By Mike Hoban
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical – Book & Lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado; Music by Galt MacDermot. Rachel Bertone, Director/Choreographer; Dan Rodriguez, Music Director; Janie E. Howland, Scenic Designer; Marian Bertone Costume Designer; Franklin Meissner, Jr., Lighting Designer; Kevin Alexander, Sound Designer. Presented by New Repertory Theatre, Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown through February 23
When the original production of Hair first hit the Broadway stage in April of 1968, it was a mind-blowing experience in every sense of the phrase. The profanity, overtly political anti-war stance, perceived lack of respect for the flag, interracial coupling (yes kids, that was actually controversial in 1968), and shattering of sexual boundaries – including a cross-dressing Margaret Mead, polyamorous characters and (gasp) full frontal nudity – shocked the establishment. And while none of those things would likely to raise an eyebrow for most theatergoers today, the production was truly groundbreaking in its time. It ran for four years and 1,750 performances and made the leap from theater to popular culture, with cover versions from its rock score producing multiple top 40 hits, including four Top 5 songs – the Cowsills’ version of “Hair”, Oliver’s “Good Morning Starshine,” Three Dog Night’s “Easy to Be Hard” and the 5th Dimension’s medley of “Aquarius” and “Let the Sunshine In” – which hit #1 for five weeks.
Over fifty years later, the libretto seems a bit silly and quite frankly gives short shrift to the impact that youth culture had on stopping the war in Viet Nam, but it’s the music – and not just the hits – that makes New Rep’s production of Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical such a blast. Director Rachel Bertone has assembled a cast loaded with IRNE faves (Marge Dunn, Lovely Hoffman, Peter Mill, Yewande Odetoyinbo, and Eddie Shields) and raided the talent-rich ranks of Boston Conservatory at Berklee to populate the hippie tribe – and their vocal talent and boundless enthusiasm lights up this revival.
Set in 1960’s New York as the war is ramping up, the story focuses on roommates Sheila (Dunn), Claude (Edward L. Simon), and Berger (Shields) and their diverse group of friends, whose main pastime appears to be hanging out, getting high, randomly hooking up and hitting the occasional anti-war protest. While most of the men of the tribe have symbolically burned their draft cards to protest the war, Claude is reluctant. He lives with his 1950’s caricature parents who want him to get a job and grow up, but he’s torn between his fantasy life as an Englishman/visionary (in the bouncy “Manchester, England”) and reality of reporting for Army service.
Meanwhile, the tribe may not be actually accomplishing anything concrete, but at least they’re smashing barriers around social justice issues through song. “Black Boys/White Boys” and “Colored Spade” addressed racial issues in ways that America had never seen onstage before, and Woof (Brian Barry-Pereira) revealing his crush on Mick Jagger was fairly radical for the era as well. The celebration of the drug culture (particularly LSD) was probably just as alarming to audiences hearing the list of “recreational” intoxicants for the first time. The musical, particularly in the first half, is mostly sung-through, which means there’s no real coherent narrative, but who cares? The songs and the outstanding individual (too many to single out) and ensemble performances more than make up for it, especially “Three-Five-Zero-Zero” and hallucinatory “Walking in Space”, which also features some of the evening’s best choreography, including an intriguing balletic bit by newcomer Zoe Maloney. It’s also a show that gets progressively more interesting once the premise is established.
The orchestra, led by Dan Rodriguez, rocks out pretty hard but really excels in the more complicated pieces, and Janie E. Howland’s minimal set design accurately captures the era. But the principle reason to see this show is the sheer amount of fun the cast and band appear to be having with the material, and that highly contagious energy is transmitted to the audience throughout the production. For tickets and information, go to: http://www.newrep.org/
