Gavin Creel and Will Swenson in Hair (Photo: Joan Marcus)

Even as people lined up at dawn to nab a ticket for the vibrant revival of this ground breaking, sad yet joyous 40year-young musical last summer, rumors began flying about moving it to Broadway. But for every person who said it must be moved, there was someone who said the move wouldn't work, that without the open sky and grassy surroundings, this exuberant production would lose its magic. When it was decided to move forward, the troubled economy threatened the project, but, unlike Lehman Brothers and other financial organizations, the Hair production got its needed backing. Now it's rocked into the Hirschfield Theater with all the magic and energy of the Central Park production intact. . . and then some.

The new members of The Tribe couldn't be better. With Saycon Sengbloh stepping in for Sasha Allen, the new Dionne, at the performance I attended, it's clear that this is an all-star cast and that you can count on the singing and dancing to be splendid even when a top listed player is out. That said, however, I wouldn't want to miss Will Swensen, who again brings his infectious charisma to the role of Berger, or his new best friend Claude. Gavin Creel who is as endearing and strong voiced as Les found Jonathan Groff to be.

Director Diane Paulus has actually managed to heighten the show's emotional punch and bring the feel of an exuberant outdoor festival to the Hirschfield's conventional proscenium stage. From its fabulous and frantic "Aquarius" opening to the devastating finale that quickly morphs into an exuberant, celebratory onstage dance party, this is the most buoyant and audience involving musical on Broadway. The hippy era may be gone and somewhat exotic for most of the audience, but the youthful angst and intense yearnings for peace, love and equality is timeless, as are the MacDermot/Ragni/Rado songs. If not all the 40 songs arestick-to-the-ear hummers like "Aquarius" and "Let the Sun Shine In," they are nevertheless made memorable by the energy and verve of the cast, Karole Armitage's colorful choreography and the band that is part of Scott Pask's simple but just right scenic design which puts the excellent band right on stage.

The stage floor now has a a real carpet instead of a carpet of grass, but there are still fresh flowers —bunches of them handed out by audience interacting Tribe actors during their many trips up and down the aisles (as well as up into the side boxes. And so, everything Les Gutman loved about the show outdoors, applies now that it's moved indoors for what promises to be a box office bracing, lengthy run.

Standouts among those reprising their original roles include Bryce Ryness as Woof, Darius Nichols as Hud Allison Case as Crissy and Caissie Levy as Sheila. Andrew Kober and Megan Lawrence once again have the audience in stitches as Dad/Margaret Mead(Mother/Buddahdalirama

The election of Barack Obama between the Park and this production is a hopeful sign that Hair did succeed, at least to some extent, in being a wakeup call. But the hope and energy this African-American president has brought us, still leaves the world outside the Hirschfield beset by clouds of war and economic problems. So, to paraphrase Les's advice at the end of his review: You owe it to yourself to get a dose of this feel good musical tonic. It's likely to be your one chance to be able to say . that you've danced on a Broadway stage.

To read a review of an Encores! style concert presentation of Hair four summers ago, go here.

Broadway Production Notes
Hair
Book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado. Music by Galt MacDermot
Directed by Diane Paulus
Choreography by Karole Armitage
Cast: (* before key principal names indicate their being holdovers from the Central Park production) Sasha Allen (Dionne —at the performance reviewed, tribe member Saycon Sengbloh substituted for Allen), *Allison Case (Crissy), Gavin Creel (Claude), *Andrew Kober (Dad/Margaret Mead), *Megan Lawrence (Mother/Buddahdalirama), Caissie Levy (Sheila), *Darius Nichols (Hud),* Bryce Ryness (Woof), Saycon Sengbloh (Abraham Lincoln), *Kacie Sheik (Jeanie), Theo Stockman (Hubert) and *Will Swenson (Berger); plus tribe members Ato Blankson-Wood, Steel Burkhardt, Jackie Burns, Allison Guinn, Anthony Hollock, Kaitlin Kiyan, Nicole Lewis (playing the Abraham Lincoln role at the performance reviewed), John Moauro, Brandon Pearson, Megan Reinking, Paris Remillard, , Maya Sharpe,Theo Stockman, and Tommar Wilson.
Sets: Scott Pask
Costumes: Michael McDonald
Lighting: by Kevin Adams
Sound by Acme Sound Partners
Orchestrations by Mr. MacDermot
Music director:, Nadia DiGiallonardo
Music coordinator:, Seymour Red Press
Wig design: Gerard Kelly
Stage manager: Nancy Harrington
Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes with one intermission
Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200.
From 3/10/09; opened officially 3/31/09; closing 6/27/10.
Tuesday at 7 pm, Wednesday through Saturday at 8 pm, Saturday at 2 pm, Sunday at 2 pm and 7:30 pm.
Ticket prices: $122 to $37--Premium Seat Price $252.
Re-reviewed by Elyse Sommer April 4, 2009

