Hair Broadway Reviews

There was nothing like “Hair” when it opened on Broadway in April 1968, and there’s nothing like the revival that opened last night at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. “Hair” was then and is now the most exciting new show in town, not so much a ...

There was nothing like “Hair” when it opened on Broadway in April 1968, and there’s nothing like the revival that opened last night at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. “Hair” was then and is now the most exciting new show in town, not so much a breath of spring air as a jolt of adrenaline.

Without those terrific little pop tarts (as they're dubbed by a tourist character in the show), Hair would be little more than a trippy rock concert. It lacks a strong story line: Claude gets drafted, Claude goes to Vietnam, let the sun shine in. The...

Without those terrific little pop tarts (as they're dubbed by a tourist character in the show), Hair would be little more than a trippy rock concert. It lacks a strong story line: Claude gets drafted, Claude goes to Vietnam, let the sun shine in. The sheer diversity of Galt MacDermot's music — folk, pop, R&B, acid rock — can be jarring, groundbreaking as it was in 1967. And the protracted Act 2 hallucination — featuring Abe Lincoln, Aretha Franklin, and a trio of homicidal nuns — will harsh anyone's buzz. Yet the antiwar message still resonates all too well, as do Gerome Ragni and James Rado's lyrics, Timothy Leary references notwithstanding. (Pity that so much is overamplified, because you want to hear the irreverent words of 'Sodomy' and 'Black Boys.')

Will someone who’s associated with “Hair” (in revival at the Al Hirschfeld, under the direction of Diane Paulus) do the production a favor and turn the shit down? Let’s start with the sound design. As conceived by Acme Sound Partners, the sho...

Will someone who’s associated with “Hair” (in revival at the Al Hirschfeld, under the direction of Diane Paulus) do the production a favor and turn the shit down? Let’s start with the sound design. As conceived by Acme Sound Partners, the show’s big crossover hits—“Aquarius,” “I Got Life,” “Good Morning Starshine,” and so on—still sound like themselves, melodically speaking, but the lyrics, not to mention the actors’ intonations as they sing sweetly of new beginnings, eternal hope, and the earth’s bounty, are overwhelmed by an ear-piercing treble, which not only raises the majority of the vocals to a pitch that bats might recognize but lifts the brass section of the onstage band into a series of sensation-numbing crescendos.

The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park revival of 'Hair' has moved to Broadway, restaged and recast but identical in spirit to the outdoor version that I saw in Central Park last August. The direction and choreography, by Diane Paulus and Karol...

The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park revival of 'Hair' has moved to Broadway, restaged and recast but identical in spirit to the outdoor version that I saw in Central Park last August. The direction and choreography, by Diane Paulus and Karole Armitage, are as festive as ever, and the onstage band is still lava-hot, especially Bernard Purdie on drums. The show itself, alas, is also unchanged: The first act is lively but smug, the second act a hopelessly incoherent mess, and Galt MacDermot's once-revolutionary music now sounds like a medley of moldering AM-radio promos. As before, everyone in the cast strips, some to better effect than others. Senescent dopers need not hesitate, but everyone else should approach 'Hair' with extreme caution.

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair! There’s no shortage of the stuff in the joyous revival of the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, currently sending enthusiastic crowds to the moon (in the Seventh House) at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. For th...

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair! There’s no shortage of the stuff in the joyous revival of the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, currently sending enthusiastic crowds to the moon (in the Seventh House) at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. For the most part, Hair has made the transfer from Central Park with its high spirits intact. But during the famous mass-nudity moment, my companion noticed a lack of hair that helped crystallize what feels just a little off-kilter about this production: “I didn’t think,” she whispered, “that hippies had Brazilians.”

The show flies by and it's without a doubt a crowd-pleaser. But what, I asked myself, is finally the point of this production of Hair? People younger than me even by a few years never knew a military draft in this country; there's nothing remotely sh...

