Hair
OPENING: April 29, 1968
CLOSING: July 2, 1972
Seen: September 1971
LOCATION: Biltmore Theater
Well, Theater Kids, we have done it. We have officially worked through the 1960’s portion of my dad’s Playbills.
New Year. New Decade. New notebook to write these entries out in. Let’s do this.
With the (possible) exception of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Dad doesn’t have any playbills between June 1968 and September 1971. This confuses me a little bit, especially at the date of this next show. September 1971? Shouldn’t be have been back on campus in Massachusetts at that point? Or had term not started yet? And if he did see shows in this time period – what happened to the playbills?
These questions have no answers that I can provide. But I can guess that he saw the next show because by 1971 it have been the hot ticket for three years. And that show is none other than Hair. Like La Mancha, it was not one of those shows that was commissioned and then produced once buckets full of money was poured into it. Also similar to La Mancha, it was an experimental piece that would not have gotten past the traditional Broadway gatekeepers.
A few years ago, while attending the funeral of my high school headmistress, I was chatting with another former staff member who was asking about my theater journey. I told him the truth, that I was consistently being typecast out of auditions and therefore was spending much more time writing than performing. He just shrugged and said “So write your own materiel.” This train of thought was the same one that young actors James Rado and Gerome Ragni had. They saw nothing on Broadway that resembled the lived experiences of many of their anti-establishment contemporaries. They saw that the Broadway scene was becoming more and more antiquated in a world that was rapidly changing around them. Together they decided that their generation needed a musical that spoke to them. So with a borrowed typewriter, the ambitious young men sat down and just began to type. After retaining the services of Galt MacDonald to help with composing the score, they came up with a piece that they were proud of. Was it rough? Undoubtedly. But they were determined and resourceful.
What happened next differs from source to source. One says it was a chance encounter at a train station in Connecticut. Another says it was through a connection at Yale. My theory is that it may have been a combination of both, but however it happened, Ragni managed to get a copy of the manuscript to Joseph Papp, the well-known founder and director of the New York Shakespeare Festival. It was common knowledge at the time that Papp had bought and was renovating what had originally been the Astor Library so his beloved festival could have a permanent home. After a bit of back and forth, multiple office auditions and rescinded offers, Hair became the inaugural production of the Public Theater on October 17, 1967.
Sometimes, after a show has it’s first incarnation, it’s journey ends. If it does anything else than outstanding, it can stall. Rado and Ragni did not want that to happen to Hair. It was their baby, their pet project – they were not about to let it die. The initial run at the Public was satisfactory, but they felt that there was still something missing. So in a rare move, after they had already recorded a cast album, they scrapped half their score and half their plot and rewrote most of the show so that it more resembled a concert instead of a traditional musical. Over the next few months, instead of playing theatres, they played clubs. Since they had mostly disposed of the plot and replaced more than half the score, this wasn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. And once again, this non-traditional path worked in their favor. Hair opened at the Biltmore Theatre on April 29, 1968 – a mere six months after their opening at the Public.
The response was swift. It was unlike any other show Broadway goers had been offered. For possibly the first time, young audience members saw themselves on stage instead of either a historical character or a glamorized version of what someone thought they should be. It was a lesson that we are very aware of in 2023 – representation matters. It brought young theater goers to the Biltmore in droves.
Shockingly – or maybe not, if you think about it – it didn’t do well at the Tonys. The runaway hit that year was 1776. But it enjoyed a healthy four year run before opening on Broadway again in 1977.
And as for my dad – I don’t know if he enjoyed it or not. But one of the replacement cast members was a young woman by the name of Dale Soules. Dale Soules is not a big name. I myself may not have seen the significance of her presence in the playbill if it weren’t for Netflix. For those who partook in a certain Netflix prison show as fervently as I did, Ms. Soules played inmate Frieda to perfection and was a highlight of later seasons. My theatre kid senses fill with a touch of jealousy that my dad got to see her play the role of Jeanie.
Even fifty years later, Hair continues to speak to audiences. It was revived at the Public with a Broadway transfer in 2009. My college did a student production in which I ran crew for and my friend Rebecca got excited when she saw me working on this entry, as it has always been one of her favorites. Rado and Ragni wanted their voices to be heard, and wrote a musical about exactly that.
I think it’s a lesson we could all take something from.
CAST: ORIGINAL
CLAUDE: Robin McNamara
BERGER: Roger Cruz
WOOF: Alan Braunstein
HUD: Nat Grant
SHEILA: Victoria Medlin
JEANIE: Dale Soules
DIONNE: Delores Hall
CRISSY: Shelley Plimpton
MOTHER: Dale Soules, Bryan Spencer, Robbie Ferguson
FATHER: Clifford Lipson, Gloria Goldman, Fluffer Hirsch
PRINCIPAL: George Garcia, Gayle Hayden, Gloria Goldman
TOURIST COUPLE: Bryan Spencer/Clifford Lipson
WAITRESS: Cecilia Norfleet
YOUNG RECRUIT: Ted Lange
GENERAL GRANT: Cliff Lipson
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Delores Hall
SERGEANT: Nat Grant
PARENTS: KathrynnAnn Wright, Clifford Lipson
THE TRIBE: Debbie Andrews, Dennis Brown, Zenobia Conkerite, Dennis Cooley, Robbie Ferguson, George Garcia, Gloria Goldman, Gayle Hayden, Fluffer Hirsch, Signa Joy, Ted Lange, Clifford Lipson, Cecilia Norfleet, Bryan Spencer, Tom Stovall, Kathrynnann Wright
UNDERSTUDIES: George Garcia (Berger, Hud); Clifford Lipson (Berger); Robbie Ferguson (Hud); Alan Braunstein (Claude); Tom Stovall (Claude); Fluffer Hirsch (Woof); KathrynnAnn Wright (Jeanie); Dale Soules (Crissy); Shelia (Gloria Goldman)
Bordman, Gerald. “American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle.” New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1978.
Internet Broadway Database. “Hair” www.ibdb.com. Accessed January 2023.
Internet Broadway Database. “James Rado” www.ibdb.com. Accessed January 2023.
Internet Broadway Database. “Dale Soules” www.ibdb.com. Accessed January 2023.
Internet Movie Database. “Dale Soules” www.imdb.com. Accessed January 2023.
Singer, Barry. “James Rado, Co-Creator of the Musical ‘Hair’, Is Dead at 90” New York Times, June 22, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/theater/james-rado-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1
Shepard, Richard F. “Papp’s Troupe Gets 1850’s Landmark for Indoor Home; Papp Troupe Gets Astor Landmark.” New York Times, January 6, 1966. https://www.nytimes.com/1966/01/06/archives/papps-troupe-gets-1850s-landmark-for-indoor-home-papp-troupe-gets.html?searchResultPosition=24
Tony Awards. www.tonyawards.com. Accessed January 2023.
Wilson, John S. “Fresh New Winds Blow Through ‘Hair’” New York Times, July 7, 1968. https://www.nytimes.com/1968/07/07/archives/fresh-new-winds-blow-through-hair-hairs-new-winds.html?searchResultPosition=12
