Clark College flashes back to the contentious ’60s with ‘Hair’ revival

The movie musical “Hair,” made a full decade after the chaotic period of American history it portrays, tells its tale in a surprisingly straightforward manner. Its themes may be anti-war rebellion and societal upheaval, but its story wraps up tidily.

The original stage musical “Hair,” the basis for the film, goes about its anarchic business in an entirely different, deeply authentic way. When it hit Broadway in 1968, “Hair” was considered the very soul of experimental theater: improvisational and audience-interactive, short on plot but long on surreal dreams of death in Vietnam and druggy hippiedom at home, naked in its rage and, in one brief scene, simply naked.

Many people loved its fresh spirit; many others found it confrontational and overblown. But there must have been something of value in “Hair,” which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1969 and has been revived many times since then. Ultimately this show isn’t so much about the 1960s as it is a living piece of the 1960s; its authors totally disavowed the friendly 1979 movie adaptation, saying it shared nothing with their weird, churning original work.

Fifty years later, why did Clark College theater director Gene Biby choose “Hair” as Clark College’s winter musical presentation? Because, he said, it remains an amazingly strong, relevant statement about dissent and upheaval in every generation.

“I really went looking for a show that reflects the uncertainty, the unpredictability of society and how everything keeps changing,” said Biby.

“I feel like, after the 60s era ended, everybody forgot about peace and love,” said actress Moe Lewis. “There’s a lot of hate and a lot of bad stuff happening now. This show is about spreading the message of peace and positivity.”

The story in “Hair” — as much as there is one — centers on “the tribe,” a group of fun-loving, draft-avoiding, acid-dropping hippies living in New York City who introduce themselves to the audience through song and dance. They discuss their lives and loves and even take questions — like this big-picture one, politely asked by a tourist with a camera: “Why?”

Why grow your hair? Why drop out of society? Why burn your draft card?

“The draft is white people sending black people to make war on the yellow people to defend the land they stole from the red people,” a hippie named Hud responds.

Offensive? “Hair” is like that. Its language is racially and sexually charged by design, and it even reveals a tiny bit of skin too. Biby pointed out that the Broadway play was staged immediately after the 1967 repeal of New York State’s “Wales Padlock Law,” which had allowed police to literally shut down and lock up a theater that offered an “obscene” performance. “Hair” gleefully took advantage of the law’s disappearance to stuff its stage full of obscenities.

But don’t let that worry you; nothing that sounded or looked shocking in 1968 sounds or looks especially shocking to your average media consumer today — and anyway, the point of all the obscenities is deflating them.

“It takes the power out of all this powerful language that people are afraid of,” said Biby. “We get so hung up on certain words.”

” ‘Hair’ is like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” said leading man Andrew Hallas, who plays the larger-than-life Berger. “It it uniquely unique.”

And, it’s got a uniquely great score, which owes a little to the tradition of the Broadway musical but much more to late 1960s rock and soul music — including hits such as “The Age of Aquarius,” “I Got Life,” “Easy to Be Hard,” Good Morning Starshine” and “Let the Sunshine In.”