Hair

 Hair was the first rock musical and ran four years and  has since played all over the world. Hair is billed as ”The American Tribal Love Rock Musical” It flourished during the time of Vietnam and the “Flower Children” and looked for a way to tie all the conflicting messages in the late 1960s society together; the war, the drugs, the assassinations, the youth culture, protest, and rock and roll. The writers, Jerome Ragni and James Rado, found that vehicle in this almost operatic story whose main messages were love, compassion, peace, and understanding.

Hair has been mounted by many groups since then, both amateur and professional, and is a favorite with colleges and high schools. No production I have seen comes as close to resurrecting the spirit of this now iconic musical as the current production at The Met Theatre in Hollywood. Other productions have always seemed to me pale copies, with kids doing dress up with little or no understanding of the angst of the late sixties. With the Iraq war going on with no end in sight and the loss of freedom and a sense of safety in the country as we have seen our prestige around the world dwindle and after 9/11, the spirit of protest is once again with us. I see this current production as a wake up call and once again it is rock and roll that sends the message.

The Met is a strong company of actors with many past successes. In its own way, membership in The Met or any other 99-seat theatre company in LA is not far from being a tribe that has something to say with no money and little prestige in this “company town”.  As a member of that community I found the experience of seeing
The Met’s production of Hair to be gratifying, and made it me proud to be part of the huge but largely unpaid theatre community in LA.

The performances were quite excellent with just enough roughness around the edges to give it a feel of authenticity. Lee Ferris,  as Berger,  makes a great touchstone for the evening. He has just the right rebellious spirit and a voice to knock your socks off. Jordon Segal is very funny as Bam Bam, Sara Mann (the understudy) as the political activist Sheila, with several of the great tunes from the show, is also an excellent singer. Trance Thompson is a powerful presence as the Black Militant Hud and Joanna Anderson sings a lovely rendition of “Frank Mills” Actually there’s not a weak link in the bunch and whenever a new person steps into the spotlight, I was very impressed with his or her abilities as a singer and/or actor.

Bo Crowell is to be given enormous credit for this revival. He directed and choreographer with aplomb. Michael Butler, one of the original producers of Hair and thirty subsequent productions, has added his enormous experience, love for the piece, and his passion to bring this production to fruition. The band, consisting of drummer Christopher Allis, bassist John Classick, and keyboardist Michael Sherwood, rocks.

Tickets at  http://www. Hairtix.com/ at The Met Theatre through Dec 30th