REVIEW: Hair the Musical at the Everyman Theatre
It may be the 50th anniversary of the iconic tribal rock musical HAIR, but I wasn’t to know that. Indeed, I rocked up totally unaware of what I was letting myself in for. It was only as the number of audience members with flowers in their hair and colourful bandanas across their foreheads around me grew that I knew I had stumbled headfirst into the midst of a cult revival.
Don’t look for a plot. You’ll be disappointed. Instead, suspend disbelief, and embark on a journey through the smoke-hazed 50s and 60s of New York, to and through an era of protest and challenge, of tension, of be-ins, of struggle between hedonism and duty, and every choice and non-choice in-between.
Accept the feast of the senses that this musical delivers, and absorb all you can. In fact, keep up, if you can. For this high-energy, high-tempo, and high-volume performance, is not for the faint hearted (certainly for those sat in the first few rows...). It veers seamlessly, yet at lightening speed, between riding the highest of highs and gut wrenching emotion.
50 years on and it’s not hard to see how it’s as relevant today; we will always continue to challenge what’s been accepted by those before us, seeking out old and new ways to identify, and to defy; through music, through protest, through hair.
Inhale. Exhale. Enjoy the trip.
by Rubalie
Explore Gloucestershire
2 April 2019
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