Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical will be presented by Circle Players October 5 – 21, 2018. The play debuted 50 years ago and was groundbreaking and controversial while being hugely successful and influential, introducing songs that are still standards today. Celebrating the sixties counterculture in all its barefoot, long-haired, bell-bottomed, beaded and fringed glory with an energetic rock beat.
Hair explores ideas of identity, community, global responsibility and peace as it examines what it means to be a young person in a changing world. This show contains brief nudity, strong language and simulated drug use which may not be suitable for all audiences. The director is Jason Lewis, the musical director is Emily Dennis, the choreographer is Tosha Pendergrast, and the producer is Leslie Berra.
Circle Players is in a New York state of mind for its all-musical 69th season for 2018-2019. The lineup for “69th and Broadway: Bringing New York to Nashville” features five shows, each set in New York City during various time periods. The shows in order of production are: NEWSIES directed by Jim Manning (August 10-26, 2018); Hair directed by Jason Lewis (October 5-21, 2018); Avenue Q directed by Brian Jones (January 10-20, 2019); If/Then directed by Matthew Hayes Hunter (March 22-April 7, 2019); and A Chorus Line, co-directed by Tosha Pendergrast and Jason Lewis (May 31-June 16, 2019).
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counterculture and sexual revolution of the late 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement. The musical’s profanity, its depiction of the use of illegal drugs, its treatment of sexuality, its irreverence for the American flag, and its nude scene caused much comment and controversy.
The musical broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of “rock musical”, using a racially integrated cast, and inviting the audience onstage for a “Be-In” finale. The show opened on Broadway in April 1968 and ran for 1,750 performances. Simultaneous productions in cities across the United States and Europe followed shortly thereafter, including a successful London production that ran for 1,997 performances.
Hair tells the story of the “tribe,” a group of politically active, long-haired hippies of the “Age of Aquarius” living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War. Claude, his good friend Berger, their roommate Sheila and their friends struggle to balance their young lives, loves, and the sexual revolution with their rebellion against the war and their conservative parents and society.
Ultimately, Claude must decide whether to resist the draft as his friends have done, or to succumb to the pressures of his parents (and conservative America) to serve in Vietnam, compromising his pacifist principles and risking his life.
The production dates and times for Hair are as follows: October 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20 at 7:30 PM October 7, 14, & 21, 2018 at 3:00 PM. Tickets for Hair are currently available. For more information, or questions contact boxoffice@circleplayers.net or call (615) 332-7529.
Circle Players began in 1949, when an ambitious group of volunteer actors, directors, producers, designers, and stagehands founded the company on a stock-ownership basis. The company has produced more than 500 musicals, comedies, mysteries, historical dramas and classics, as well as cutting-edge social dramas and recent Broadway hits. Circle
Players remain a true community-based success, focusing on arts participation and arts access opportunities for all citizens of our community. In 2017-2018, Circle Players was invited to return to Looby Theater as a resident company and perform its mainstage productions at the venue.
