated apricot species, usually for ornamental uses. Despite the common name, it originated from China, and was introduced to Japan in ancient times.


title: Apricot

text: Apricots have a chilling requirement of 300 to 900 chilling units. A dry climate is good for fruit maturation. The tree is slightly more cold-hardy than the peach, tolerating winter temperatures as cold as or lower if healthy. They are hardy in USDA zones 5 through 8. A limiting factor in apricot culture is spring frosts: They tend to flower very early (in early March in western Europe), meaning spring frost can kill the flowers. Furthermore, the trees are sensitive to temperature changes during the winter season. In China, winters can be very cold, but temperatures tend to be more stable than in Europe and especially North America, where large temperature swings can occur in winter. Hybridization with the closely related "Prunus sibirica" (Siberian apricot; hardy to but with less palatable fruit) offers options for breeding more cold-tolerant plants. They prefer well-drained soils with a pH of 6.0 to 7.0.


title: Apricot

text: Apricot cultivars are usually grafted onto plum or peach rootstocks. The cultivar scion provides the fruit characteristics, such as flavor and size, but the rootstock provides the growth characteristics of the plant. Some of the more popular US apricot cultivars are 'Blenheim', 'Wenatchee Moorpark', 'Tilton', and 'Perfection'. Some apricot cultivars are self-compatible, so do not require pollinizer trees; others are not: 'Moongold' and 'Sungold', for example, must be planted in pairs so they can pollinate each other.


title: Apricot

text: Hybridisors have created what is known as a "black apricot" or "purple apricot", ("Prunus dasycarpa"), a hybrid of an apricot and the cherry plum ("Prunus cerasifera"). Other apricot–plum hybrids are variously called plumcots, apriplums, pluots, or apriums.


title: Apricot

text: Apricots are susceptible to various diseases whose relative importance differs in the major production regions as a consequence of their climatic differences. For example, hot weather as experienced in California's Central Valley often causes pit burn, a condition of soft and brown fruit around the pit. Bacterial diseases include bacterial spot and crown gall. Fungal diseases include brown rot caused by "Monilinia fructicola": infection of the blossom by rainfall leads to "blossom wilt" whereby the blossoms and young shoots turn brown and die; the twigs die back in a severe attack; brown rot of the fruit is due to "Monilinia" infection later in the season. Dieback of branches in the summer is attributed to the fungus "Eutypa lata", where examination of the base of the dead branch reveals a canker surrounding a pruning wound. Other fungal diseases are black knot, "Alternaria" spot and fruit rot, and powdery mildew. Unlike peaches, apricots are not affected by leaf curl, and bacterial canker (causing sunken patches in the bark, which then spread and kill the affected branch or tree) and silver leaf are not serious threats, which means that pruning in late winter is considered safe.


title: Apricot

text: Due to their natural amygdalin content culinary uses for the kernel are limited. Oil made from apricot kernels is safe for human consumption without treatment because amygdalin is not oil soluble. Ground up shells are used in cosmetics as an exfoliant. As an exfoliant it provides an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic microbeads.


title: Apricot

text: In 2020, world production of apricots was 3.72 million tonnes, led by Turkey with 22% of the total (table). Other major producers (in descending order) were Uzbekistan, Iran, Italy, and Algeria.


title: Apricot

text: In a 100-gram amount, raw apricots supply 48 Calories and are composed of 11% carbohydrates, 1% protein, less than 1% fat, and 86% water (table). Raw apricots are a moderate source of vitamin A and vitamin C (12% of the Daily Value each).


title: Apricot

text: Dried apricots are a type of traditional dried fruit. The world's largest producer of dried apricots is Turkey. When treated with sulfur dioxide (E220), the color is vivid orange. Organic fruit not treated with sulfur dioxide is darker in color and has a coarser texture. When apricots are dried, the relative concentration of nutrients is increased, with vitamin A, vitamin E, potassium, and iron having Daily Values above 25% (table).


title: Apricot

text: Apricots contain various phytochemicals, such as provitamin A beta-carotene and polyphenols, including catechins and chlorogenic acid. Taste and aroma compounds include sucrose, glucose, organic acids, terpenes, aldehydes and lactones.


title: Apricot

text: Apricot kernels (seeds) contain amygdalin, a poisonous compound. On average, bitter apricot kernels contain about 5% amygdalin and sweet kernels about 0.9% amygdalin. These values correspond to 0.3% and 0.05% of cyanide. Since a typical apricot kernel weighs 600 mg, bitter and sweet varieties contain, respectively, 1.8 and 0.3 mg of cyanide.


title: Apricot

text: The apricot is the national fruit of Armenia, mostly growing in the Ararat plain. It is often depicted on souvenirs.


