Hair (musical)

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 renowned for originally being performed with all the players totally naked in some scenes. It was written by James Rado and Gerome Ragni (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 1,472 performances. 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.

Story outline

The show follows 'The Tribe', a group of politically-active, long-haired 'Hippies of the Age of Aquarius' fighting against conscription to the Vietnam War. Among them are Claude and Berger — a pair of friends battling against Claude's draft notice, and Sheila, who is in love with both of them. Jeannie is always protesting about something, and together with Woof, Crissy, Hud and Dionne they epitomise the hippy days of the late Sixties.

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The many songs include "Aquarius", "Good Morning Starshine", "Let the Sunshine In", "Hare Krishna", "Easy to be Hard", and the title song, "Hair".

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Claude is divided between his loyalty to the tribe and the pressure he feels to conform to his draft notice. In the end, Claude conforms and goes to Vietnam, where he is killed. Songs in the play celebrate life and sexuality in all their diverse aspects.

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