Review: Hair - Musical speaks to a broken world

LIBERALLY splattered with CND symbols, the explosion of colour on the ‘tie-dyed cheesecloth’ that shimmers as the rhetoric of US Presidents past and present booms out across the auditorium sets the scene for the 50th Anniversary production of Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt Macdermot’s ‘tribal love-rock musical’.* * *THE PLAYHOUSE, Greenside Place

Simultaneously, The Tribe emerge, skipping through the audience and onto Maeve Black’s psychedelic rainbow-ribboned set - although it’s not long before star casting Jake Quickenden is back amongst the audience, trousers off with just a loin-cloth to protect his modesty.

Set in 1967, against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, Hair is the story of a group of New York hippies in search of peace, love and gnosis through protest and rebellion fuelled by sex. love, drugs and mysticism.

Amongst them, Claude is a reluctant adherent.

Conflicted by the Tribe’s encouragement to dodge the draft by burning his papers, the patriot inside drives him to do his duty.

As Berger, Quickenden may not be as developed a performer as those around him, never the less he makes a fair fist of the role, engaging the audience with his charm.

He receives strong support from X Factor star Marcus Collins as Hud who, if anything, is under-used, and the soulful voiced Aiesha Pease as Dionne.

David Heywood’s kooky Woof is also worth a mention.

However, it is Bradley Judge as Claude who makes the show his own with a high energy, thoroughly committed performance that carries the production. Judge is worth the ticket price alone.

If Jonathan O’Boyle’s direction brings out the childlike nature of The Tribe from New York’s East Village, it also means they lack the inherent anger required as motivation and what little dialogue there is, often gets lost amongst the songs.

Musically, Hair ends as it begins with a glorious anthem (Aquarius and Let The Sun Shine In), although elsewhere, there are times when the ensemble’s delivery of what are mostly forgettable songs is discordant.

Retaining imagery and language still capable of shocking a modern audience into silence, this production carries a powerful message and is an all singing, all dancing protest from the past that transcends its origins to speak to the broken world of today.

Until Saturday 22 June