Hair Tickets : Hair Broke New Ground In Musical Theatre By Defining The Genre Of 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

. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement.

The musical's profanity, its depiction of the use of illegal drugs, its treatment of sexuality, its irreverence for the American flag, and its nude scene caused much comment and controversy. The musical broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of "rock musical", using a racially integrated cast, and inviting the audience onstage for a "Be-In" finale.

Hair tells the story of the "tribe", a group of politically active, long-haired hippies of the "Age of Aquarius" living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War. Claude, his good friend Berger, their roommate Sheila and their friends struggle to balance their young lives, loves and the sexual revolution with their rebellion against the war and their conservative parents and society.

Ultimately, Claude must decide whether to resist the draft as his friends have done, or to compromise his pacifistic principles and risk his life by serving in Vietnam.

After an off-Broadway debut in October 1967 at Joseph Papp's Public Theater and a subsequent run in a midtown discotheque space, the show opened on Broadway in April 1968 and ran for 1,750 performances. Simultaneous productions in cities across the United States and Europe followed shortly thereafter, including a successful London production, which ran for 1,997 performances. Since then, numerous productions have been staged around the world, spawning dozens of recordings of the musical.

Some of the songs from its score became Top 10 hits, and a feature film adaptation was released in 1979. A Broadway revival opened on March 31, 2009, earning strong reviews and winning the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for best revival of a musical. In 2008, Time magazine wrote, "Today Hair seems, if anything, more daring than ever."

The job of leading the foreign language productions of Hair was given to Bertrand Castelli, Butler's partner and executive producer of the Broadway show.Castelli was a writer/producer who traveled in Paris art circles and rubbed elbows with Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. Butler described him as a "crazy showman... the guy with the business suit and beads".

Castelli made the decision to do the show in the local language of each country at a time when Broadway shows were always done in English. The translations followed the original script closely, and the Broadway stagings were used. Each script contained various local references, such as street names and the names or depictions of local politicians and celebrities. Castelli produced companies in France, Germany, Mexico and other countries, sometimes also directing the productions.

A German production, directed by Castelli,opened in 1968 in Munich;the tribe included Donna Summer and Liz Mitchell (of Boney M). A successful Parisian production of Hair opened on June 1, 1969. The original Australian production premiered in Sydney on June 6, 1969. It was produced by Harry M. Miller and directed by Jim Sharman, who also designed the production. The tribe included Keith Glass and then Reg Livermore as Berger, John Waters as Claude and Sharon Redd as The Magician.

Redd was one of six African-Americans brought to Australia to provide a racially-integrated tribe. The production broke local box-office records and ran for two years, but because of some of the language in the show, the cast album was banned in Queensland and New Zealand. It transferred to Melbourne in 1971 and then had a national tour. The production also marked the stage debut of Boston-born Australian vocalist Marcia Hines.

Another notable production was in the former Yugoslavia (Belgrade), the first Hair to be produced in a communist country.Directed by local female producer-director Mira Trailovic and attended by president Tito, the Belgrade production was a favorite of authors Rado and Ragni, with Ragni declaring "there's no middle class prejudices here". Local references added to the script included barbs aimed at Mao Zedong as well as Albania, Yugoslavia's traditional rival.

by: Cynthia Hoffman

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