Ragni, on the other hand, was an active member of The Open Theater, one of several groups, mostly Off-off Broadway, that were developing experimental theatre techniques. He went on to study acting with Lee Strasberg. In college, Rado wrote musical revues and aspired to be a Broadway composer in the Rodgers and Hammerstein tradition. Rado and Ragni came from different artistic backgrounds. We thought, 'This is happening in the streets', and we wanted to bring it to the stage." According to Rado's obituary in The New York Times, the title was inspired by "a museum stroll in mid-1965, a painting of a tuft of hair by the Pop artist Jim Dine. You could read about it and see film clips, but you'd never experience it. Rado said, "It was very important historically, and if we hadn't written it, there'd not be any examples. We hung out with them and went to their Be-Ins let our hair grow." Many cast members ( Shelley Plimpton in particular) were recruited right off the street. He recalled, "There was so much excitement in the streets and the parks and the hippie areas, and we thought if we could transmit this excitement to the stage it would be wonderful. . We knew this group of kids in the East Village who were dropping out and dodging the draft, and there were also lots of articles in the press about how kids were being kicked out of school for growing their hair long". Rado described the inspiration for Hair as "a combination of some characters we met in the streets, people we knew and our own imaginations. It was a passionate kind of relationship that we directed into creativity, into writing, into creating this piece. Their close relationship, including its volatility, was reflected in the musical. The main characters were autobiographical, with Rado's Claude being a pensive romantic and Ragni's Berger an extrovert. The two met in 1964 when they performed together in the Off-Broadway flop Hang Down Your Head and Die, and they began writing Hair together in late 1964. Hair was conceived by actors James Rado and Gerome Ragni. In 2008, Time wrote, "Today Hair seems, if anything, more daring than ever." History A Broadway revival opened in 2009, earning strong reviews and winning the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Revival of a Musical. Some of the songs from its score became Top 10 hits, and a feature film adaptation was released in 1979. Since then, numerous productions have been staged around the world, spawning dozens of recordings of the musical, including the 3 million-selling original Broadway cast recording. Simultaneous productions in cities across the United States and Europe followed shortly thereafter, including a successful London production that ran for 1,997 performances. Ultimately, Claude must decide whether to resist the draft as his friends have done, or to serve in Vietnam, compromising his pacifist principles and risking his life.Īfter an off-Broadway debut on October 17, 1967, at Joseph Papp's Public Theater and a run at the Cheetah nightclub from December 1967 through January 1968, the show opened on Broadway in April 1968 and ran for 1,750 performances. Claude, his good friend Berger, their roommate Sheila and their friends struggle to balance their young lives, loves and the sexual revolution, with their rebellion against the war and their conservative parents and society. Hair tells the story of the "tribe", a group of politically active, long-haired hippies of the " Age of Aquarius" living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War. The work broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of "rock musical", using a racially integrated cast, and inviting the audience onstage for a " Be-In" finale. The musical's profanity, its depiction of the use of illegal drugs, its treatment of sexuality, its irreverence for the American flag, and its nude scene caused much comment and controversy. The work reflects the creators' observations of the hippie counterculture and sexual revolution of the late 1960s, and several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement. Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt MacDermot.
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