Hair The Tribal Love-Rock Musical

Book and Lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni

Music by Galt MacDermot

Producer/Director Glenn Elston

Choreographer Sue-Ellen Shook

Theatre Royal Sydney until July 12

Reviewed by Ron Lee, CSP

Hair The Tribal Love-Rock Musical

Prior to 1969, a stage musical meant The Sound of Music, Carousel, The King and I, Music Man, Show Boat, Annie Get Your Gun, Brigadoon, Kiss Me Kate, Oklahoma! and the like. They provided clean, family entertainment that reflected the wholesome values of the 1950s.

Then came Hair The Tribal Love-Rock Musical by Rado, Ragni and MacDermott. The hippies had become established in San Francisco in 1967, and Hair was a representation of that movement. When the raw, rebellious, radical Hair burst onto the scene, it was clear that we were experiencing the beginning of a theatrical revolution. Our perceptions of musical theatre were forced to spin around.

Perhaps this current version should be reviewed on its own merits, but I can’t help but to compare it with the original production that I saw through a young teenager’s eyes at the Metro Theatre in Sydney’s Kings Cross in 1969.

That production featured such outstanding performers as Reg Livermore, John Waters, Graham Matters and the sixteen-year-old Marcia Hines.

The scene is 1967 New York City where a tribe of long-haired, pot smoking, peacenik teenagers are rebelling against the social conformity that was so passively accepted by their parents. The combination of the innocence of limited life experience with the self-confidence of millennials is compelling and nostalgic.

When the Tribe opens with Aquarius, audience anticipation turns to reassurance that this production is going to be a good one. Most productions, and life, consist of “moments” and Hair has the potential for plenty of them.

Apart from Aquarius, the first act contains Donna, Sodomy, Manchester England, Ain’t Got No, Kama Sutra, Hair, Easy to Be Hard and I Got Life. The one highlight is the naive and hopeful Crissy singing Frank Mills. Mariah Lewy is outstanding. In the leads, Alex Cooper plays Claude and Maxwell Simon is Berger.

The other castings are pleasingly diverse, although I wonder if a muscular, shirt-off jock would have been part of that Tribe.

In the second act, Rado and Ragni lifted What a Piece of Work is Man straight out of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and turned it into a musical reflection about the human condition.

A nice moment is where White Boys is performed by a black, 1960s girl trio.

Of course, we all mentally, and some loudly, sang along with Good Morning Starshine.

So how did this version of Hair compare with the original production and the one that was staged at the Sydney Opera House seven years ago? 

For those of us who were around in that era of tremendous social change, it was always going to be a nostalgia trip. The drama of some of the moments and the songs in this one could have been more powerful, which is understandable because the performers here are saying words and singing songs and can’t possibly have any emotional attachment to the vibe of the period.

Has Hair dated in the 57 years since that first production? Instead of the Vietnam War, the protests are now about climate change, genocides, corrupt governments, dictators and other issues, and the young people of today also have strong opinions.

If you haven’t yet seen a production of Hair The Tribal Rock-Musical, get along to the Theatre Royal to see this one. Boomers will be reminded of their younger, feistier years and a time when popular music was really appealing an less manufactured. Others will be entertained and gain a glimpse into what their parents and grandparents were possibly like. Hair is a classic piece of theatre.