title: Apricot

text: The Chinese associate the apricot with education and medicine. For instance, the classical word 杏 壇 (literally: "apricot altar") (xìng tán 杏坛) which means "educational circle", is still widely used in written language. Chuang Tzu, a Chinese philosopher in the fourth century BC, told a story that Confucius taught his students in a forum surrounded by the wood of apricot trees. The association with medicine in turn comes from the common use of apricot kernels as a component in traditional Chinese medicine, and from the story of Dong Feng (董奉), a physician during the Three Kingdoms period, who required no payment from his patients except that they plant apricot trees in his orchard upon recovering from their illnesses, resulting in a large grove of apricot trees and a steady supply of medicinal ingredients. The term "expert of the apricot grove" (杏林高手) is still used as a poetic reference to physicians.


title: Apricot

text: The fact that apricot season is short has given rise to the common Egyptian Arabic and Palestinian Arabic expression "filmishmish" ("in apricot [season]") or "bukra filmishmish" ("tomorrow in apricot [season]"), generally uttered as a riposte to an unlikely prediction, or as a rash promise to fulfill a request.


title: Apricot

text: In Middle Eastern and North African cuisines, apricots are used to make Qamar al-Din ( "Moon of the Religion"), a thick apricot drink that is a popular fixture at Iftar during Ramadan. Qamar al-Din is believed to originate in Damascus, Syria, where the variety of apricots most suitable for the drink was first grown.


title: Apricot

text: The Turkish idiom "bundan iyisi Şam'da kayısı" (literally, "the only thing better than this is an apricot in Damascus") means "it doesn't get any better than this".


title: Apricot

text: In the US Marines it is considered exceptionally bad luck to eat or possess apricots, especially near tanks. This superstition has been documented since at least the Vietnam War and is often cited as originating in World War II. Even calling them by their name is considered unlucky, so they are instead called "cots", "Forbidden fruit" or "A-fruit".


title: Test cricket

text: Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last for up to five days. In the past, some Test matches had no time limit and were called Timeless Tests. The term "test match" was originally coined in 1861–62 but in a different context.


title: Test cricket

text: Test cricket did not become an officially recognised format until the 1890s, but many international matches since 1877 have been retrospectively awarded Test status. The first such match took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in March 1877 between teams which were then known as a Combined Australian XI and James Lillywhite's XI, the latter a team of visiting English professionals. Matches between Australia and England were first called "test matches" in 1892. The first definitive list of retrospective Tests was written by South Australian journalist Clarence P. Moody two years later and, by the end of the century, had gained acceptance.


title: Test cricket

text: There are now twelve full ICC member countries playing Test cricket. Day/night Tests were permitted by the ICC in 2012 and the first day/night match was between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval in November 2015.


title: Test cricket

text: Teams designated as "England" or "All England" began to play in the 18th century, but these teams were not truly representative. Early international cricket was disrupted by the French Revolution and the American Civil War. The earliest international cricket match was between the United States and Canada, on 24 and 26 September 1844 (bad weather prevented play on the 25th). Overseas tours by national English teams began in 1859 with visits to North America, Australia and New Zealand. The 1868 Australian Aboriginals were the first organised overseas team to tour England.


title: Test cricket

text: Two rival English tours of Australia were proposed in the early months of 1877, with James Lillywhite campaigning for a professional tour and Fred Grace for an amateur one. Grace's tour fell through and it was Lillywhite's team that toured New Zealand and Australia in 1876–77. Two matches against a combined Australian XI were later classified as the first official Test matches. The first match was won by Australia, by 45 runs and the second by England. After reciprocal tours established a pattern of international cricket, The Ashes was established as a competition during the Australian tour of England in 1882. A surprise victory for Australia inspired a mock obituary of English cricket to be published in the "Sporting Times" the following day: the phrase "The body shall be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia" prompted the subsequent creation of the Ashes urn.


title: Test cricket

text: The series of 1884–85 was the first to be held over five matches: England player Alfred Shaw, writing in 1901, considered the side to be "the best ever to have left England". South Africa became the third team to play Test cricket in 1888–89, when they hosted a tour by an under-strength England side. Australia, England and South Africa were the only countries playing Test cricket before World War I.


title: Test cricket

text: The term "test match" was coined during the English tour of Australia in 1861–62 but in a different context. It meant that the English team was testing itself against each of the Australian colonies. Following Lillywhite's tour, Australian teams reciprocated, beginning with Dave Gregory's team in 1878. By the beginning of 1892, eight English teams had visited Australia and seven Australian teams had visited England. In its issue of 25 February 1892, "" revived the term "test match" and freely applied it to the three international matches which had just been played in Australia by Lord Sheffield's XI, starting with the match at the MCG which was billed as Lord Sheffield's Team v Combined Australia. The report began: "There was no little appropriateness in fixing the first of the three great test matches for January 1".


title: Test cricket

text: The first list of matches considered to be "Tests" was conceived and published by South Australian journalist Clarence P. Moody in his 1894 book, "Australian Cricket and Cricketers, 1856 to 1893–94". Moody's proposal was well-received by Charles W. Alcock, editor of "Cricket" in England and his list of 39 matches was reproduced in the 28 December 1894 issue as part of an article entitled "The First Test Match". The list begins with the MCG match played 15–17 March 1877 and ends with the recent match at the Association Ground, Sydney played 14–20 December 1894. All 39 were retrospectively recognised as Test matches, as was the unlisted 1890 Old Trafford match that was abandoned without a ball being bowled. No South African matches were included in Moody's list but three against England were also given retrospective Test status. Moody became a newspaper editor and founded the Adelaide "Sunday Mail" in 1912.


