Hair

Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical

Hair: 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 anti-Vietnam War 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. "On This day" 27 September BBC News 1968: Musical Hair opens as censors withdraw. 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.Los Angeles Times article dated June 17, 2001

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 1,750 performances, Hair on Internet Broadway Database followed by a successful London production which ran for 1,998 performances. Numerous productions have been staged around the world since then, and numerous recordings of the musical have been released. 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" referring to the United Kingdom).Ranking from the BBC website

History

Hair was conceived by actors James Rado and Gerry Ragni. In the 1960s, Ragni was an active member of The Open Theater group, which was developing improvisational and experimental drama techniques. While writing Hair in 1966, Ragni performed in The Open Theater's production of Megan Terry's play, Viet Rock, which influenced his development of the book for Hair. Viet Rock was described by critics as "wild... contributing something new to the concept and technique of stagecraft" (Variety), and "...the first realized theatrical statement about the Vietnam War" (Village Voice). During this period, Rado was studying acting with Lee Strasberg and appearing on Broadway in The Lion in Winter.

The two actors met in 1964 when they were both cast in the off-Broaway play Hang Down Your Head and Die and were soon writing Hair together. In the Los Angeles Times, Rado describes the inspiration for Hair as "a combination of some characters we met in the streets, people we knew and our own imaginations. We knew this group of kids in the East Village who were dropping out and dodging the draft, and there were also lots of articles in the press about how kids were being kicked out of school for growing their hair long, and we incorporated that in the show too." Many cast members (Shelley Plimpton in particular) were recruited right off the street.

Rado and Ragni brought the show to producer Nat Shapiro, and Shapiro connected them with pianist/composer Galt MacDermot who had won a Grammy in 1961 for his composition "African Waltz" (recorded by Cannonball Adderley). While living in South Africa, MacDermot studied the music of the Bantu tribe, music that stresses beats on unexpected syllables, and incorporated this African influence into the Hair score. MacDermot says he listened to "what they called quaylas... very characteristic beat, very similar to rock. Much deeper though... Hair is very African - a lot of [the] rhythms, not the tunes so much." Among the first songs written for the show were "I Got Life", "Ain't Got No", "Where Do I Go" and the title song "Hair".

The show was pitched to several Broadway producers and received many rejections. Eventually Joe Papp, who ran the then-named New York Shakespeare Festival, decided he wanted Hair to open his newly titled Public Theater in New York City's Greenwich Village. Chicago businessman Michael Butler - after seeing an ad for Hair in the New York Times that led him to believe the show was about Native Americans - watched the Public's production several times and decided to buy the rights and move it to Broadway. Hair became the first off-Broadway musical to successfully make the transition to the Broadway stage.

Early productions

Off-Broadway

Initially directed by Gerald Freedman, 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. There was no nudity in these productions.

Before the move to Broadway, the creative team hired director Tom O'Horgan. O'Horgan had been directing experimental theater at La MaMa, E.T.C. and was the first choice to direct the Public Theater production but was not available at the time. O'Horgan used nudity in many of the plays he directed, something that he would help integrate into the Broadway production. Newsweek described O'Horgan's directing style as "...sensual, savage, and thoroughly musical... [he] disintegrates verbal structure and often breaks up and distributes narrative and even character among different actors... He enjoys sensory bombardment."

Broadway

After expanding the show (and adding 13 new songs) and hiring O'Horgan, Butler and the creative team moved the show to the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway on 29 April 1968 where it stayed for 1,750 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. 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 performers who appeared in Hair during its original Broadway run are Ted Lange, Keith Carradine, Barry McGuire, Kenny Seymour (of Little Anthony and The Imperials), Joe Butler (of the Lovin' Spoonful), Peppy Castro (of the Blues Magoos), Robin McNamara, Heather MacRae, Eddie Rambeau and Kim Milford.

Early regional productions

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, Tata Vega, 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 and André DeShields (Chicago), David Lasley, David Patrick Kelly and Shaun Murphy (Detroit), Arnold McCuller (tour), and Philip Michael Thomas (San Francisco). It was rare for this many productions to run simultaneously during an initial Broadway run. Producer Michael Butler, who recently declared that Hair is "the strongest anti-war statement ever written", said the reason for this was to influence public opinion against the Vietnam War and end it as soon as possible.

Original West End production

Hair opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London on 27 September 1968, and running 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, Marsha Hunt, Floella Benjamin, Alex Harvey and Tim Curry. This was Curry's first full-time theatrical acting role, where he met future Rocky Horror Show collaborator O'Brien.

Early international productions

A German production opened in 1968 in Munich; the tribe included Donna Summer and Liz Mitchell (of Boney M). A Mexican production of Hair opened in 1969 for one performance. The show was shut down by the government, and the cast members were forced to leave Mexico to avoid arrest.