Will Swenson as Berger (Photo: Michael LePoer Trench)

I was of the generation that was aware of the big hit songs from Hair but I never saw it in the theatre. In itself, the first London production of Hair was the making of theatrical history because it opened in London on 27th September 1968, the day after an Act of Parliament had abolished the Lord Chamberlain’s role as theatrical censor. For the first time anything could be shown or said on the London stage. Hair was the first production in the UK to feature full frontal nudity. It was the first musical with songs with explicit references to drugs and sex. It is still making history in 2010 when 42 years after its inception, it is the first occasion when the complete Broadway cast of a musical have come to the London stage. So London is getting what they really had in New York.

I wish I had seen it in the open air but of course the British weather can be a very unreliable factor with a soggy effect on high spirits. The opening number, the anthem to a new age of love and peace is magnificent. Sash Allen wasn’t playing Dionne that night but Phyre Hawkins stood in and was strong and pure of voice. In fact I cannot fault the New York cast all of whom have brilliant singing voices although a part of me asks why they have to be American and over here when we have so many musical performers looking for work.

What I did find uncomfortable was the involvement of the audience; for the main part of the show it wasn’t so much audience participation as audience molestation. In particular Will Swenson as Berger swinging his leather thronged crotch in his personal "dick fest" while standing astride some unsuspecting girl in the audience seemed to me more pantomime vulgarity than the gentleness of the laid back "Summer of Love". London audiences aren’t handed flowers but brightly coloured flyers inviting them to come to a demonstration. I think I’d have preferred a flower. An elderly critic said to me that a couple of stage members were putting on a passable imitation of spontaneous fornication in the aisle next to him while on stage there was an important development in the storyline. His point was that he didn’t know where to look. He meant of course whether he should concentrate on the developments onstage or in the aisle?

Of course, many in the audience love the proximity of the cast and at the end of the show there was an Olympic type sprint to be one of the 200 allowed up onstage to dance the finale out. Ushers with clickers counted them in to abide by the Healthy and Safety regulations.

The Gielgud Theatre is exceptionally hot with the installation of extra lighting rigs and an antiquated air cooling system so maybe some of the audience will feel the need to strip off. However at the end of the first act when the musical cast deliver complete nudity I was left asking why, what was the dramatic point of this in the story? I also wondered what had happened to the girl who was very pregnant whom I felt uncomfortable about in the scenes about drugs as we know the effect of narcotics on unborn babies. Maybe I’m taking this all a bit too seriously? It is musical theatre after all and this is the critic who loved Parade the musical about a lynching.

I liked the comic concept of the anthropologist Margaret Mead (Andrew Kober), famous for her work on Samoa, studying this particular tribe because of course there are almost no undiscovered communities for anthropologists to write about today. I wanted to ask why women weren’t drafted in 1968.

The songs are the best part of the show as indeed they should be in a musical: wonderful pop songs, the rock upbeat numbers "Ain’t Got No" and "Hair" and evocative ballads like "Good Morning Starshine" and "Let the Sun Shine In" which you are guaranteed to be singing when you come out of the theatre.

Incidentally in London, the major male theatre critics, all old enough to have been sexually active in the 1960s were they not spending so much time in the dark, loved this production of "Hair". More critical reviews have come from women and younger critics.

Updated Production Notes:
Hair
Credits as per New York
Starring: Sasha Allen, Will Swenson, Luther Creek, Darius Nichols, Gavin Creel, Caissie Levy, Kacie Sheik, Allison Case, Megan Lawrence, Kevin Kern, Andrew Kober, Phyre Hawkins
With: Steel Burkhardt, Lauren Elder, Ato Blankson-Wood, Matt DeAngelis, Anthony Hollock, Crystal Joy, Kaitlin Kiyan, John Moauro, Brandon Pearson, Michael James Scott, Maya Sharpe, Megan Reinking, Hannah Shankman, Gemma Baird, Oliver Eyre, Holly James, Katie Lavelli, Aki Omoshaybi, Patrick Smyth
Running time: Two hours 40 minutes with one interval
Box Office: 0844 482 5130
Booking at the Gielgud Theatre to 8th January 2011
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 15th April 2010 performance at the Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1V 7HD (Tube: Piccadilly Circus)

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