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Stage Preview: 'Hair' gives young actors a chance to relate to '60s rebellion
Friday, June 30, 2000 By John Hayes Post-Gazette Staff Writer
To the teens and young adults in the cast, it's an oldie but goodie. Directorally it's ensemble staging from a distant and short-lived theatrical era. Sociologically it's absolutely insignificant.
But there was a time when "Hair" meant something and staging it in tiny, post-industrial Trafford would have been a scandal of national importance.
'HAIR'
WHERE: Theatre Factory, Third and Cavitt, Trafford.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays; through July 22.
TICKETS: $14, students and seniors $12; 412-374-9200.
Emerging off-Broadway a year after the self-proclaimed Summer of Love, MacDermot, Ragni and Rado's counterculture rock musical made more of a social statement than most of the mainstream American theater audience preferred to see. As one peak in a rising cultural watershed that changed the way we live, even the name meant something.
In the mid-1960s, the length of a man's hair could signal his acceptance of the new social order, a radical rejection of the clearly defined conventions of the past. Long locks could symbolize endorsement of a new cultural smorgasbord that included less-rigid gender roles, increased racial tolerance, sexual and pharmaceutical experimentation and opposition to America's growing war in Vietnam. At the time, the appearance of the first hippie on a suburban street meant that the social revolution had spread to the neighborhood and that things would never be the same.
"Hair" the musical articulated those views and then challenged them, as the conflicted members of the show's urban "tribe" reflected the social challenges that were ravaging the nation.
"Hair" brought rock 'n' roll, drug use, anti-government sentiment and countercultural fashion to the theater, but nothing symbolized the new morality with such shocking clarity as the musical's brief nude scene. It meant that sex, too, was out of the closet and on the table.
Early productions were banned. Some shows were shut down on obscenity charges. The publicity it garnered began to draw crowds as the show moved to Broadway. Other artistic mediums from film to popular music to TV incrementally adopted aspects of the new morality like a river of cultural change forever eroding the existing landscape.
Theatre Factory's young cast grew up in that new landscape where rock music, substance use, increased racial and sexual liberties, government mistrust and public displays of sexual contact are routine. In 2000, there is no social statement made in the fact that "Hair," with its nude scene intact, is being staged in Trafford.
Only one question remains: How can director Thom McLaughlin keep what was once breathtaking from playing as mere nostalgia?
Like an old guru, McLaughlin says he's trying to teach his cast what "Hair" used to mean in hopes of infusing their version with the sense of rebellion that made the original so powerful.
"It really changed the face of musical theater in 1968," says McLaughlin. "It was such a big thing. It was scandalous. People saw it as decay in our moral structure. Now, it doesn't mean that anymore, but I've been talking to [the cast] and trying to show them how revolutionary some of their lines sounded at the time. Maybe having a sense of that will help them to find their characters."
A few things that haven't changed since the '60s are the rebelliousness of youth and the primal need to be accepted by a group without sacrificing self-identity.
"I sat down with the cast and asked them how it was relevant to them," says McLaughlin. "A lot of them said they were very interested in the '60s and wanted to be involved from a historical aspect. Some of the issues are relevant today. We are still fighting racism, striving for women's rights, dealing with drugs and alcohol, and young people are still questioning authority. These are questions I ask the kids every night. It helps to provoke some of the attitudes that 'Hair' was reflecting and helps them to understand the songs."
McLaughlin's directoral style lends itself to ensemble casts in which initial character development is more liberally determined by each individual. After they find out who their characters are, Maharishi McLaughlin helps guide them toward a common nirvana, in this case, the clear articulation of the counterculture messages of "Hair."
"I talk to them a lot, provoke a lot of thought, give them a chance to experiment," says McLaughlin. "I think that's what this play is still about."
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