The Australian production of Hair premiered in Sydney on June 6 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 Sydney tribe also included 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, Finland, France, Italy, Israel, Japan, Denmark, Norway, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and then-Yugoslavia (Belgrade). The Belgrade production was the first for Hair in a communist country.

1977 Broadway revival and 1979 film

A Broadway revival of Hair in 1977 ran for a short time with a cast that included Ellen Foley and Annie Golden.

A successful movie version of Hair was directed by Miloš Forman and released in 1979 with a cast including Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo, John Savage, Foley and Golden. The film's storyline departs significantly from the musical.

Few major revivals of Hair followed until the early 1990s. Other productions are described below.

Plot

Act I

The musical introduces "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 New York City. Among them are Claude, the nominal group leader; Berger, an irreverent free spirit; Sheila, a New York University (NYU) student who is the most focused political activist of the group; Woof, a gentle soul; Jeanie, eccentric and pregnant by a "speed freak"; Hud, a militant African-American; Crissy, young and innocent; 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. Their love lives are convoluted: Jeanie is in love with Claude, who is in love with Sheila, who is in love with Berger.

Much of the first act focuses on Berger. At the beginning of the show he wanders out to interact with the audience dressed in a loincloth. Later we learn of his being kicked out of high school, his relationship with Sheila (he rips up a yellow shirt she brings to him as a gift) and his close friendship with Claude. At the end of Act I, after the men of The Tribe receive draft notices, they conduct a burning ceremony at a Be-In and burn their draft cards. Claude, however, does not. The plot then shifts to Claude as he closes Act I with the song "Where Do I Go?" which addresses his uncertainty about the future (and, at the end, contains the brief nude scene).

Act II

A substantial part of the second act consists of Claude's psychedelic drug trip, where he imagines (among other things) that he's going off to war, parachuting from a plane and conjuring up various historical and cultural figures such as General Custer, Rhett Butler, Scarlett O'Hara, LeRoi Jones, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, John Wilkes Boothe and Aretha Franklin. The drug trip and sequence of songs ("Walking in Space", "Abie Baby", "Three-Five-Zero-Zero") culminates as two tribe members sing "What a Piece of Work Is Man" over the symbolically dead bodies of the tribe on a battlefield. Ultimately, Claude goes to fight in Vietnam and dies. In the last scene, Claude 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!"

• This plot summary is based on the original Broadway script. The script has varied in subsequent productions.

Songs

The score had many more songs than were typical of Broadway shows. Most Broadway shows of the time had about six to ten songs per act; Hair's total is in the thirties.

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*

Template:Col-end *Dropped from the Broadway show.
†Added to 1995 revival
‡Added to 1993 London Production

Political and cultural significance

Politics and social change

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. The other case which began in April of 1972 (Southeastern Promotions, LTD v. Conrad, 420 U.S. 546) resulted in a 1975 Supreme Court ruling establishing 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. 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. The Sydney Australia production also had a bomb scare in June 1969.

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.

Many of the songs in Hair address political and social issues: "Air" is a song about pollution; "Sodomy" addresses sexual freedom; "Colored Spade", "Abie Baby" and "Black Boys/White Boys" address various racial issues (the latter, miscegenation); "Hashish" provides a list of pharmaceuticals, both illegal and legal (including Thorazine which is used to calm down mental patients); "Three-Five-Zero-Zero" is critical of the Vietnam War; and "Don't Put It Down" pokes fun at patriotism. In addition, as Clive Barnes wrote in his original New York Times review of Hair, "homosexuality is not frowned upon". Three characters in particular - Claude, Berger and Woof - make reference to bisexual experiences and/or bisexuality. Woof says he has a big crush on Mick Jagger, and Sheila announces at one point that Claude and Berger have had sex.

Literary references

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. 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. 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, "If I was invisible, I could do anything!".

The song "Three-Five-Zero-Zero" contains portions of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Wichita Vortex Sutra". In the psychedelic drug trip sequence, Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler and Prissy (Butterfly McQueen) from Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind make appearances. Also in the drug trip, activist African-American poet LeRoi Jones is portrayed briefly.

Media

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

Several pop and rock artists had hits with songs from Hair in the late 60's. A medley of the two songs Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, which was number 33 on the 2004 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs, was recorded by The Fifth Dimension and released in 1969 as a Grammy-winning and chart-topping single. The Cowsills had a hit with the title song "Hair", which reached #2 on the Billboard charts in 1969. "Good Morning Starshine" as sung by Oliver reached #3 on Billboard in 1969 and also lent its title to Strawberry Alarm Clock's last album of original material, which included a cover of the song. Three Dog Night had a hit with "Easy to Be Hard" in 1969 (#4 Billboard). Nina Simone recorded a medley from Hair: "Ain't Got No - I Got Life" on the album Nuff Said (1968), which reached the top 5 on the British charts.