title: Test cricket

text: Test matches are the highest level of cricket, played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council. , twelve national teams have Test status, the most recently promoted being Afghanistan and Ireland on 22 June 2017.


title: Test cricket

text: Test status is conferred upon a country or group of countries by the ICC. There are currently twelve men's teams that have been granted this status: international teams that do not have Test status can play first-class cricket in the ICC Intercontinental Cup, under conditions which are similar to Tests.


title: Test cricket

text: Nine of these teams represent independent sovereign nations: the England cricket team represents the constituent countries of England and Wales, the West Indies is a combined team from fifteen Caribbean nations and territories, and Ireland represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.


title: Test cricket

text: Following the D'Oliveira affair in 1969, South Africa was suspended from all forms of cricket from 1970 until the end of the apartheid regime in 1991.


title: Test cricket

text: Zimbabwe's Test status was voluntarily suspended in 2006 because of very poor performances, but its Test status was reinstated in August 2011.


title: Test cricket

text: The ICC has made several proposals to reform the system of granting Test status, including having two tiers with promotion and relegation, and/or a play-off between the winners of the ICC Intercontinental Cup and the team with the lowest Test ranking. These proposals have not been successful as of 2021.


title: Test cricket

text: For statistical purposes, Tests are considered to be a subset of first-class cricket. Performances in first-class matches count towards only the first-class statistical record, but performances in Test matches count towards both the Test statistics and the first-class statistics.


title: Test cricket

text: Statisticians have developed criteria to determine which matches count as Tests if they were played before the formal definition of Test status. There have been exceptional circumstances including the simultaneous England touring sides of 1891–92 (in Australia and South Africa) and 1929–30 (in the West Indies and New Zealand), all of whose international matches are deemed to have Test status.


title: Test cricket

text: In 1970, a series of five "Test matches" was played in England between England and a Rest of the World XI: these matches, originally scheduled between England and South Africa, were amended after South Africa was suspended from international cricket due to their government's apartheid policies. Although initially given Test status and included as Test matches in some record books, including "Wisden Cricketers' Almanack", this was later withdrawn, and a principle was established that official Test matches can only be between nations (note that the geographically and demographically small countries of the West Indies have, since 1928, fielded a coalition side).


title: Test cricket

text: Despite this principle, in 2005, the ICC ruled that the six-day Super Series match that took place that October between Australia and a World XI was an official Test match: some cricket writers and statisticians, including Bill Frindall, have ignored the ICC's ruling and exclude this match from their records.


title: Test cricket

text: The series of "Test matches" played in Australia between Australia and a World XI in 1971–72, and the commercial "Supertests" organised by Kerry Packer as part of his World Series Cricket enterprise played between "WSC Australia", "WSC World XI" and "WSC West Indies" from 1977 to 1979, have never been regarded as official Test matches as of 2021.


title: Test cricket

text: A standard day of Test cricket consists of three sessions of two hours each, the break between sessions being 40 minutes for lunch and 20 minutes for tea. However, the times of sessions and intervals may be altered in certain circumstances: if bad weather or a change of innings occurs close to a scheduled break, the break may be taken immediately; if there has been a loss of playing time, for example because of bad weather, the session times may be adjusted to make up the lost time; if the batting side is nine wickets down at the scheduled tea break, then the interval may be delayed until either 30 minutes has elapsed or the team is "all out"; the final session may be extended by up to 30 minutes if 90 or more overs have not been bowled in that day's play (subject to any reduction for adverse weather); the final session may be extended by 30 minutes (except on the 5th day) if the umpires believe the result can be decided within that time.


title: Test cricket

text: Today, Test matches are scheduled to be played across five consecutive days. However, in the early days of Test cricket, matches were played for three or four days. Four-day Test matches were last played in 1973, between New Zealand and Pakistan. Until the 1980s, it was usual to include a 'rest day,' often a Sunday. There have also been 'Timeless Tests', which have no predetermined maximum time. In 2005, Australia played a match scheduled for six days against a World XI, which the ICC sanctioned as an official Test match, though the match reached a conclusion on the fourth day. In October 2017, the ICC approved a request for a four-day Test match, between South Africa and Zimbabwe, which started on 26 December 2017 and ended on the second day, 27 December. The ICC trialed the four-day Test format until the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In December 2019, Cricket Australia were considering playing four-day Tests, subject to consensus with other Test nations. Later the same month, the ICC considered the possibility of making four-day Test matches mandatory for the ICC World Test Championship from 2023.


title: Test cricket

text: There have been attempts by the ICC, the sport's governing body, to introduce day-night Test matches. In 2012, the International Cricket Council passed playing conditions that allowed for the staging of day-night Test matches. The first day-night Test took place during New Zealand's tour to Australia in November 2015.


