This past weekend, on our trip to New York for Thanksgiving, my Mom took me to see the current Broadway production of Hair. She had been dying to see it every time we'd been in NY for the past two years, but I was indifferent. I mean, I always like to see everything on Broadway, so I wasn't protesting, but it wasn't the first thing on my list (Next to Normal has been first on my list for a while, but somehow I'm never in the right place at the right time to end up with tickets to it). So when we sat down, and the lights started to dim, there was Mom, excited like a child at the circus, and me, skeptical at best. And by the end of the first act, my skepticism was tempered, but not by much. The first half of the show starts out slow. Really slow. I mean, there's something like 10 songs where not only is there nothing happening, but you also can't really understand what they're saying. Yet, there's something charming about the show, even in it's slow moments – I just hadn't figured out what yet.
I was still hung up on waiting for something to happen. I wanted a character to break free from the tribe (what they call the chorus in this musical) and do something… or at least say something I could understand. I had a lot of trouble connecting with the characters, and while I was on board with the whole "this is a period piece about the 60s" thing, I was still having trouble putting it in historical context. Yeah, the costumer did a good job with the bell bottoms and the wigs; yeah, the songs sound great with the choral arrangements and 20 part harmonies; yeah, I was amazed by how much choreography the show entailed. But I still wanted to know what it was about. All of this confusion led to the following hilarious conversation with my mom during intermission:
Me: I don't understand this play.
Mom: Well, they're hippies.
Me: But what is it about?
Mom: It's about them.
Me: But they don't do anything.
Mom: Sure they do.
Me: They just sit around, get naked, smoke a bunch of weed, and sing silly songs.
Mom: That's what the hippies did.
Me: Yes, but this is kinda boring. And I think maybe they should get jobs.
Mom: They're protesting the war – and see, that guy, he just got drafted, so there is a plot. They can't get jobs, they're in high school.
Me: They're not protesting anything, they're just sitting around.
Mom: See, but that's what the hippies did. They were disillusioned, and everyone thought they were losers.
Me: Well, they kind of are. And since I can't understand what they're saying, I'm inclined to think that these characters have no personality. I know that's what the hippies did, but why am I watching it?
Mom: Because this play brought attention to a movement that nobody paid attention to.
Me: I get that too, but they still don't do anything.
Mom: You're really a square, you know that?
And so on. I promptly went home and looked up what the hell "square" means. According to Urbandictionary.com, a "square" (other than a lyric from West Side Story) is "a boring person" and "A person who is regarded as dull, rigidly conventional, and out of touch with current trends." Hmmm.
In the second act, however, the action does finally pick up, when one member of the Tribe refuses to burn his draft card, leading to his inevitable demise – in many different ways. I will admit, once the actual plot got going, I was a lot more on board with the show. Plus, the kids finally organize some sort of protest, so they do something, and then I was really on board. (Don't get me wrong – it wasn't the hippie movement itself that I was whining about in the first act, it was the fact that the action was really slow and nothing was happening for a good 45 minutes.) The stakes and the music get more intense in the second act, and by the time the chorus broke into "Let the sun shine in," they had me. Their statement was made, and admittedly, watching the 20somethings in the audience, the ones who had won the lottery tickets, singing and dancing along, kind of took my breath away.
I had no idea this show had such rabid fans, and it reminded me of the type of connection we all felt to Rent when it first took the stage on Broadway. Upon thinking about it more, I realized that Hair has a similar message, and theater goers are connecting to a similar theme. The powerful last scene and song break of the show, followed by the joyful sing along with the audience joining the cast on stage were definitely the highlight of the show, and was a great way to leave us. I just wish it hadn't taken them two hours to get there.
