The Theatre Times: Hair the first Rock Musical opened in 1967 for six weeks at the New York Shakespeare Festival Theatre and moved to the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway the following year where it was a hit. The book and lyrics were written by Gerome Ragni and James Rado (both actors in the play) while the music was composed by Galt MacDermot.
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Hair is a musical about which I have heard a lot but unfortunately never had the opportunity to watch.
The musical has been credited for involving themes such as racism, environmental destruction, poverty etc and weaving an engaging story around them, via means of its characters, settings, costumes etc. It is a revolutionary musical, probably one of the first of its kind, and was is commendable is that it still attracts audiences from all corners of the world because of the global themes that the play highlights.
The show will be the spring musical for the next academic session at SoD and I could not be any more excited to watch it, hoping that the show will only surpass the level of expectation that precedes it. A lot of the people that I know will be involved in the making of this show and I simply cannot wait to see their work on stage, being amazing as usual.
Hair is just such a great musical. I really enjoy the soundtrack as well as many of the themes portrayed in the show. They comment on war, homosexuality and love, drug use, and so many other relevant concepts. It sparks so many conversations with it being a little provocative in nature. It is a very relevant message that needs to be heard in our world, which is why I am so excited to see it hit the Chosky stage next spring. I can’t wait to see how the designers, director, and actors portray this in our own CMU way. It offers so many unique visuals in terms of lighting, set, and costume design. I really cannot wait to see how they all use the themes of the show and some of the imagery involved in the music to make this script come to life. It should be a really popular show in our season next year and I’m very excited to see it.
Normally when I read articles about plays I haven't seen I take a second to think about why I've never seen it, which is often either because it's currently on Broadway or I just didn't bother going to see a community theater perform it, but I just realized I have never had the opportunity to see this show. I am really excited by that and can't wait to see what Carnegie Mellon Drama does with it next year. I think it will be cool to see it with fresh eyes in this setting because I know that the CMU designers will likely want to do something conceptual and bring a new life and meaning to the performance. For example, reading the line about women in the show only being followers and not leaders make me wonder if all of the traditional genders of the characters will remain the same. It could be a really interesting idea to look at, but I also know I will probably be happy with whatever direction they go in. Now I just need to figure out if I like the music.
I love the fact that many of the audience members, specifically the older ones who remember the era of "Hair" dressed up as hippies to go watch it. I don't consider my parents hippies by any means whatsoever, but they are definitely big fans of the show. I've learned about the context and era, but have never seen the show myself (which is alright because I have a feeling I'll be seeing it soon. This particular show review doesn't give much insight about the details of this production, aside from reinforcing the general aspects of the story itself. I still find it shocking that the original production in 1967 was scandalous enough to include nudity and strong political messages and last for so many performances. I feel like we're not as explicit nowadays, even though politically charged theatre is more common than it was in the 60s when it was just becoming a thing.
I'm super excited to see our creative team's interpretation of this really great and relevant show! I've really loved Hair for a long time and I think the themes are super important for us to discuss. Though the themes are wonderful and important, the show is due for a bit of an update, which I trust CMU's designers, dramaturgs, and directors to do. Hair really leaves a lot of room for creative interpretation, so I'm really interested to see what our incredibly talented designers do with this show. I'm really excited to see what conversation could be sparked by this show within the School of Drama and CMU as a whole. I think the faculty made a great decision for our student body and our current times! I'm excited to see how this show can be brought into the 21st century!
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