title: Test cricket

text: Test cricket is played in "innings" (the word denotes both the singular and the plural). In each innings, one team bats and the other bowls (or fields). Ordinarily four innings are played in a Test match, and each team bats twice and bowls twice. Before the start of play on the first day, the two team captains and the match referee toss a coin; the captain who wins the toss decides whether his team will bat or bowl first.


title: Test cricket

text: In the following scenarios, the team that bats first is referred to as "Team A" and their opponents as "Team B".


title: Test cricket

text: Usually the teams will alternate at the completion of each innings. Thus, Team A will bat (and Team B will bowl) until its innings ends, and then Team B will bat and Team A will bowl. When Team B's innings ends, Team A begin their second innings, and this is followed by Team B's second innings. The winning team is the one that scores more runs in their two innings.


title: Test cricket

text: If, at the completion of Team B's first innings, Team A leads by at least 200 runs, the captain of Team A may (but is not required to) order Team B to have "their" second innings next. This is called enforcing the follow-on. In this case, the usual order of the third and fourth innings is reversed: Team A will bat in the fourth innings. It is rare for a team forced to follow-on to win the match. In Test cricket it has only happened three times, although over 285 follow-ons have been enforced: Australia was the losing team on each occasion, twice to England, in 1894 and in 1981, and once to India in 2001.


title: Test cricket

text: If the whole of the first day's play of a Test match has been lost because of bad weather or other reasons like bad light, then Team A may enforce the follow-on if Team B's first innings total is 150 or more fewer than Team A's. During the 2nd Test between England and New Zealand at Headingley in 2013, England batted first after the first day was lost because of rain. New Zealand, batting second, scored 180 runs fewer than England, meaning England could have enforced the follow-on, though chose not to. This is similar to four-day first-class cricket, where the follow-on can be enforced if the difference is 150 runs or more. If the Test is 2 days or fewer then the "follow-on" value is 100 runs.


title: Test cricket

text: After 80 overs, the captain of the bowling side may take a new ball, although this is not required. The captain will usually take the new ball: being harder and smoother than an old ball, a new ball generally favours faster bowlers who can make it bounce more variably. The roughened, softer surface of an old ball can be more conducive to spin bowlers, or those using reverse swing. The captain may delay the decision to take the new ball if he wishes to continue with his spinners (because the pitch favours spin). After a new ball has been taken, should an innings last a further 80 overs, then the captain will have the option to take another new ball.


title: Test cricket

text: Test cricket is almost always played as a series of matches between two countries, with all matches in the series taking place in the same country (the host). Often there is a perpetual trophy that is awarded to the winner, the most famous of which is the Ashes contested between England and Australia. There have been two exceptions to the bilateral nature of Test cricket: the 1912 Triangular Tournament, a three-way competition between England, Australia and South Africa (hosted by England), and the Asian Test Championship, an event held in 1998–99 and 2001–02.


title: Test cricket

text: The number of matches in Test series has varied from one to seven. Up until the early 1990s, Test series between international teams were organised between the two national cricket organisations with umpires provided by the home team. With the entry of more countries into Test cricket, and a wish by the ICC to maintain public interest in Tests in the face of the popularity of One Day International cricket, a rotation system was introduced that sees all ten Test teams playing each other over a six-year cycle, and an official ranking system (with a trophy held by the highest-ranked team). In this system, umpires are provided by the ICC. An elite panel of eleven umpires was maintained since 2002, and the panel is supplemented by an additional International Panel that includes three umpires named by each Test-playing country. The elite umpires officiate almost all Test matches, though usually not Tests involving their home country.


title: Test cricket

text: Several pairs of Test teams have established perpetual trophies which are competed for whenever teams play each other in Test series.


title: Test cricket

text: After years of delays since proposals began in 2009, a league competition for Test cricket was held in 2019–2021. Arranged as a bilateral series in various countries with one team as host and another team as visitor. The length of each series varies between 2 and 5 matches. Ireland, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan are not taking part in this competition, but instead play a program of Test matches with each other and other teams during the same period.


