“Hair” is back
The hippies of the iconic 1968 Broadway musical “Hair” are back. And this time they’re bringing their messages of peace, love and protest via a tour of the hit 2009 Tony Award-winning revival to Chicago’s Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre for a two-week run starting Tuesday, March 8, through Sunday, March 20.
No doubt “Hair” is something of a nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up in the 1960s. And even if people never saw the stage show or its 1979 film adaptation, “Hair’s” score by composer Galt MacDermot and lyricists Gerome Ragni and James Rado is ubiquitously familiar thanks to many of the show’s hit songs like “Aquarius,” “Good Morning Starshine,” or “Let the Sun Shine In.”
But tapping into nostalgia was not an option for the cast members of this “Hair” revival (most of whom weren’t even born in the 1960s). Many of the show’s cast members credit director Diane Paulus with creating a dynamic and educational rehearsal process in addition to a smart approach to staging the revival. (Local audiences might be familiar with Paulus’ many critically acclaimed productions for Chicago Opera Theater).
“The show visually is so stunning and the metaphors (Paulus) uses in the staging are so smart,” said cast member Matt DeAngelis, who plays the sexually free character of Woof in the tour, after appearing in both the recent Broadway and London revivals of the show.
“Usually when you see a production of ‘Hair,’ it’s all hodgepodge and no direction,” DeAngelis said. “(Paulus) was so diligent in knowing that we had a direction and a focus and we know why we’re doing everything we’re doing in the show.”
Paulus’ staging of “Hair” is famed for its actors often directly interacting with the audience, culminating in a huge dance party for the finale where audiences are invited to join the cast onstage.
“One of the things that’s part of our job as actors in this show is to make the theater like your home,” said Joliet native and Broadway veteran Arbender Robinson, who plays one of the show’s “tribe members.” “What essentially happened is these hippies came into this theater and took it over and made it their home and they put on this show, or protest as I like to call it.”
Adjusting to each different theater on tour has been a challenge for the cast. And the cast has also noted how the reaction can vary widely depending upon the majority political leanings of each audience. (Robinson noted that crowds in Orange County, Calif., were not nearly as receptive as those in Los Angeles.)
Though rehearsals for this “Hair” revival have been over for some time, the cast members are still getting quite a history lesson from being in the show.
“As we go city to city, we meet people who served in Vietnam, or meet people who lost loved ones who served in Vietnam, or we meet people who avoided the draft. And they all tell us their stories right after the show and onstage during the dance party,” Robinson said. “And then we can take the knowledge of those stories and carry them to the next city with us to make the characters more deeper and full.”
Hair is back
<B>Location: </B>Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St., Chicago. Call (800) 775-2000 or log onto <B>broadwayinchicago.com.
Showtimes:</B> March 8-20: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays and March 13 (8 p.m. on March 8; 7 p.m. on March 9), 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays and March 16.
Tickets: $27-$90