Hair

Review By: Carey Purcell
CareyPurcell@TheCinemaSource.com

The desire for a revolution that was pulsing through America in the past few years seems to have waned recently. A young black man was elected President, Guantanamo Bay is being closed, and the morning after pill is now available to minors without a doctor’s prescription. The change we have so fiercely longed for appears to be happening, slowly but surely. But that doesn’t mean we should become content or lacksadasical and placid and not tune into the news anymore, because we're just too tired of it, an epidemic that seems to be sweeping America.

But there is a remedy for this. Anyone suffering from exhaustion or burnout from reading too many reports on the economy should make a trip to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, where a triumphant revival of Hair is in performances. Propelled by a vibrant cast exuding joyous energy at every turn, viewing this musical would propel any person depressed with the economy or politics into the mood to protest, storming the AIG pffices with pickets.

Wait! You say. Are you talking about political energy? About people caring enough about situations to protest in person, rather than post on a message board online? People who aren’t burned out from an overload of information, streaming from the internet or televisions 24 hours a day? Are you referring to energy, instead of apathy?

That is correct, as unbelievable as it seems, and that is exactly what is happening at this theater. Energy is everywhere in this production, coming from every actor onstage and almost everyone in the audience as well.

What can I say? It’s contagious, especially when the people filled with this energy literally surround you as they do in this production. Almost every song (and there are many) in the performance includes actors coming into the audience, dancing in the aisles, climbing on chairs, scaling the sides of the stage and ascending into the balcony. While it may be surprising at first, as the show continues, it does not seem obnoxious, but rather an invitation to join in the party.

That’s what this production feels like for most of the show – a wild, crazy party filled with sex and drugs. These hippies are heartfelt, and when they protest, their chants of, “Black, white, yellow, red/Copulate in a king sized bed,” and “Make love, not war” feel honest rather than trite.

Otherwise known as “The American Tribal Love Rock Musical,” Hair tells the (sort of) story of a group of hippies who hang out in the East Village. They smoke pot, they drop acid, they sleep with each other and they protest the war. When their friend Claude (Gavin Creel) is drafted for Vietnam, they encourage him to burn his draft card without hesitation. Claude, however, isn’t so sure if that’s the best idea.

It is Claude’s conflict that propels the meager plot of the show, and it is the depth of Creel’s acting that kept this critic on the edge of ...