Hair on Broadway....or at the Tibbits....

I thought it would be interesting for you to read what one of the co-authors wrote about the creation of Hair....

The origins of Hair by the author, James Rado:

"A guy from Washington, D.C. (James Rado) and a kid from Pittsburgh. Pa. (Gerome Ragni) met in New York City when they were cast together in a new off-Broadway endeavor, HANG DOWN YOUR HEAD AND DIE, a musical revue whose theme was Capital Punishment. Following the shortest run in show biz (one night), the two young men continued their friendship and soon set out to write their own show, a musical they entitled HAIR. The two became three when they joined up with a cat from Montreal, Canada (Galt MacDermot) who had settled into the New York area to live and who set their songs to music…

The show opened at the Public Theater and began to stir some excitement, earning largely favorable reviews, with a great one from Clive Barnes (who had some reservations mixed in with his praise), lead critic of the New York Times. Downtown (even without the "nude scene") HAIR proved to be a very warm ticket.

But after a 6-week run, Joseph Papp was done with it…. No show had ever gone from off-Broadway to Broadway before. Still Jerry and I were determined and knew that somehow, some way, we would find someone who would be able to help us move it uptown … Jerry and I had rewritten the text, and, with Galt, had added 13 new songs, expanding the score from 20 to 33 numbers.…We wanted a new director whom we had chosen, Tom O'Horgan…We installed and experimented with the new script of HAIR. Tom used various "sensitivity exercises."… The Tribe was taught how and encouraged to work organically with us on the material. It was a very exciting, smooth-going, yet tumultuous, rehearsal process. We opened at the Biltmore Theatre on April 29, 1968 (6 months after off-Broadway), and Clive Barnes, who had some reservations about the off-Broadway version, raved about our transformative work, which was hugely gratifying. For the most part, the critics hurrahed. HAIR was a hit!

HAIR has played pretty much continuously ever since its opening at Broadway's Biltmore Theatre on West 47th Street. It was translated into many languages and produced around the world, from Japan and Australia to South & Central America, from Europe to Israel."

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Charles adds: With it’s freewheeling story line and barbed comments on sex, drugs, military service, money, religion and other contemporary concerns, it’s vibrant and often memorable rock score, and a sprinkling of nudity, it shattered Broadway conventions and ran 1750 performances, while the London company performed it 1997 times. It’s back on Broadway. And here at the Tibbits for the first time, July23 thorough August 1.