Bertrand Castelli

Bertrand Castelli (December 3, 1929 - August 1, 2008) is best known as the executive producer of the Broadway rock musical "Hair" in partnership with the show's main producer Michael Butler. Castelli was instrumental in helping the show reach BroadwayHorn p. 42] and would later lead the effort to introduce "Hair" to a worldwide theatre audience. The New York Times described him as "a friend of the famous and not-so-famous, a cultivator of people, an avid pot smoker and devoted sensualist", and close friend Michael Butler described him as a "crazy showman... the guy with the business suit and beads".

Castelli, born in Salon de Provence, Bouches du Rhône, was a colorful individual who traveled in Paris art circles and rubbed elbows with Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau.Horn p. 37] A director, painter, screenwriter, balletomane and choreographer as well as a producer, he began his artistic career in France creating ballets, operas and plays in a small circus. His staging of the ballet, Les Algues earned him notoriety and "entrée to the society of artists" which at the time also included Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Jean Paul Sartre. According to his daughter he once worked as Picasso’s assistant, and he was an occasional lover of Françoise Gilot, the mother of two of Picasso’s children. He eventually moved to Hollywood where among other things he had a role in the 1959 film Thunder in the Sun, a western starring Susan Hayward. [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/theater/12castelli.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=Bertrand%20Castelli&st=cse&oref=slogin&oref=slogin "Bertrand Castelli, Bon Vivant and an Early Producer of ‘Hair,’ Dies at 78" by Bruce Weber, New York Times, 8/12/08, accessed 9/9/08] ]

At the time "Hair" opened off-Broadway in 1967, Castelli was the director of the Harkness Ballet company where he notably incorporated experimental ideas from Andy Warhol and eventual "Hair" director Tom O'Horgan. When the "Hair" team was unable to find a Broadway theater owner that would accept the controversial show, Castelli met with Michael Butler's father Paul and convinced him to use his considerable political clout to make the Biltmore Theater available. Shortly after "Hair" opened on Broadway in 1968, Butler gave Castelli the job of leading the many foreign language productions of the show.Horn, pp. 103–10] Castelli made the decision to translate "Hair" in the local language of each country at a time Broadway shows were always done in English. He produced and sometimes directed companies in France, Germany, Mexico and several other countries.

References

*Horn, Barbara Lee. "The Age of Hair: Evolution and the Impact of Broadway's First Rock Musical" (New York, 1991) ISBN 0313275645

External links

* [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/theater/12castelli.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=Bertrand%20Castelli&st=cse&oref=slogin&oref=slogin New York Times Obituary, August 12, 2008]

Notes