title: Test cricket

text: Supporters of Test cricket, including Adam Gilchrist, argue that it is "the ultimate test of a player's and team's ability". However, it has been suggested that Test cricket may be losing popularity, particularly in the face of competition from short form cricket. Day/night Test matches have been suggested as one way to address this problem. The suggested fall in popularity has been disputed, with a Marylebone Cricket Club poll showing that 86% of all cricket fans support Test cricket, more than any other format.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Twilight is a series of four fantasy romance novels, two companion novels, and one novella written by American author Stephenie Meyer. Released annually from 2005 through 2008, the four novels chart the later teen years of Bella Swan, a girl who moves to Forks, Washington, from Phoenix, Arizona and falls in love with a 104-year-old vampire named Edward Cullen. The series is told primarily from Bella's point of view, with the epilogue of "Eclipse" and the second part of "Breaking Dawn" being told from the viewpoint of character Jacob Black, a werewolf. A novella, "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner", which tells the story of a newborn vampire who appeared in "Eclipse", was published on 2010. "", a definitive encyclopedic reference with nearly 100 full color illustrations, was released in bookstores on 2011. In 2015, Meyer published a new novel in honor of the 10th anniversary of the book series, "", with the genders of the original protagonists switched. "Midnight Sun", a retelling of the first book, "Twilight", from Edward Cullen's point of view, was published in 2020.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Since the release of the first novel, "Twilight", in 2005, the books have gained immense popularity and commercial success around the world. The series is most popular among young adults; the four books have won multiple awards, most notably the 2008 British Book Award for Children's Book of the Year for "Breaking Dawn", while the series as a whole won the 2009 Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Book.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: As of November 2011, the series had sold over 120 million copies worldwide with translations into at least 38 different languages around the globe. The four "Twilight" books have consecutively set records as the biggest-selling novels of 2008 on the "USA Today" Best-Selling Books list and have spent over 235 weeks on the "New York Times" Best Seller list for Children's Series Books.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: The novels have been adapted into "The Twilight Saga" film series by Summit Entertainment. The film adaptations of the first three novels were released in 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively. The fourth novel was adapted into two films, the first film being released in November 2011 and the second film in November 2012.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Bella Swan moves from Phoenix, Arizona to live with her father in Forks, Washington to allow her mother to travel with her new husband, a minor league baseball player. After moving to Forks, Bella finds herself involuntarily drawn to a mysterious, handsome boy, Edward Cullen and eventually learns that he is a member of a vampire family which drinks animal blood rather than human blood. Edward and Bella fall in love, while James, a sadistic vampire from another coven, is drawn to hunt down Bella. Edward and the other Cullens defend Bella. She escapes to Phoenix, where she is tricked into confronting James, who tries to kill her. She is seriously wounded, but Edward rescues her and they return to Forks.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Edward and his family leave Forks because he believes he is endangering Bella's life. Bella goes into a depression until she develops a strong friendship with Jacob Black, who she discovers can shape-shift into a wolf. Jacob and the other wolves in his tribe must protect her from Victoria, a vampire seeking to avenge the death of her mate James. Due to a misunderstanding, Edward believes Bella is dead. Edward decides to commit suicide in Volterra, Italy, but is stopped by Bella, who is accompanied by Edward's sister, Alice. They meet with the Volturi, a powerful vampire coven, and are released only on the condition that Bella be turned into a vampire in the near future. Bella and Edward are reunited, and she and the Cullens return to Forks.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Victoria has created an army of "newborn" vampires to battle the Cullen family and murder Bella for revenge. Meanwhile, Bella is compelled to choose between her relationship with Edward and her friendship with Jacob. Edward's vampire family and Jacob's werewolf pack join forces to successfully destroy Victoria and her vampire army. In the end, Bella chooses Edward's love over Jacob's friendship and agrees to marry Edward.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Bella and Edward are married, but their honeymoon is cut short when Bella discovers that she is pregnant. Her pregnancy progresses rapidly, severely weakening her. She nearly dies giving birth to her and Edward's half-vampire-half-human daughter, Renesmee. Edward injects Bella with his venom to save her life and turns her into a vampire. A vampire from another coven sees Renesmee and mistakes her for an "immortal child". She informs the Volturi, as the existence of such beings violates vampire law. The Cullens gather vampire witnesses who can verify that Renesmee is not an immortal child. After an intense confrontation, the Cullens and their witnesses convince the Volturi that the child poses no danger to vampires or their secret, and they are left in peace by the Volturi.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: On October 6, 2015, Little, Brown and Company released the "", which includes a nearly-400 page reimagining of the novel with Edward and Bella gender-swapped as Edythe and Beau. The reimagined novel has a more conclusive ending, seemingly precluding its continuation through the remaining three "Twilight" novels.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: "Midnight Sun" is a 2020 companion novel to the 2005 book "Twilight" by author Stephenie Meyer. The work retells the events of "Twilight" from the perspective of Edward Cullen instead of that of the series' usual narrating character Bella Swan. Meyer stated that "Twilight" was to be the only book from the series that she planned to rewrite from Edward's perspective. To give them a better feel of Edward's character, Meyer allowed Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the film adaptation of "Twilight", and Robert Pattinson, the actor playing Edward, to read some completed chapters of the novel while they shot the film. It was released on August 4, 2020.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: In August 2020, Meyer revealed that she is working on two additional "Twilight" novels. The author intends to continue writing these stories, after completing an original book first.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: On March 16, 2010, Yen Press released "Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1", by artist Young Kim based on the first book in the series. In February 2011, the graphic novel won the 2010 Gem Awards Best Manga of the Year. The sequel, "Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 2" was released on October 11, 2011, and followed "Volume 1" in topping "The New York Times Best Seller list" for Hardcover Graphic Books in its first week.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: In March 2010, Meyer revealed on her official website that she will be releasing a new novella in the series, "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner", which tells the story of a newborn vampire who appeared in "Eclipse", on June 5, 2010. An electronic version of the book was made available free from her web site, as well as in bookstores.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: In October 2010, Little, Brown and Company announced that "", a definitive encyclopedic reference for the saga including character profiles, outtakes, a conversation with Meyer, genealogical charts, maps and extensive cross-references with nearly 100 full color illustrations, was to be released on April 12, 2011, after many publication delays since 2008. It debuted at #1 on "The New York Times Best Seller list", where it stayed for three consecutive weeks, and at #4 on the "USA Today" Best Seller list.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: The story is set primarily in the town of Forks, Washington, where Bella and her father, Charlie Swan, live. Other cities in Washington briefly appear in the series or are mentioned, such as Port Angeles, Olympia, Seattle and La Push. Some events in "Twilight" take place in Phoenix, Arizona, where Bella was raised. Volterra, Italy, is featured in "New Moon", when Edward travels there to commit suicide and Bella rushes to save him. Jacksonville, Florida, is mentioned first in "Twilight" and second in "Eclipse", when Edward and Bella visit Bella's mother, who has moved there with her new husband. Seattle, Washington, is featured in "Breaking Dawn" when Jacob tries to escape his love for Bella, and when Bella tries to locate a man named J. Jenks. It is also the location of a series of murders committed by newborn vampires in "Eclipse". In "Breaking Dawn", Bella and Edward spend their honeymoon on a fictional "Isle Esme", purportedly off the coast of Brazil.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: The "Twilight" series falls under the genre of young adult, fantasy, and romance, though Meyer categorized her first book, "Twilight", as "suspense romance horror comedy". However, she states that she considers her books as "romance more than anything else". The series explores the unorthodox romance between human Bella and vampire Edward, as well as the love triangle between Bella, Edward, and Jacob, a werewolf. The books avoid delving into provocative sex, drugs, and harsh swearing because, according to Meyer, "I don't think teens need to read about gratuitous sex."