The show flies by and it's without a doubt a crowd-pleaser. But what, I asked myself, is finally the point of this production of Hair? People younger than me even by a few years never knew a military draft in this country; there's nothing remotely shocking or surprising about the sex, drugs, rock & roll, bad language, nudity, or funky hairdos and far-out costumes. I found this great quote in Wikipedia from La MaMa founder Ellen Stewart: 'Hair came with blue jeans, comfortable clothing, colors, beautiful colors, sounds, movement.... And you can go to AT&T and see a secretary today, and she's got on blue jeans....' I think that completely sums up how much the world has changed since Hair burst unto the cultural scene in 1967. It really was revolutionary then. I'd sure love to see something really revolutionary on Broadway now.

As an anti-establishment revue, this creation of Gerome Ragni and James Rado (book and lyrics) and Galt MacDermot (music) has been declawed by time and cultural tides - it's as edgy as 'Cats.' But as a smile-inducing celebration of life and freedom, ...

As an anti-establishment revue, this creation of Gerome Ragni and James Rado (book and lyrics) and Galt MacDermot (music) has been declawed by time and cultural tides - it's as edgy as 'Cats.' But as a smile-inducing celebration of life and freedom, it's highly communicable. Witness the rush of people eager to join the cast and the band onstage after the finale, 'Let the Sun Shine In.' Then again, 'Hair' was - and is - about moving and grooving to the beat and the la-la-la-los.

Yes, the exuberant revival oversells itself in the first act and, more often than we'd like to admit, looks a bit like a flower-power commercial for air freshener. But the Public Theater's production of its '60s 'American Tribal Love-Rock Musical' gr...

Yes, the exuberant revival oversells itself in the first act and, more often than we'd like to admit, looks a bit like a flower-power commercial for air freshener. But the Public Theater's production of its '60s 'American Tribal Love-Rock Musical' grows again into an important, lovable, achingly timely piece about the horrors and the marvels, the burdens and the wild fun of young social change. Despite all that is different since 1967 - not to mention all that's different from pre-election August - the show finds a modern pulse of fury and hope without betraying the specifics of a period piece about Vietnam and all flavors of liberation.

After a run last summer in Central Park, this Public Theater revival has moved indoors, and it looks like the hippies will be grooving there for a long time. In the park, the show was a combination picnic and rock concert, with audiences digging the ...

After a run last summer in Central Park, this Public Theater revival has moved indoors, and it looks like the hippies will be grooving there for a long time. In the park, the show was a combination picnic and rock concert, with audiences digging the sweet pop sounds and the energy of the attractive young cast. On Broadway, Diane Paulus' grab-bag staging takes on a more forceful narrative drive. Scott Pask replaces his sylvan set with a Peter Max–inspired crash pad, illuminated by Kevin Adams' psychedelic lighting. Michael McDonald's costumes ground us in the colorful period.

I have zero nostalgia for the 1960s, but I love this 'Hair.' Everything aligned per fectly when Diane Paulus resurrected the 1967 epoch- making show in Central Park last summer. Not only did the production throb with life, but having it play under t...

I have zero nostalgia for the 1960s, but I love this 'Hair.' Everything aligned per fectly when Diane Paulus resurrected the 1967 epoch- making show in Central Park last summer. Not only did the production throb with life, but having it play under the stars, for free, elevated it to a near-mythical level. Even the audience participation came across like an expression of community rather than cheeseball pandering. Transferring that spell to the crowded confines of the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (and charging Broadway admission prices) was risky, but 'Hair' has emerged triumphant.

Hair is duly beloved for its scrumptious rock-candy score and for vividly capturing an indelible and pivotal moment in our history and culture. But like its very young, Vietnam-era characters, the story has more energy than focus. In the wrong hands,...

Hair is duly beloved for its scrumptious rock-candy score and for vividly capturing an indelible and pivotal moment in our history and culture. But like its very young, Vietnam-era characters, the story has more energy than focus. In the wrong hands, it can easily become a quaint, cloying mess. The new Public Theater revival, which opened Tuesday at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, not only avoids potential obstacles but finds a resonance in Hair beyond any parallels between the turbulent '60s and our own troubled times. What director Diane Paulus and her flawless cast have achieved is a testament to the indomitability and transience of youth, with all the blissful exuberance and aching poignance that entails.

