We then divide into groups to sing about different drugs – hashish, cocaine, heroin, opium, LSD, DMT, STP, and so on. While singing he swings out over the audience on a rope, like a hippie Tarzan.

Berger strips down to his briefs, wanders about the audience, and returns to sing Donna, a fast rock number about a sixteen-year-old virgin whom he misses. The cast forms a large circle and Ronnie Dyson breaks into Aquarius, heralding a new age, the dawning of Aquarius. Berger, assisted by Sheila, a student protester type, cuts a piece of Claude’s Hair and burns it as a sacrifice.

As the audience trickles into the theater, the burning grill is ceremoniously set down in front of Claude, and at a musical cue, the cast freezes and then proceeds in slow motion to the stage. The rest of the characters, or tribe, unraveled with the action of the play. Next in importance was Berger, Claude’s best friend. If Hair had a protagonist or hero, Claude was it. Dressed in pants, polo shirt, and fur vest, he sits cross-legged, Indian style. Act I All during the warm-up, or vamp, one character, Claude, remains onstage. The idea was to create an immediate rapport with the audience after all, the atmosphere of Hair was supposed to be Universal Love. Hair never really had a starting point, or traditional “opening.” At 8:30, the time printed on the tickets, the cast was dispersed throughout the theater – in balconies, on ramps, climbing the catwalks, in the orchestra, walking on the backs of seats, and even onstage.

Stage right stood a tower with a fire escape-like contraption a stairway led to different levels, each of which had various props – an old bicycle horn and other cycling paraphernalia a papier mâché Santa Claus a juke box, etc. It was painted gray, and printed in white on it were such phrases as “Dead End” and “No Smoking.” The set, designed by Robin Wagner, was placed mostly upstage to give us a lot of room to move around. Hair was performed on what’s called a raked stage, a stage set at an angle. There were no stage curtains everything onstage hung right out. The first thing the audience noticed was the set. Oops, looks like your browser doesn't support HTML 5 audio.

Rock opera hair