Other artists such as electronic music pioneer Mort Garson recorded an album of Hair covers entitled Electronic Hair Pieces in 1969, and Hugo Montenegro's 1969 album Moog Power, included a medley of the songs Hair and Aquarius.

Songs from the musical have been featured in films and television episodes. For example, in the 2005 movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the character Willy Wonka welcomed the children with lyrics from "Good Morning Starshine". "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" was performed in the final scene in the film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Three Dog Night's cover of "Easy to be Hard" was featured in the first part of David Fincher's film Zodiac. On television, several episodes of The Simpsons have featured songs from Hair. In "The Springfield Files", the townspeople, Leonard Nimoy, Chewbacca, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder sang "Good Morning Starshine." In other Simpsons episodes, the song "Hair" was heard when Marge Simpson was losing her hair, a gang of yoyoists played "Aquarius" when they came to Springfield elementary, and another episode featured "Easy to be Hard."Template:Fact "Good Morning Starshine" also appeared on Sesame Street episodes and albums, sung by cast member Bob McGrath.Template:Fact In addition,Head of the Class featured a 2-part episode in 1990 where the head of the English department is determined to disrupt the school's performance of Hair.

Songs from the show are sometimes used in advertising. "Aquarius" was used in a Ford car advertising campaign in recent years. "Let the Sun Shine In" was used in a 2007 television advertising campaign for Bic Soleil razorsTemplate:Fact and was heard in an earlier Windex glass cleaner ad.Template:Fact

Subsequent productions

1990s

A small 1990 “bus and truck” production of Hair toured Europe for over 3 years. A production opened in Australia in 1992 and a short-lived revival opened at the Old Vic in London in 1993 starring John Barrowman and Paul Hipp. Other productions were mounted in Germany (1993), Iceland (1994), Hungary (1996), and Denmark (1997), among others.

Hair author James Rado directed a $1 million, 11 city national tour in 1994 that featured Luther Creek and Catrice Joseph. 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.

2000s

In 2001, the Reprise! theater company in Los Angeles put on Hair at the Wadsworth Theater, 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 Hair starring Luther Creek, Idina Menzel, Jessica-Snow Wilson 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, Raul Esparza, JM J. Bullock, Liz Callaway, Gavin Creel, Harvey Fierstein, Ana Gasteyer, Annie Golden, Jennifer Hudson, Jai Rodriguez, RuPaul, Michael McKean, Laura Benanti, Adam Pascal and Harris Doran.

International productions continued, including in Norway (2000) and in Vienna (2001), which featured new "hard" orchestrations and a modernized plot and setting. 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. 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.

For three nights in September 2007, Joe's Pub and the Public Theater presented the 40th Anniversary Production of Hair at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, New York City. This concert version, directed by Diane Paulus, featured Jonathan Groff of Spring Awakening as Claude and Galt MacDermot on stage on the keyboards. The cast also included Karen Olivo, Will Swenson, Darius Nichols, Patina Renea Miller and Megan Lawrence. Actors from the original Broadway production joined the cast on stage during the encore of "Let the Sun Shine In."

Michael Butler produced Hair at the MET Theater in Los Angeles from September 14th through December 30, 2007. The show was directed and choreographed by Bo Crowell, with musical direction from Christian Nesmith (son of Michael Nesmith). The tribe featured James Barry, Lee Ferris, Johanna Unger, Dawn Worrall and Trance Thompson. Hair at the MET Theater website and LA Times review

Community theatre, university and high school productions

Amateur and school productions of Hair are popular worldwide. Current Cummunity Theatre, University and High School Productions of Hair In 2002, Peter Jennings featured a Boulder, CO high school production of Hair for his ABC documentary series "In Search of America". Documentary Group 2002 Projects 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 Hairs I have seen in a long time."Hair Red Bank website 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 [1] Information about the 2007 Mountain Play production, from San Francisco Examiner]</ref>

International success

Hair has been performed in most of the countries of the world. After the Berlin Wall fell, the show travelled 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 and discovered a production of Hair there in the midst of the war). According to Rado, the only places where the show hasn't been performed are "China, India, Vietnam, the Arctic and Antarctic continents as well as most African countries."

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

References

• Barnes, Clive. "Theatre: 'Hair'—It's Fresh and Frank" in The New York Times, April 30 1968. (available online here).
• Horn, Barbara Lee. The Age of Hair: Evolution and the Impact of Broadway's First Rock Musical (New York, 1991) ISBN 0313275645
• Miller, Scott. Let the Sun Shine In: The Genius of Hair (Heineman, 2003) ISBN 0325005567
• Johnson, Jonathon. Good Hair Days: A Personal Journey with the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical Hair (iUniverse, 2004) ISBN 0595312977

External links

• Template:Ibdb title
• 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