Published: April 9, 2018

Theatre & Dance Department celebrates 50th anniversary of love-rock musical


The love-rock musical ā€œā€ā€”a product of the counterculture and sexual revolution of the late 1960sā€”is coming to Boulder, April 13-22. ā€œHairā€ tells the story of a group of politically active hippies fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War.

According toĢż, the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲā€™s faculty director of ā€œHair,ā€ the musical ā€œgives us the opportunity to look back at a pivotal moment in American history.ā€

If you go
What: ā€œHair.ā€ Book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado. Music by Galt MacDermot Produced for the Broadway stage by Michael Butler. Originally produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival Theatre.
When: April 13-22, 2018
Where:
Cost: $24
Tickets: Visit the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲPresents box office in person (972 Broadway), call 303-492-8008 during business hours or visit us anytime.

Indeed, from Steven Spielbergā€™s recent film ā€œThe Post,ā€ to Ken Burnsā€™ epic 18-hour documentary ā€œThe Vietnam War,ā€ the American public is still motivated in trying to understand this moment in our history: What happened? What does it mean? How did it change us?

ā€œIf we accept Hamletā€™s observation that plays hold a mirror up to nature, then this mirror gives us a chance to look at an era where we are part of the image,ā€ explains Coleman, Roe Green Professor of Theatre at Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulderā€™s Department of Theatre & Dance. ā€œHamlet doesnā€™t say that plays are a window, rather they are a mirror, which means the viewer is part of the experience.Ģż

ā€œPut another way, weā€™re all shaped by what happened, even if our parentsā€™ names werenā€™t Cloud and Sage.ā€Ģż

While ā€œHairā€ was groundbreaking for boldly introducing the genre of rock ā€˜nā€™ roll to Broadway, some of the songs from the score became Top 10 hits and much of the score is now part of the American Songbook.Ģż

ā€œWhen Galt MacDermot, Gerome Ragni and James Rado wrote ā€˜Hairā€™ in the late-1960s, they were less concerned with the war itself than trying to capture the turmoil and optimism of being an American teenager at that time,ā€ says Coleman of the work that opened on Broadway in 1968. ā€œThink eastern religions, draft cards, sexual experimentation, recreational drug use, unplanned pregnancy, the British Invasion, the Womenā€™s Movement, Civil Rights Movement and the like.ā€ĢżĢż

So grab your love beads, let your hair down and travel back in time with us to the ā€œAge of Aquarius.ā€ĢżAdvisory: This production includes nudity,