Question: Did the actors do their own singing?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Why does Berger tell Sheila and her friend, that he needs $250 to bail his friends out? The bail was $50/person an there's only 4 of them in jail.
Answer: He wanted to give Claude his $50 back.
Question: Why do they suddenly start singing about Manchester?
Answer: Because the character who is singing, Claude Hooper Bukowski, is from Manchester and came to the US when he 'dropped out'.
Claude is from Oklahoma, not Manchester. The song came from the play. In the stage version, Sheila was from Manchester.
Question: In "The Flesh Failures," they sing "life is around you and in you, except for Timothy Leary, deary". What does this mean?
Chosen answer: The word is "answer" not "except". "Life is around you and in you ... let the sunshine in" is an answer to Timothy Leary - probably to his "turn on, tune in, drop out".
Question: Why does the headstone at the end say George Berger? Shouldn't it say Claude Hooper Bukowski?
Answer: The army found out it was George Berger who fought in the war. If you look at the scene where they are standing over the grave, you will see Claude in civilian clothes. He should have been arrested for dodging the draft and having someone else impersonate him.
Answer: It is assumed the military will have worked out his actual identity by this time. He likely told someone between boarding the plane and his death, was drafted per his draft card, dying (needlessly, as did all those who went to and /or fought) in Vietnam. It was demonstrated on both sides that soldiers tended to shoot high, above their "opponents" heads - it is not within the nature of humans to wish to kill each other with no motivation (on the whole). War sucks, is part of the vast corporate money machine. This film is a tribute to peace, love and the human condition.
Answer: Yes.
Tobin OReilly