Hair, Gielgud Theatre From April 1

The year is 1967, and the Vietnam War is at its height. In New York City, a tribe of hippies rails against the establishment, protesting intolerance, brutality, and the dehumanization of society. When Claude, one of their own, gets drafted, he must make a decision about what values are worth fighting for. Songs include ‘Aquarius’, ‘Good Morning Starshine’, ‘Let the Sunshine In’

‘Hair’ is a musical about the kind of people you see on the street - if the street you’re on is in Manhattan, circa 1967, which is when under-employed actors James Rado and Gerome Ragni took the eminently sensible decision to write themselves a job (the music is by Galt MacDermot).

The year is 1967, and the Vietnam War is at its height. In New York City, a tribe of hippies rails against the establishment, protesting intolerance, brutality, and the dehumanization of society. When Claude, one of their own, gets drafted, he must make a decision about what values are worth fighting for. Songs include ‘Aquarius’, ‘Good Morning Starshine’, ‘Let the Sunshine In’

‘Hair’ is a musical about the kind of people you see on the street - if the street you’re on is in Manhattan, circa 1967, which is when under-employed actors James Rado and Gerome Ragni took the eminently sensible decision to write themselves a job (the music is by Galt MacDermot).

The ‘hippie musical’ opened the venerable New York Public Theater’s Lafayette Street home, became the first off-Broadway show to transfer onto Broadway and then crossed the Atlantic just in time for the abolition of the Lord Chamberlain post - wise timing, since the British Censor probably wouldn’t have coped well with onstage naked peaceniks.

The Public Theater’s current production, directed by Diane Paulus and designed by Scott Pask, won a Tony Award, so it’s good news that the entire original Broadway cast, including Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Thomas B McGrath, is coming over with it. When it played here in 1968 at the Shaftesbury, the collapse of the theatre’s ceiling brought the run to a premature end; hopefully at the Gielgud, ‘Hair’ will only bring the house down in the metaphorical sense.