Premier: April 29, 1968
Theater: Biltmore Theater
Music by: Gerome Ragni and James Rado
Lyrics by: Galt MacDermot
Book by: Gerome Ragni and James Rado
Directed by: Tom O'Horgan
Choreography by: Julie Arenal
Produced by: Michael Butler
By the late 1960s, it was only a matter of time before rock music -- real rock music, not the Tin Pan Alley-spoof kind -- hit Broadway. "Hair" came directly from Greenwich Village -- Joseph Papp's Off-Broadway Public Theater -- a couple of blocks away from the real hippies changing the world down in Washington Square. "Hair" had no real plot, it was simply a revue, showing practically every aspect of the counterculture in a variety of musical styles, dance, and stage effects. Its encyclopedic psychedelia included mind-altering drugs, pollution, the Vietnam War, civil rights, astronauts, astrology, hairstyles, Shakespeare, and the Waverly movie theater on Sixth Avenue. And sex. "Hair" became internationally famous for a brief, dimly lit scene at the end of the first act when the entire company assembled in the nude.
The show's nudity made it a first for a Broadway musical when it transferred uptown on April 29, 1968, as did its full rock score. "The American Tribal Love Rock Musical" reached parents who were curious about their kids and the kids themselves, who were compelled by the music. Although "Hair" did not produce the immediate revolution in Broadway music that critics had predicted, it did run nearly 2,000 performances and was the beginning of a diversification in the musical styles of the Broadway score.
Selected Original Cast:
Steve Curry (Woof), Sally Eaton (Jeannie), Diane Keaton (Waitress), Lynn Kellogg (Sheila), Melba Moore (Dionne), Shelley Plimpton (Crissy), James Rado (Claude), Gerome Ragni (Berger), Lamont Washington (Hud)
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photo credits: Photofest, Martha Swope, and Paul Kolnik
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"Aquarius"
"Manchester England"
"Ain't Got No"
"I Got Life"
"Hair"
"Easy to Be Hard"
"Good Morning Starshine"
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