Hair the Musical Opens on Broadway
Video Courtesy of Entertainment Tonight
There were concerns that moving the classic musical from Central Park, where it has always been staged for free, into the subdued confines of the interiors of a theater will somehow lessen the fumes of its magic.
David Rooney of Variety sets those fears to rest.
Much credit goes to the design team’s skill at reconceptualizing the show for a proscenium theater. Suggesting a public space commandeered by hippie occupation, Scott Pask has littered the stage with rugs and splashed sunbeams and stars across a back wall punctuated by windows, doors, walkways and a tangle of stairs. This allows the hyperactive cast to race around at all levels, including aisles, boxes, mezzanine and even street exits.
In a show about community, it’s an astute move to erase the barriers between performers and public, inviting the audience to share directly in both the hedonistic conjuring of peace-love-freedom-happiness and the sorrowful disillusionment that follows. What could have been mere nostalgia instead becomes a full-immersion happening.
Frank Scheck of Reuters admires the performers.
Led by the sexy and charismatic Will Swenson as the devilish tribe leader Berger and Creel as the innocent Claude, the performers inhabit their roles with such conviction it’s hard to believe that they weren’t even born when the show premiered more than 40 years ago.
For its historic opening night, Entertainment Tonight spotted screen and stage stars “[letting] their hair down [that] included Rosie O’Donnell, Ginnifer Goodwin, Tim Robbins, Harvey Fierstein, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb.”
To learn more about Hair the musical, please click here.
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