Hair, subtitled The American Tribal Love/Rock Musical, is a musical about hippies and was a significant part of the drug, music and peace-love culture of the 1960s. It is famous for originally being performed with all the players totally naked in some scenes. It was written by James Rado and Gerome Ragni (book and lyrics), and Galt MacDermot (music). The original cast previewed a few performances at a go-go club called The Cheetah. It premiered off-Broadway, with much fanfare, as the inaugural performance of the Public Theater, on October 17, 1967, and moved to the Biltmore Theater on Broadway on April 29 1968 where it stayed for 1,873 performances. The West Coast version played at the Aquarius Theatre on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles. It opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London on September 27 1968, continuing for 1,998 performances until closure was forced by the roof collapsing in July 1973. It went on to stage productions across the world and continues to be performed today.

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

It came tenth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals" (wherein "Nation" refers to the United Kingdom).

Political and cultural significance

The show 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 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. The case eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The show also effectively marked the end of stage censorship in the United Kingdom.

Story outline

STAGE STORY:The show follows "The Tribe", a group of politically-active, long-haired "Hippies of the Age of Aquarius" fighting

Songs in the play celebrate life and sexuality in all their diverse aspects.

MOVIE STORY:Claude is divided between his loyalty to the tribe and the pressure he feels to conform to his draft notice. In the end, Claude reports for boot camp. When Sheila receives a letter from Claude, the tribe decides to go to Nevada and visit him. When they arrive the base is under lock down and Berger sneaks in to take Claude's place so Claude can see Sheila and the tribe one more time. Unexpectedly, Claude's unit gets sent to Vietnam before Claude comes back, and Berger goes to Vietnam in his place, where he is killed. The many songs include "Aquarius", "Good Morning Starshine", "Let the Sunshine In", "Hare Krishna", "Easy to be Hard", and the title song, "Hair".

Players

• The original New York "tribe" (i.e., cast) included James Rado, Gerome Ragni, Shelley Plimpton, Kim Milford, Melba Moore, Paul Jabara, and Diane Keaton (in a minor role). Keaton did not appear nude in the musical's first act finale.

• The original London tribe included Paul Nicholas, Richard O'Brien, Melba Moore, Elaine Paige, Tim Curry, Marsha Hunt, and Alex Harvey.

• The original Berlin tribe included Donna Summer.

• 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, and others.

Current productions

• Brown University is producing HAIR March 9-12 & 16-19, 2006 under the direction of Chris Bayes.

• Glendale College, in Glendale, CA is producing HAIR for three weekends in March, 2006 under the direction of Ken Gray.

• The Endicott Performing Arts Center Repertory Company in Endicott, New York will present
  
  
  
  a production of "HAIR" March 10-12 and 17-19, 2006.

• Istanbul Bilgi University Candela Theatre Company, will be presenting 'HAIR' for 2006 season. The premier will be on 17th March and the play will be on for the whole 2006 season. or

Notable past performances

• James Rado give his blessing to an updating of the musical's script to place it in the context of the 2003 Gulf War instead of the Vietnam War. The new show opened at the Gate Theatre, London in September 2005. However, as of 10/28/05, Rado no longer supports this updating (despite excellent reviews and a sell out run at the Gate) due to reports from former cast members who saw the show that it was not true to the essence of HAIR as they saw it; when Rado saw the show in action, he felt he agreed. (Source: Conversation with Rado by editor)

• Emerson College in Boston, MA performed "Hair" in fall of 2005

• The University of Vermont mounted a production of "Hair" at the Royall Tyler Theater from November 9-20, 2005.

• The St. Mary's College of Maryland Theater Department showed "Hair" from February 24, 2006 to March 6, 2006.

• West Virginia Wesleyan College performed "HAIR" at Atkinson Theater in Buckhannon, West Virginia from November 9-13, 2005. The show featured: Jamie Markel, Kati Coleman, Erik Keiser, Jerry Callahan, Sarah Swiger, Linwood Young, Carrie Greenberg, Erin Wolford, AJ Spencer, David Green, and Taavon Gamble. Also, a special Interfaith 'Be-In' inspired by the Divine Hair-Mass in F lead by Junior religion major Cody Sweet took place on November 8, 2005.

• Original producer Michael Butler helped New York City's LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts launch a production of Hair December 8-11, 2005 and December 16-17, 2005.

• Theatre At Oakwood (Oakwood Collegiate Institute, Toronto) presented a production of Hair on January 18th-21st, 2006 under the direction of Jeff Jones.

Soundtrack Listing

Original Off-Broadway Songlist (taken from the recent remastered CD):

ACT ONE

• Opening
• Red Blue and White
• Ain't Got No
• I Got Life
• Air
• Going Down
• Hair
• Dead End
• Frank Mills
• Hare Krishna
• Where Do I Go?

ACT TWO

• Electric Blues
• Easy to Be Hard
• Manchester
• White Boys
• Black Boys
• Walking in Space
• Aquarius
• Good Morning Starshine
• Exanaplanetooch (*)
• The Climax (*)
• Sentimental Ending (*)

Possible initial Broadway list (taken from Great Rock Musicals by Stanley Richards):

ACT ONE

• Aquarius
• Introductions:

1. Manchester
2. Manhattan (*)
3. Colored Spade
4. Sodomy

• Ain't Got No
• I Got Life
• Air
• Initials
• Going Down
• Hair
• My Conviction
• Dead End (*) returned in a different placement following Broadway opening
• Don't Put It Down
• Frank Mills
• Hare Krishna
• Where Do I Go

ACT TWO

• Electric Blues
• Easy to Be Hard
• Manchester (reprise)
• White Boys
• Black Boys
• Walking in Space
• Prisoners in Niggertown
• Walking in Space (reprise)
• Good Morning, Starshine
• The Bed
• Exanaplanetooch (*)
• Climax (*)
• Sentimental Ending (*)

Broadway song list (taken from the recent remastered CD):

ACT ONE

• Aquarius
• Donna
• Hashish
• Sodomy
• Colored Spade
• Manchester England
• I'm Black
• Ain't Got No
• I Believe in Love
• Ain't Got No Grass
• 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 TWO

• Electric Blues
• Manchester England (Reprise)
• Black Boys
• White Boys
• Walking in Space
• 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)

Added in the 1995 revision:

• Hippie Life

(*) denotes songs eventually dropped from the Broadway show.

See also

• The movie Hair
• Public Theater
• Love. It Comes in All Colors, a 1970 US national advertising campaign using a song from Hair.
• The title and lyrics of the song What a Piece of Work Is Man are from Hamlet (act 2 scene 2).

References

• Clive Barnes. "Theatre: 'Hair'--It's Fresh and Frank." The New York Times. April 30, 1968. 40.
• As of 2005, four songs from 'Hair' were featured in The Simpsons: Aquarius, Good Morning Starshine, the title song and Easy to be Hard. The songs were featured in this order.
• In the 2005 movie,Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the character Willy Wonka welcomes the children with lyrics from the song Good Morning Starshine
• The final scene in "The 40 Year Old Virgin" features a parody of "Aquarius"
• The cast of Head of the Class performs the muscial during the series.
• The song "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" was number 33 on the 2004 AFI's 100 Years.. 100 Songs.

Hair (musical) Hair (comédie musicale) שיער (מחזמר) Hair