Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Music by
GALT M AC DERMOT
AQUARIUS
Sasha Allen (center) and the Tribe
Dionne:
Berger:
Woof:
Hud:
Will Swenson
3. Hashish (Tribe)
4. Sodomy (Woof and Tribe)
Darius Nichols
Claude:
Gavin Creel
Sheila:
Caissie Levy
Jeanie:
Kacie Sheik
Crissy:
Allison Case
Mother/Buddhadalirama:
Dad/Margaret Mead:
Megan Lawrence
Andrew Kober
Theo Stockman
Abraham Lincoln:
TRACK LIST
Bryce Ryness
Hubert:
ACT 1
Saycon Sengbloh
THE BAND:
Nadia Digiallonardo
Assistant Conductor/Keyboard: Lon Hoyt
Guitars: Steve Bargonetti, Andrew Schwartz
Bass: Wilbur Bascomb
Woodwinds: Allen Won
Trumpets: Elaine Burt, Ronald Buttacavoli, Christian Jaudes
Trombone: Vincent MacDermot
Percussion: Joe Cardello, Erik Charlston
Drums: Bernard Purdie
Music Director/Conductor/Keyboard:
ACT 2
22. Electric Blues (Steel, Andrew, Megan L., Nicole)
23. Oh Great God of Power/Manchester England [Reprise] (Tribe and Claude)
24. Black Boys (Megan R., Jackie, Kaitlin, Darius, Brandon, Tommar)
25. White Boys (Dionne, Nicole, Saycon)
26. Walking in Space (Dionne, Sheila, Jeanie and Tribe)
27. Minuet/African Drums
28. Yes, Is Finished on YAlls Farmlands (Darius, Ato, Brandon, Tommar)
29. four score/Abie Baby (Saycon, Ato, Darius, Brandon, Tommar)
30. Give Up All Desires/Hail Mary/roll call
(Buddhadalirama, Woof, Sheila, Crissy, Jeanie, Allison G., Lauren)
31. Three-Five-Zero-Zero (Tribe)
32. What a Piece of Work is Man/How Dare They Try (Paris, Maya, Claude and Tribe)
33. Good Morning Starshine (Sheila and Tribe)
34. aquarius goodnights/Aint Got No/yip up the sun (Claude and Tribe)
35. The Flesh Failures/eyes look your last/Let the Sun Shine In
(Claude, Sheila, Woof, Dionne, Jeanie, Crissy, Jackie and Tribe)
36. Curtain Call: Hair [Reprise] (Tribe)
37. Curtain Call: Let The Sun Shine In [Reprise] (Tribe)
hair
Gavin Creel, Will Swenson (center L to R), and the Tribe
band in Broadway history; Galts music has never sounded so good. From our
initial concert in the Park in 2007, to our full production in the Park and our move
to Broadway, the audience has embraced us with passion and joy.
The triumphant revival of HAIR, more than forty years after its opening, has proved
that HAIR has, indeed, become part of the canon. It is not diminished but deepened
by the lens of history. From the time we began working on the new production we
knew we had to reveal the underlying architecture of HAIR beneath its deceptively
casual surface. HAIR is both a tragedy and a celebration, and the emotional power of
the story, both in the Park and now on Broadway, flows from that understanding.
From our vantage point, it is possible to celebrate the innocence and optimism of
that earlier generation while simultaneously, and paradoxically, understanding its
failures and weaknesses. This Tribe that so desperately believes in changing the
world cant stop the war; they cant even prevent one of their own from being
drafted and killed. But in their failure, the beauty of their vision shines even more
clearly. Singing their shaggy hearts out, the Tribe members of HAIR have become
the better angels of our American nature. Let the sun shine in.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
HAIR was first produced by Joseph Papp (Bernard Gersten, Associate Producer)
at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater on October 29th, 1967,
for 49 performances. It was directed by Gerald Freedman and choreographed by
Anna Sokolow.
It moved to the club Cheetah on 52nd Street on December 12th, 1967 where it played
for an additional 45 performances, closing there on January 28th, 1968.
Under the auspices of Michael Butler, the show, now directed by Tom OHorgan
and choreographed by Julie Arenal, began performances at the Biltmore Theatre on
April 11th, 1968, with an opening night on April 29th. It closed there on July 1st,
1972 after playing 1,750 performances.
This production began its life as a concert for three performances under the auspices
of the Joseph Papp Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director) at the Delacorte
Theater in Central Park under the direction of Diane Paulus with choreography by
Karole Armitage on September 22nd-24th, 2007.
On July 22nd, 2008, a full production, again under the direction of Ms. Paulus and
with choreography by Ms. Armitage, opened at the Delacorte Theater and played
45 performances closing on September 14th, 2008.
This production transferred to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on March 6th, 2009 with
the official opening on March 31st.
manchester england
Gavin Creel, Bryce Ryness (under Gavin), and the Tribe
The first script I looked at was actually an old paperback book that Oskar Eustis,
Artistic Director of the Public Theater, had picked up years ago in a second hand
store. It was the script from the Off-Broadway production that opened at the Public
Theater in October 1967.I was subsequently sent the script representing the Broadway
production of HAIR that opened in April 1968. I was amazed at how different the
two versions were. At my first meeting with composer Galt MacDermot and writer
Jim Rado, I told them how passionate I was about having the opportunity to give the
next generation of audiences who were too young to have seen HAIR on Broadway
(like me) the chance to finally experience the show live.After the meeting, Jim Rado
walked me to the subway and told me about other versions of the script that he had been
working on for the last forty years.You might want to take a look at those too, he said.
