HAIR (MUSICAL)

'''Hair''', subtitled '''The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical''', is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni, and music by Galt MacDermot. The musical was a product of the hippy counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, and several of its songs became anthems of the peace movement. At the time, the musical's depiction of the use of illegal drugs, sexuality, profanity, its irreverence for the American flag, and its nude scene caused much comment and controversy.^[1] The musical broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of the "rock musical", utilizing a racially-integrated cast, and by inviting the audience onstage for a "Be-in" finale.^[2]
After an off-Broadway debut in October 1967 at Joseph Papp's Public Theater, the production opened on Broadway in April 1968 and ran for 1,873 performances, followed by a successful London production which ran for 1,998 performances. Numerous productions have been staged around the world since then. Several of the songs from its score became Top 40 hits, and a successful movie version was released in 1979. ''Hair'' ranked tenth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals" ("Nation" meaning the United Kingdom).^[3]

Contents

Productions

Early productions

Film

Revivals

Political and cultural significance

Plot

Songs

Albums

Cultural influence

Popular Culture

References

External links

Productions

Early productions

Directed by Tom O'Horgan, ''Hair'' premiered off-Broadway, as the inaugural performance of the under-construction Public Theater, on 17 October 1967, for a limited run of six weeks. It then ran for 45 performances at The Cheetah, an old discotheque at 53rd Street and Broadway, produced by Michael Butler.
After expanding the show (and adding 13 new songs), Butler and the creative team moved the show to the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway on 29 April 1968 where it stayed for 1,873 performances (running until July 1, 1972). The original New York "tribe" (i.e., cast) included James Rado, Gerome Ragni, Shelley Plimpton, Melba Moore, Steve Curry, Lamont Washington, Ronnie Dyson, Paul Jabara, Lynn Kellogg, Sally Eaton, and Diane Keaton. Keaton did not appear nude in the musical's first act finale. The off-Broadway production also included Kenny Seymour of Little Anthony and The Imperials. The production was choreographed by Julie Arenal, had a set designed by Robin Wagner, costumes designed by Nancy Potts, and lighting design by Jules Fisher. Among the many notable performers who appeared in Hair during its initial Broadway run are Ted Lange, Keith Carradine, Barry McGuire, Joe Butler (of the Lovin' Spoonful), Peppy Castro (of the Blues Magoos), Robin McNamara, Heather MacRae, Eddie Rambeau and Kim Milford.
The West Coast version played at the Aquarius Theatre on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, running for an unprecedented two years. The Los Angeles tribe included Robert Rothman, James Rado, Ben Vereen, Red Shepard, Gerome Ragni, Ted Neeley, Meat Loaf, Jobriath, Jennifer Warnes (Warren) and Dobie Gray. Former Mouseketeer Cubby O'Brien served as drummer and musical director. There were soon nine simultaneous productions in U.S. cities, followed by national tours. Among the performers in these were Joe Mantegna (Chicago), André DeShields (Chicago), David Lasley (Detroit), Arnold McCuller (tour), David Patrick Kelly (Detroit) and Shaun Murphy (Detroit). It was rare for this many productions to run simultaneiously during an initial Broadway run. Producer Michael Butler, who recently wrote that Hair is "the strongest anti-war statement ever written", has said the reason for this was to influence public opinion against the Vietnam War and end it as soon as possible.
''Hair'' opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London on 27 September 1968, continuing for 1,998 performances until closure was forced by the roof collapsing in July 1973. The original London tribe included Sonja Kristina, Paul Nicholas, Richard O'Brien, Melba Moore, Elaine Paige, Paul Korda, Tim Curry, Marsha Hunt, Floella Benjamin, and Alex Harvey.
A Mexican production of ''Hair'' opened in 1968 for one performance. The show was shut down by the government, and the cast members were forced to leave Mexico to avoid arrest.^[4] A German production opened in 1968; the original Berlin tribe included Donna Summer and Liz Mitchell (Boney M).
The Australian production of ''Hair'' premiered in Sydney on May 4 1969, playing for two years in Sydney, followed by an Australian tour. It was produced by Harry M. Miller and directed by Jim Sharman. The Australian production is also notable as the stage debut of popular Australian vocalist Marcia Hines. The original Sydney tribe included Marcia Hines, Sharon Redd, Reg Livermore, and John Waters. The Melbourne tribe included Chuck McKinney and Michael Caton.
Other early productions were staged in Sweden, Brazil, Argentina, Holland, Finland, France, Italy, Israel, Japan, Denmark, and Norway.

