Hair
© Christina Baumann-Canaval

Hair

Galt MacDermot

The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical

Book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado / Music by Galt MacDermot / German translation by Nico Rabenald / In German with English lyrics

Premiere 15. October 2022 / Felsenreitschule

Synopsis

Welcome to the “Age of Aquarius”, a period of radical change, an era without racism and war. The members of the “tribe”, a group of young alternative thinkers surrounding the three friends Berger, Sheila and Claude, are gallivanting through life, defying all norms and conventions imposed by traditional social roles. Their maxims are equality, free love and peace, but the illusive harmony in which they live is repeatedly threatened by the conflict between their own bourgeois background and their urge to practice civil disobedience.

”Hair” is an energising experience full of powerful rock music and psychedelic trips. Its wild rawness, experimental narrative form and political explosiveness produced a scandal at its world premiere on Broadway in 1968, but the play soon became a lasting global success. For the first time ever, large theatres opened their stages to the peace movement and the counterculture of the youth. Songs such as “Let The Sunshine In” and “Ain’t Got No” became global hits.

Like no other musical, “Hair” makes a strong statement against war and captures the zeitgeist of the young generation – not only of the 1960s, but through the decades from the hippie movement to Fridays for Future. To this day, the rock musical about the yearning for a better and more peaceful future has lost none of its power and relevance.

“Hair” was developed by the actors Gerome Ragni (1942–1991) and James Rado (*1932) as a small, autobiographically inspired off-Broadway musical. Galt MacDermot’s (1928–2018) music blends American rock music with African rhythms to create its own individual style. The musical’s 1979 film adaptation was directed by Miloš Forman.

As a stage director and artistic director of the musical division, Andreas Gergen has put the Salzburg State Theatre on the map in the musical theatre scene. He also staged productions for the Thunerseespiele Festival and the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien. Wolfgang Götz, who for instance conducted “The Sound of Music” for the Salzburg State Theatre, will act as musical director.