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: To some, Meyer's novels fall into the category of gothic literature as well. Meyer's use of monsters and the unsettling circumstances of Edward and Bella's relationship are key components to the gothic. Gothic literature allows readers to analyze abstract concepts through dark or disturbing analogies. The disturbing nature of the gothic is a result of "repressed familiarity," according to neurologist Sigmund Freud, and we are meant to see ourselves in Meyer's monsters. It is also interesting to note that dreams are an important theme in the gothic genre, and Meyer's main inspiration for "Twilight" came from a dream. Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," a classic in gothic literature, was also inspired by a dream. "Twilight" moves away from the classical gothic however, through Bella's sympathy toward Edward. Rather than feeling disgust for the vampire, the dangerous intrigue she takes in him moves the plot forward.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: The books are written in first-person narrative, primarily through Bella's eyes with the epilogue of the third book and a part of the fourth book being from Jacob's point of view. When asked about the structure of the novel, Meyer described her difficulty in pinpointing the premise of the novels to any specific category. The novels involve vampires, but they aren't the typical tragic or bloodthirsty kind. The main characters are high schoolers, but according to some, that description also unfairly stereotypes the series.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: The books are based on the vampire myth, but "Twilight" vampires differ in a number of particulars from the general vampire lore. For instance, "Twilight" vampires have strong piercing teeth rather than fangs; they glitter in sunlight rather than burn; and they can drink animal as well as human blood. Meyer comments that her vampire mythology differs from that of other authors because she wasn't informed about the canon vampires. She did not consider the way her vampires differed from established literature until "Twilight" was close to being published. By that time, it was too late make drastic changes and Meyer kept her vampires sans "fang and coffins and so forth" not as an act of separation from vampire canon, but as staying true to the way the characters appeared in her mind.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: According to the author, her books are "about life, not death" and "love, not lust". Each book in the series was inspired by and loosely based on a different literary classic: "Twilight" on Jane Austen's 1813 novel "Pride and Prejudice", "New Moon" on William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet", "Eclipse" on Emily Brontë's 1847 novel "Wuthering Heights", and "Breaking Dawn" on a second Shakespeare play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Meyer also states that Orson Scott Card and L. M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" series are a big influence on her writing. The Cullens were inspired by Meyer's own family as well as characters from the "" cartoon. Other influences on the series which Meyer has acknowledged include the 1847 novel "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë, HGTV, and the films "Iron Man" (2008), "Somewhere in Time" (1980), "Stranger than Fiction" (2006), and "Baby Mama" (2008).


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Other major themes of the series include choice and free will. Meyer says that the books are centered around Bella's choice to choose her life on her own, and the Cullens' choices to abstain from killing rather than follow their temptations: "I really think that's the underlying metaphor of my vampires. It doesn't matter where you're stuck in life or what you think you have to do; you can always choose something else. There's always a different path."