Film

Main articles: Hair (film)

A movie version of ''Hair'' was directed by Miloš Forman and released in 1979 with a cast including Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo, and John Savage.

Revivals

There was a Broadway revival of ''Hair'' in 1977 which ran for a short time with a cast which included Ellen Foley and Annie Golden. ^[5] Both Foley and Golden later appeared in the film version. Few major revivals of ''Hair'' followed until the early 1990s.
A small 1990 “bus and truck” production of ''Hair'' toured Europe for over 3 years. ''Hair'' author James Rado directed a $1 million, 11 city national tour in 1994 that featured Luther Creek and Catrice Joseph.^[6]
A hit production opened in Australia in 1992 with a new sound for the old songs. A short-lived revival opened at the Old Vic in London in 1993 starring John Barrowman and Paul Hipp and featuring a revised libretto, but it was a financial failure. Other productions were mounted in Germany (1993), Iceland (1994), Hungary (1996), Denmark (1997), and Norway (2000), among others. The next major revival, however, was in 2001 in Vienna which was radically updated.
In 1996, original ''Hair'' producer Michael Butler brought a month-long production to Chicago, running the show concurrently with the 1996 Democratic National Convention. Butler employed the Pacific Musical Theater, a professional troupe in residence at California State University, Fullerton. ^[7]
Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert ended its 2001 City Center season with ''Hair'' starring Luther Creek, Idina Menzel, Jessica-Snow Wilson and Tom Plotkin, and featuring ''Hair'' composer Galt MacDermot on stage at the keyboards. ^[8]
A special benefit performance of the show was performed at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City on September 20 2004. The tribe included: Shoshana Bean, JM J. Bullock, Liz Callaway, Gavin Creel, Harvey Fierstein, Ana Gasteyer, Annie Golden, Jennifer Hudson, Jai Rodriguez, RuPaul, Michael McKean, Laura Benanti, and Adam Pascal.
In 2005, a London production opened at the Gate Theatre. James Rado approved an updating of the musical's script to place it in the context of the 2003 Gulf War instead of the Vietnam War.^[9]
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.^[10]
Amateur and college productions have been popular worldwide ever since the original production. One production of note was the spring 2006 production at California State University, Northridge. Performing the original script, the Waabi Kiizis tribe (Native American for "see the sun") was able to connect Hair to modern political and social issues. The production was praised by Michael Butler (the show's original producer) as the "best school production this century". Hair was recently performed by the "Koya Huye Band of the Tamalpais Nation" (Koya Huye is Miwok for to sing, to let the sun in) at the Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre (a.k.a. "The Mountain Theatre"), Mt. Tamalpais State Park, Mill Valley, California in the spring of 2007.^[11]

