With a score including such enduring musical numbers as "Let the Sunshine In," "Aquarius," "Hair" and "Good Morning Starshine," Hair depicts the the birth of a cultural movement in the 60's and 70's that changed America forever: the musical follows a group of hopeful, free-spirited young people who advocate a lifestyle of pacifism and free-love in a society riddled with intolerance and brutality during the Vietnam War. As they explore sexual identity, challenge racism, experiment with drugs and burn draft cards, the "tribe" in Hair creates an irresistable message of 'hope' that continues to resonate with audiences 40 years later.
This acclaimed production played Central Park last summer.
Yes, the exuberant revival oversells itself in the first act and, more often than we'd like to admit, looks a bit like a flower-power commercial for air freshener. But the Public Theater's production of its '60s 'American Tribal Love-Rock Musical' grows again into an important, lovable, achingly timely piece about the horrors and the marvels, the burdens and the wild fun of young social change. Despite all that is different since 1967 - not to mention all that's different from pre-election August - the show finds a modern pulse of fury and hope without betraying the specifics of a period piece about Vietnam and all flavors of liberation.
If anything, the transfer indoors produces more heat than last summer in the open-air Delacorte. The walls fairly shudder with Galt MacDermot’s polymorphously perverse rock score, and the stage gets a thorough pounding from the cast’s nonstop dancing, stomping and sprawling. Directed with tireless inventiveness and intensity by Diane Paulus and groovily choreographed by Karole Armitage, Hair speaks to a new generation faced with unpopular wars and a cynical society.
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