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Meyer, a Mormon, acknowledges that her faith has influenced her work. In particular, she says that her characters "tend to think more about where they came from, and where they are going, than might be typical." The "Twilight" series analyzes the Christian moral dilemma of mortal temptation. As a vampire, Edward experiences strong carnal temptations that would result in the corruption of his sense of self. Overcoming these temptations illustrates a common Christian principles of "overcoming the natural man". Mormon tenets of immortality and eternal life are also explored in the series. The vampires have perfected, immortal bodies, but the Cullens long for satisfying relationships. Bella achieves both immortality and the Mormon concept of eternal life by becoming a vampire alongside her husband and daughter. Meyer also steers her work from subjects such as sex, despite the romantic nature of the novels. Meyer says that she does not consciously intend her novels to be Mormon-influenced, or to promote the virtues of sexual abstinence and spiritual purity, but admits that her writing is shaped by her values, saying, "I don't think my books are going to be really graphic or dark, because of who I am. There's always going to be a lot of light in my stories."


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Stephenie Meyer says that the idea for "Twilight" came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003. The dream was about a human girl, and a vampire who was in love with her but thirsted for her blood. Based on this dream, Meyer wrote the transcript of what is now chapter 13 of the book. Despite having very little writing experience, in a matter of three months she had transformed that dream into a completed novel. After writing and editing the novel, she signed a three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company for $750,000, an unusually high amount for a first time author. Meyer's literary agent, Jodi Reamer of Writers House, discovered her only because the inexperienced assistant who received Meyer's original letter did not know that young adult books are supposed to be 40,000 to 60,000 words in length, not 130,000 words. Megan Tingley, the Little, Brown editor who signed Meyer, said that halfway through the reading of the "Twilight" manuscript, she realized that she had a future bestseller in her hands. The book was released in 2005.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Following the success of "Twilight", Meyer expanded the story into a series with three more books: "New Moon" (2006), "Eclipse" (2007), and "Breaking Dawn" (2008). In its first week after publication, the first sequel, "New Moon", debuted at #5 on the "New York Times" Best Seller List for Children's Chapter Books, and in its second week rose to the #1 position, where it remained for the next eleven weeks. In total, it spent over 50 weeks on the list. After the release of "Eclipse", the first three "Twilight" books spent a combined 143 weeks on the "New York Times" Best Seller List. The fourth installment of the "Twilight" series, "Breaking Dawn", was released with an initial print run of 3.7 million copies. Over 1.3 million copies were sold on the first day alone, setting a record in first-day sales performance for the Hachette Book Group USA. Upon the completion of the fourth entry in the series, Meyer indicated that "Breaking Dawn" would be the final novel to be told from Bella Swan's perspective. In 2008 and 2009, the four books of the series claimed the top four spots on "USA Today"'s year-end bestseller list, making Meyer the first author to ever achieve this feat. The series then won the 2009 Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Book, where it competed against the "Harry Potter" series.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: The response to "Twilight" has been mixed. While the books have become immensely popular, they have also generated much controversy.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: "Twilight" has gathered acclaim for its popularity with its target readers. "The Times" lauded it for capturing "perfectly the teenage feeling of sexual tension and alienation." Other reviews described "Twilight" as an "exquisite fantasy", and a "gripping blend of romance and horror". Lev Grossman of "Time" wrote that the books have a "pillowy quality distinctly reminiscent of Internet fan fiction", but still praised the series, comparing it to "The Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter":


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: The "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" called the book a "hot new teen novel", "Entertainment Weekly" called Meyer "the world's most popular vampire novelist since Anne Rice", "The New York Times" described "Twilight" as a "literary phenomenon", and Matt Arado of "Daily Herald" noted that the "Twilight" books have become the "hottest publishing phenomenon since a certain bespectacled wizard cast his spell on the world." The large and diverse online fan community of the series are often noted, sometimes even being called "cult-like". Despite this, the series is often considered to have a wider appeal; Crystal Mack of "Daily Herald" said, "While teenage girls are the main audience, young boys and adults of both genders have also been swept up in the phenomenon."


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: The author and the series' popularity are often compared with J. K. Rowling and "Harry Potter". Describing the fan following of the books, the "Phoenix New Times" wrote, "Meyer's fandom is reminiscent of "Harry Potter" mania." "The Daily Telegraph" described "Twilight" as the "spiritual successor to "Harry Potter"". Rebekah Bradford of "The Post and Courier" stated that the series has a "huge crossover appeal much like the "Harry Potter" books before them." According to the "Daily Telegraph", "Stephenie Meyer, in particular, has achieved incredible success across all the English-speaking nations and Europe and many will say that her "Twilight" series has filled the hole left by "Harry Potter"." Meyer has responded to such comparisons, saying, "It's terribly flattering to be compared to her, but there's never going to be another J. K. Rowling; that's a phenomenon that's not gonna happen again", however noting that "you can compare my fans to her fans more easily [than me to her]. I do think that we both have people who are just really really enthusiastic, and will come miles to see you and be involved, and everybody really cares about our characters."