Political and cultural significance

''Hair'' challenged many of the norms held by Western society at the time. It caused controversy when it was first staged, and much publicity was provoked by the Act I finale which included male and female nudity. This became a legal issue both when the show opened in other cities and when the show left New York on tour. Stage nudity was acceptable in New York at that time but was unknown elsewhere in the U.S. The show was also charged with the desecration of the American flag and the use of obscene language. Two cases eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The first case occurred during the Boston production when the show was shut down by the Massachusetts Supreme Court in April of 1970. The US Supreme Court overturned the ruling a month later. ^{[12] [13]} The other case in April of 1972 (''Southeastern Promotions, LTD v. Conrad'', 420 U.S. 546) established that the City of Chattanooga's refusal to allow the play to be shown at the city-owned Memorial Auditorium was an unlawful prior restraint. ''Hair'' also effectively marked the end of stage censorship in the United Kingdom.
The show occasionally received bomb threats and fell victim to tragedy during its early years. On April 26, 1971, the ''New York Times'' reported that a bomb was thrown at the outside of Cleveland's Hanna Theater, bouncing off the marquee and shattering windows in the Hanna building and nearby storefronts.Article on the Cleveland bomb threat That same month, the families of cast members Jonathan Johnson and Russel F. Carlson died in a suspicious fire in the Cleveland hotel where 33 members of the show's troupe had been staying.Article on the suspicious Cleveland fire The Sydney Australia production also had a bomb scare in June 1969.Article on Sydney bomb scare
Astrology is a major theme in Hair, as the songs Aquarius and Good Morning, Starshine brought astrological and cosmic concepts to popular culture. The show's creators also consulted an astrologer when deciding when the show would open on Broadway and in other cities, and whom to cast.
''Hair'' makes many references to Shakespeare plays, especially ''Romeo and Juliet'' and ''Hamlet'' (for example, the lyrics to the song "What a Piece of Work Is Man" is from ''Hamlet'' (II: scene 2) and portions of "Flesh Failures" ("the rest is silence") are 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,111-114)). Many of these references did not appear in the Broadway version of the play, but were part of other productions, especially London.

Plot

The musical follows "The Tribe", a group of politically active friends, long-haired "Hippies of the Age of Aquarius" fighting against conscription to the Vietnam War and living a bohemian life together in an apartment in New York City. Among them are Claude, the nominal group leader; Berger an irreverent free spirit; Sheila, a New York University (NYU) film student who is in love with both of them, and who is the most focused political activist of the group; Woof a bisexual gentle soul; Jeanie, who is in love with Claude but pregnant by another man; Hud, a Black Panther; Crissy; and Dionne, among others, who are struggling to balance their young lives, loves and the sexual revolution with their pacifist rebellion against the war and the conservative impulses of their parents and society.
When the men of The Tribe receive a draft notice, they conduct a burning ceremony at a Be-In and destroy their draft cards, except for Claude. Ultimately, he goes to fight in Vietnam, as each member of The Tribe reluctantly releases him. Sheila's "good-bye" to Claude includes the gift of sex. Symbolically, the sub-plot of Claude's repeated failure to burn his draft card can be interpreted as a hippie take on ''Hamlet'', whose inability to take decisive action causes his demise, as in the last scene, he appears as a ghostly spirit among his friends wearing an army uniform, in an ironic echo of an earlier scene, where he says, "If I was invisible, I could do anything!"

Songs

The score had many more songs than were typical of Broadway shows.Rado's 2003 description of the show's background Most Broadway shows of the time had about six to ten songs per act; ''Hair's total is in the thirties. ^[14]
A medley of two songs from ''Hair'', Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, was recorded by The Fifth Dimension and released in 1969 as a Grammy-winning and chart-topping single.

;Act I ★ Aquarius ★ Donna ★ Hashish ★ Sodomy ★ Colored Spade ★ Manchester England ★ Manhattan ( ★ ) ★ I'm Black ★ Ain't Got No ★ I Believe in Love ★ Ain't Got No Grass ★ Dead End ''(cut during run and re-added)'' ★ Air ★ Initials (L.B.J) ★ I Got Life ★ Going Down ★ Hair ★ My Conviction ★ Easy to Be Hard ★ Don't Put It Down ★ Frank Mills ★ Be-In (Hare Krishna) ★ Where Do I Go?

;Act II ★ Electric Blues ★ Oh Great God of Power ★ Manchester England (Reprise) ★ Black Boys ★ White Boys ★ Walking in Space ★ Yes, I's Finished ‡ ★ Abie Baby ★ Three-Five-Zero-Zero ★ What a Piece of Work Is Man ★ Good Morning, Starshine ★ The Bed ★ The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In) ★ Hippie Life † ★ Exanaplanetooch ★ ★ Climax ★ ★ Sentimental Ending ★

★ Dropped from the Broadway show.