Thus began an in-depth process of reworking the show that culminated in the Broadway
revival of HAIR that opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theater on March 31, 2009.Gerome
Ragni passed away in 1991, but with the blessing of Gerrys son, Erick Ragni, Jim and I
poured over all the versions of the book of HAIR, carefully crafting a version of the show
that we felt would best work for this revival.We cut a lot of text, allowing the songs to
flow more swiftly, but we also put lines back in the script from the Off-Broadway script
that had been cut when the show moved to Broadway lines that we felt would resonate
with our audience today in relation to our recent politics, like when the Father says at
the Be-In We are fighting a war.Use atomic weapons and win it, for Crissake.Have
faith in God and Nation and the Military-Industrial complex.Jim also wrote new lines
for the script. How could we expect a young audience today to understand the stakes
of what it meant to burn your draft card?In response to Huds line Were all Vietnam
bait, Dionne now says Not if you burn your draft card, and the Tribe men respond
Yeah, and go to prison.Five years hard labor!-- which was the law, passed in the fall
of 1965 if you knowingly mutilated or destroyed your draft card.More fundamentally,
we worked to focus the show on the story of Claude, a young man in the Tribe who
is deeply conflicted about what it means to be an American.He knows it is wrong to
kill and, like many young men facing the reality of going to war, does not want to
die.And yet, he cannot burn his draft card. The Tribe tries to keep him from going to
war in every way they know how --enveloping him in their love, offering enlightenment
through drugs, even giving him Sheila, the woman he professes to love.In the end, they
cannot save him.In the final scene when the Tribe is protesting outside the US Army
Induction Center, Claude appears in full military regalia, and tells Berger with almost
a smile on his face:Like it or not, they got me.He is invisible to them, and yet the
Tribe knows they have lost him.Let the Sun Shine In becomes a desperate plea for a
better world. The show ends with the Tribe singing these words as they exit through
the audience, only to reveal the image of Claude, lying dead on the American flag.
We started this process with a concert version of the show that played for three nights at
the Delacorte Theater in Central Park in September 2007.I told Oskar Eustis that even
for this concert, the casting had to be right.We spent months in auditions, unearthing
candidates for this new Tribe from every corner we could. They had to be fierce singers,
and Galt was at my side, vetting every single person who came through the door.But
even with the singing, it was not about technical proficiency or experience.Galt would
often say nice voice, but it didnt move me.We were looking for people who made
us feel they were singing these songs from their heart and soul that they cared about
the issues in this show from the core of their being.The Tribe we put together for this
concert at the Delacorte has journeyed from Central Park to Broadway. They have
grown and bonded over the years of being together, but most importantly they continue
to open their hearts to every audience at the Hirschfeld, on a mission to deliver the
message of this show with utter commitment and conviction with every performance.
One of the original cast members from the 1968 Broadway production came to see
our concert in 2007.She told us that for years, she was unable to see any production
of HAIR. It was just too intense to revisit the experience, she explained. When
they were doing the show in 68 during the height of the Vietnam war, they would
exit the stage door and be confronted by young men from the audience who would
ask the actors What should I do with my life? Should I go overseas and kill for
a war I dont believe in? Or should I kill myself to avoid this fate? She then told
us she felt the time had come when it was necessary to dig into all this once again.
Following that concert, the Public Theater decided to produce HAIR in Central Park in
the summer of 2008 as a full production. At that time we were nearing the end of the
Bush administration, and the audience in the park was full of people of all ages that saw
in the show the outcry for change that was sweeping the nation. Under the stars and the
moon of Central Park, the age of Aquarius was reborn night after night. Flying on the
critical and popular enthusiasm from that production, it was decided to move the show
to Broadway, and so for the third time in as many years, we reconceived the show - this
time for a large Broadway house.Between September 2008 and January 2009 something
else had changed as well. Instead of the dark days of a Presidentialadministrationthat
hadthe lowest approval ratings in history, the country, while still in the midst of a huge
economic crisis and the muddle of the war in Iraq, was also full of optimism for the Obama
administration. What five months earlier in the Park had been an outdoor experience that
had tracked the nations anxious cry for change somehow needed to become an indoor
hippie happening that celebrated hope for the future while still honoring the past. On
March 31st, after four weeks of previews, a new HAIR opened again on Broadway to a
critical and popular reception that was even more than we had hoped for and imagined.
We may not be shocked by HAIR anymore.It is no longer surprising to see people with
long hair and hippie clothes cavorting on a Broadway stage, or to see them without their
clothes on.But we can be moved by HAIR in a whole new way now moved by what
young people of America fought for in the 1960s: A country they loved so much that
they refused to quietly accept a vision of their nation that they did not believe in.They
believed they could change the world, and make it a better place.Forty two years later,
this message is finally coming back to life.
Kacie Sheik
Allison Case
Bryce Ryness
Darius Nichols
Saycon Sengbloh
Megan Lawrence
Theo Stockman
going down
Will Swenson (center) and the Tribe
music by
GALT macDERmOT
with
Costume Design
SCOTT PASK
Orchestrations
Casting
NADIA DIGIALLONARDO
Sound Design
KEVIN ADAmS
music Director
GALT macDERmOT
O&m CO.
Lighting Design
mICHAEL mcDONALD
NANCY HARRINGTON
Associate Producer
music Coordinator
GERARD KELLY
marketing
JENNY GERSTEN
Sponsorship
ROSE POLIDORO
Associate Producers
KAROLE ARmITAGE
Directed by
DIANE PAULUS
ORIGINALLY PRODUCED IN 1967 AND SUBSEqUENTLY REVIVED IN 2008 BY THE PUBLIC THEATER
THE PRODUCERS wISH TO ExPRESS THEIR APPRECIATION TO THEATRE DEVELOPmENT FUND FOR ITS SUPPORT OF THIS PRODUCTION.