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Economically, the town of Forks, Washington, the setting for the "Twilight" series, has improved due to tourism from fans of the books. Forks is visited by an average of 8,000 tourists per month, and has been described as a "mecca for Twilighters". In response to plans for the aging Forks High School to be renovated, "Twilight" fans have teamed up with Infinite Jewelry Co. and the West Olympic Peninsula Betterment Association to collect donations in an attempt to save the brick appearance or the building altogether.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: On November 5, 2019, the "BBC News" listed "The Twilight Series" on its list of the 100 most influential novels.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: The series has garnered some notoriety both over its literary substance and over the type of relationship portrayed in the books.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Many have derided the series as poor writing. While comparing Stephenie Meyer to J. K. Rowling, Stephen King said, "the real difference [between Rowling and Meyer] is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer, and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good." However, King understood the appeal of the series, adding, "People are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it's very clear that she's writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It's exciting and it's thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because it's not overtly sexual."


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: A quote from Robin Browne (though frequently misattributed to King or Andrew Futral) negatively compares the "Twilight" and "Harry Potter" book series: ""Harry Potter" is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity ... "Twilight" is about how important it is to have a boyfriend".


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Laura Miller of Salon.com wrote that "the characters, such as they are, are stripped down to a minimum, lacking the texture and idiosyncrasies of actual people", and said that ""Twilight" would be a lot more persuasive as an argument that an 'amazing heart' counts for more than appearances if it didn't harp so incessantly on Edward's superficial splendors."


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Elizabeth Hand of "The Washington Post" wrote, "Meyer's prose seldom rises above the serviceable, and the plotting is leaden." The article, featured on the Yahoo! website Shine, also criticized the books and the author's final word on the series was, "Good books deal with themes of longing and loneliness, sexual passion and human frailty, alienation and fear just as the "Twilight" books do. But they do so by engaging us with complexities of feeling and subtleties of character, expressed in language that rises above banal mediocrity. Their reward is something more than just an escape into banal mediocrity. We deserve something better to get hooked on."


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: The books have also been widely critiqued as promoting, normalizing, and idealizing an emotionally and physically abusive relationship. Sci-fi website io9 noted that Bella and Edward's relationship meets all fifteen criteria set by the National Domestic Violence Hotline for being in an abusive relationship. L. Lee Butler of Young Adult Library Services Association commented how he was unusually hesitant to stock the "Twilight" books in his library because he felt the books were "robbing [teen girls] of agency and normalizing stalking and abusive behavior." Many female-oriented and feminist media outlets, like Jezebel, The Frisky, and Salon.com have decried "Twilight" as promoting an anti-woman message. "Bitch" magazine stated the novels "had created a new, popular genre of "abstinence porn", concluding that, "In reality, the abstinence message—wrapped in the genre of abstinence porn—objectifies Bella in the same ways that 'real' porn might. The "Twilight" books conflate Bella losing her virginity with the loss of other things, including her sense of self and her very life. Such a high-stakes treatment of abstinence reinforces the idea that Bella is powerless, an object, a fact that is highlighted when we get to the sex scenes in "Breaking Dawn"." "Ms." declared that "Twilight" promotes a physically abusive relationship and an anti-abortion message. However, writer Angela Aleiss of "Religion News Service" said that contrary to popular opinion, Mormons do permit abortion when the mother's life is in danger. Bella's refusal to abort her fetus, along with her quick marriage and pregnancy, instead underscore the Mormon emphasis on family.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Various psychology experts have come out in agreement with the assessment of the relationship as abusive. Melissa Henson, Director of communication and public education for the Parents Television Council, stated:


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Many entertainment and media outlets have made similar comments on the abusive nature of Bella and Edward's relationship, including "Entertainment Weekly", "Movieline", and Mediabistro.com.


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: Meyer has dismissed such criticisms, arguing both that the books center around Bella's choice, which she perceives as the foundation of modern feminism, and that Bella's damsel in distress persona is due only to her humanity. Meyer also added, "Just because [Bella] doesn't do kung fu and she cooks for her father doesn't make her worthy of that criticism". Shannon Simcox of "The Daily Collegian" has similarly dismissed the criticism surrounding Bella, commenting, "While Bella plays the perfect damsel in distress that gets herself into sticky situations, she is also very in control of herself. She chose to move to Forks and be in a new place; she constantly faces a bunch of people who want to suck the life right out of her, and she is constantly pleading to become a vampire, too, so she can take care of herself and Edward."


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: In December 2010, professional singer Matthew Smith, known as Matt Heart, sued Summit Entertainment in the case "Smith v. Summit Entertainment LLC". Smith's song "Eternal Knight" was posted on several websites accompanied by cover art which Summit claimed used its "Twilight" typeface mark. Smith won four of the seven causes of action, including his right to continue distribution of his copyrighted song, under the terms that he remove any reference to "Twilight" or the "Twilight Saga".


title: Twilight (novel series)

text: The "Twilight" series made the number five spot on the American Library Association's (ALA) Top Ten List of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009, for being "Sexually Explicit", "Unsuited to Age Group", and having a "Religious Viewpoint".