†Added to 1995 revival

‡Added to 1993 London Production

Albums

★ 1967 Off Broadway ★ 1968 Broadway ★ 1968 German ★ 1968 Mexican ★ 1968 Swedish ★ 1969 Brazilian ★ 1969 London ★ 1969 Australian ★ 1970 Argentina ★ 1970 Live German

★ 1970 Dutch ★ 1970 Finnish ★ 1970 French ★ 1970 Italian ★ 1970 Israeli ★ 1971 Japanese ★ 1971 Danish ★ 1971 Argentina ★ 1971 Norwegian ★ 1979 Movie Soundtrack

★ 1992 Australian ★ 1992 Live European Tour ★ 1993 London ★ 1993 German ★ 1994 Icelandic ★ 1995 Live Swedish Tour ★ 1996 Hungarian ★ 1996 C.C. Productions Studio ★ 1996 Live New York ★ 1997 Danish

★ 1998 German Live ★ 2000 Norwegian ★ 2000 Live German ★ 2001 Vienna ★ 2004/2005 European Tour ★ 2005 Actor's Fund of America Benefit Recording

Cultural influence

Music from the musical or other references to it have appeared in many media since the show premiered, including the following:

★ Songs from the show are often used in advertising. "Aquarius" was used in a Ford car advertising campaign in recent years. "Let the Sunshine In" was used in a 2007 television advertising campaign for Bic Soleil razors.

★ "Good Morning Starshine" as sung by Oliver reached #3 in July, 1969. The song also appeared on ''Sesame Street'' episodes and albums, sung by cast member Bob McGrath. In the 2005 movie ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', the character Willy Wonka welcomes the children with lyrics from the song.

★ Nina Simone recorded a medley from hair: "Ain't Got No - I Got Life" on the album ''Nuff Said'' (1968). It reached No. 2 on the British charts.

★ The song "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" was performed in the final scene in the film ''The 40-Year-Old Virgin'' and was number 33 on the 2004 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs.

★ Various TV episodes have featured the cast performing scenes from the musical as an important element of an episode's plot, including an episode ''Head of the Class''.

★ Several episodes of ''The Simpsons'' have featured songs from ''Hair''. In "The Springfield Files", the townspeople, Leonard Nimoy, Chewbacca, Dana Scully, Michiel Renty and Fox Mulder sing "Good Morning Starshine." In another episode, the song "Hair" is heard when Marge Simpson is losing her hair. A gang of yoyoists play "Aquarius" when they come to Springfield elementary. Another episode featured "Easy to be Hard."

★ Three Dog Night's cover of "Easy to be Hard" was featured in the first part of David Fincher's Zodiac (film).

★ Electronic music pioneer Mort Garson recorded an album of Hair covers entitled ''Electronic Hair Pieces'' in 1969.

Popular Culture

★ In the Seinfeld episode The Baby Shower Elaine mentions how her roommate contracted Lyme disease. When Jerry asks how she got it Elaine responds "She was doing an outdoor version of ''Hair'' in Danbury, Connecticut. She must've rolled over on a tick during the love-in."

References

1. "On This day" 27 September BBC News 1968: Musical Hair opens as censors withdraw. Accessed July 2007
2. 2001 ''Los Angeles Times'' article
3. From the BBC website
4. Information from the ''Hair'' website
5. [1] New York Times article
6. [2] Washington Times 3/6/94
7. [3] Copley News Service August 1996
8. [4]Associated Press April 2001
9. From the Gate Theatre website
10. ''Hair'' Playbill, 2007
11. From the Mountain Play website
12. [5]Variety, 4/15/70
13. [6]New York Times, 5/23/70
14. The lyrics to all the shows songs at ST lyrics. Accessed July 2007


★ Barnes, Clive. "Theatre: 'Hair'--It's Fresh and Frank." ''The New York Times,'' April 30, 1968. 40 (available online here).

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

External links

★

★ The official Hair the musical website by James Rado, one of the co-authors

★ Website on Hair from Michael Butler, the musical's original producer

★ Official Hair blog from Michael Butler, the musical's original producer