Review: HAIR Opens at the Barn Players in Kansas City

Step into the dawning of the Age of Aquarius with Hair now playing at the Barn Players in Mission, Kan. The musical with book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, and music by Galt MacDermot opened Friday September 19 and runs through October 5. The original rock musical opened Off-Broadway in 1967 at the Joseph Papp's Public Theater and in 1968 opened on Broadway running for 1,750 performances.

Hair won the Grammy for the Best Score From an Original Cast Show Album in 1969 and in 2009 won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical. The production received an additional seven Tony Award nominations and five additional Drama Desk Awards nominations the same year.

Phil Kinen directs the marvelous Barn production with musical direction by Chris Holbrook. Hair is the story of a tribe of hippie type individuals living in the New York area during the era of the Vietnam War. The "tribe" is a mixed group of politically active individuals protesting against the war. Berger, Claude, Sheila, Woof, and Emmaretta join the remaining members of the tribe protesting against the draft and freely indulging in the sexual revolution and the drug scene.

Claude faces the decision of being drafted and forced to fight in Vietnam contrary to his pacifist beliefs, or whether to run off to Canada to avoid the draft. Berger gives Claude a joint laced with a hallucinogenic, causing him to trip out with a multitude of visions. The tribe acts out the visions from African witch doctors, George Washington, to John Wilkes Booth attempting to assassinate a black Abraham Lincoln who states, "I ain't dying for no white man." The visions continue until all of the tribe is dead, with Ronny played by Kristen Altoro and Walter played by Blane Brungardt singing "What a Piece of Work Is Man" over the bodies.

"I know what I want to be. . ." Claude proclaims at the end of the trip, "invisible." Reaching his decision the play follows Claude to Vietnam and his unfortunate demise. Kinen told me the play provides very little stage direction and he infused Asian theatre into the play to drive home the meaning of Claude's thoughts before being sent off to war.

Guy Gardner provided the movement for the production filling the stage, theater floor, and the aisle with energetic tribe members. Members of the audience are encouraged to dance and sing along with cast throughout the play and after the curtain call, the cast reprises "Let the Sun Shine In" drawing patrons to the floor to join in the dance.

Steven Ansel James stars as Claude and does a marvelous job in portraying the character and in vocals. Jake Leet plays Berger, Julia Jones as Sheila, James Wearing plays Woof, and Prisca Jebet Kendagor plays Emmaretta, all the actors delivering powerful and energetic performances.

Other members of the cast include Skye Reid, Samantha Aaron, Kat Ruprecht, Mark McNeal, Miles Wirth, Elgin Thrower, Jr., Jill Smith, Keegan Cole, Jessica Alcorn, Jakob Wozniak, Zach Lofland, Mikyle Abernathy, and Renee Blinn.

Parental discretion is advised as Hair includes adult language, adult situations, portrayal of drug use, and brief nudity. Each of these aspects are crucial to the development of the classic. According to theater writer Scott Miller, "nudity was a big part of the hippie culture, both as a rejection of the sexual repression of their parents and also as a statement about naturalism, spirituality, honesty, openness, and freedom."

Hair continues at the Barn Players through October 5, with performances at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Purchase tickets at the Barn Players website. Photo courtesy of the Barn Players.

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