You’ll be happy to hear that the kids are all right. Quite a bit more than all right. Having moved indoors to Broadway from the Delacorte Theater in Central Park — where last summer they lighted up the night skies, howled at the moon and had tick...

You’ll be happy to hear that the kids are all right. Quite a bit more than all right. Having moved indoors to Broadway from the Delacorte Theater in Central Park — where last summer they lighted up the night skies, howled at the moon and had ticket seekers lining up at dawn — the young cast members of Diane Paulus’s thrilling revival of “Hair” show no signs of becoming domesticated. On the contrary, they’re tearing down the house in the production that opened on Tuesday night at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. And any theatergoer with a pulse will find it hard to resist their invitation to join the demolition crew. This emotionally rich revival of “The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical” from 1967 delivers what Broadway otherwise hasn’t felt this season: the intense, unadulterated joy and anguish of that bi-polar state called youth.

With its alfresco setting and the penetrating echoes of its countercultural themes during an election year in which political disenchantment became endemic, the Public Theater's revival of 'Hair' last summer in Central Park was a unique experience. S...

With its alfresco setting and the penetrating echoes of its countercultural themes during an election year in which political disenchantment became endemic, the Public Theater's revival of 'Hair' last summer in Central Park was a unique experience. So shifting it indoors could only dim the thrill, right? Wrong. The enhanced production now at the Al Hirschfeld is sharper, fuller and even more emotionally charged. Director Diane Paulus and her prodigiously talented cast connect with the material in ways that cut right to the 1967 rock musical's heart, generating tremendous energy that radiates to the rafters.'

If anything, the transfer indoors produces more heat than last summer in the open-air Delacorte. The walls fairly shudder with Galt MacDermot’s polymorphously perverse rock score, and the stage gets a thorough pounding from the cast’s nonstop dan...

If anything, the transfer indoors produces more heat than last summer in the open-air Delacorte. The walls fairly shudder with Galt MacDermot’s polymorphously perverse rock score, and the stage gets a thorough pounding from the cast’s nonstop dancing, stomping and sprawling. Directed with tireless inventiveness and intensity by Diane Paulus and groovily choreographed by Karole Armitage, Hair speaks to a new generation faced with unpopular wars and a cynical society.

Any doubts that the revival of 'Hair' that appeared last year in Central Park would lose something in the rarefied indoor confines of a Broadway theater can be immediately put to rest. If anything, the production has even more of a visceral impact at...

Any doubts that the revival of 'Hair' that appeared last year in Central Park would lose something in the rarefied indoor confines of a Broadway theater can be immediately put to rest. If anything, the production has even more of a visceral impact at the Al Hirschfeld, where its youthful ensemble puts out so much blazing energy it's no wonder that half the audience feels compelled to join them onstage for the joyous bacchanalian finale.

If you want to know why this joyous revival, which opened Tuesday at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, is so successful, you need not look any farther than the show's first-act finale. No, not its brief display of nudity, but what is happening around it. I...

If you want to know why this joyous revival, which opened Tuesday at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, is so successful, you need not look any farther than the show's first-act finale. No, not its brief display of nudity, but what is happening around it. In this moment of Dionysian frenzy, creators Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot have neatly encapsulated the musical's themes. As the hippie tribe chants of beads, flowers, freedom and happiness, Claude, one of show's leads, poignantly sings, 'Why do I live, why do I die, tell me where do I go, tell me why.' Director Diane Paulus has done an extraordinary job in illuminating these two conflicting ideas — the clash of spontaneity and the search for identity — ideas that pulse through much of the evening. Paulus, along with choreographer Karole Armitage, are superb guiding spirits, galvanizing an energetic, appealing cast that has gotten better and better since the Public Theater's outdoor production last year.