European Audiences Flock To “Hair”

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32068, 16 August 1969, Page 5

European Audiences Flock To “Hair”

(Newsweek Feature Servicej

“Here, baby, there, momma, everywhere, daddy, daddy— Hair!” Groovy. In Paris, London, Munich, Hamburg, Belgrade and Sydney, people of all ages and styles are flocking to see what may soon be the world’s most popular show—America’s youthful, anti-war, hippie, long-haired, sometimes naked, tribal-love-rock musical, “Hair.”

In Paris. “Hair” had an advance sale of sBo,ooo—twice as much as any show in Paris history. Plainly-dressed bourgeoisie, high-styled celebrities, and Latin Quarter hippies assembled in such numbers that the police had to be called in several times. One! night, fist fights broke out in the audience, but the cast restored calm by chanting “Love, love, love” for ’ five minutes. In Belgrade, the theatre’s removable roof had to be put back because hundreds of teen-agers climbed the walls to see the show free and the authorities were afraid somebody might fall off. The wildly enthusiastic audience jumps > on stage to dance with per- 1 formers at the show’s end. And in London, where 1200' people pack the Shaftesbury Theatre eight times a week,: the Rev. Canon Douglas Rhymes, Vicar of Camberwell, went and observed, “I think! it has taught me a lot” Popular Roles The urge to be seen ini “Hair” is just as great as the | urge to see it For its 28 roles, there were 3005, applicants in London, 2800 in • Munich and 2400 in Paris. When “Hair” was being groomed for its off-Broadway opening 21 months ago, its most enthusiastic backers had! no idea of the success they were unleashing. The show is grossing §350,000 a week, or SIS million a year, against an original investment of $150,000. New companies are being planned for Israel,, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Canada and Japan. “Hair” is also playing New York and Los Angeles, with shows planned for Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. A miniversion may play smaller cities like Atlanta and Hous-! ton.

The added companies could double the take next year. And the original cast recording of Galt Mac Dermot’s score has been at the top of the United States charts for months.

“We have achieved the prime symbol of the Establishment —we have made money," said the wealthy producer, Mr Michael Butler, dressed all in yellow and sitting in his lavender house in suburban Chicago. “We have shown the Establishment that all these hippies can play their game and make IL I think ‘Hair’ will go on for 10 years. Maybe it will become a kind of universal celebration.”

The success of “Hair” has not universally brought the “harmony and understandinging, sympathy and truth abounding” which its lyrics extol, and its young performers have had some adjustment problems. “I enjoy doing the show because you have to use young people talented in rock music but naive to the theatre,”

says Mr Tom O’Horgan, who directed the New York and Los Angeles companies and has had a hand in several ‘foreign productions, too. “But when the show succeeds, old show-biz people start to encroach and try to change the kid’s heads. And the kids suffer, because they know they’re losing the special: •quality. That’s what we ‘learned sadly in New York.”:

But mostly, “Hair” seems to be speaking a common,: happy tongue all over the! world. “The old generation! fought in the Second World War, and the new one does not wish to know about that or any other war,” says Mrs Mira Trailovic, the show’s director in Jugoslavia. “This is not simply an American problem, but one which affects all countries.”

“In each of the performances we saw," says lyricist, . Gerome Ragni, “directors added something of local colour. Los Angeles is a bulldozer of a show. In London, I it’s a very sweet show, very gentle. The Paris one had a strong political note because of student unrest there. The idea is so versatile it can be stretched in a lot of directions.”

Translation, generally, has: been no problem. The Jugoslav and French languages furnished easy counterparts for the show’s hippie jargon, and in both countries, topical jokes have been added.

A French actor, handing out L.S.D. cubes, says “Here's one for Francois Mauriac, one for Tante Yvonne (Mrs de Gaulle), and one for Mrs Pompidou,” which brings down the house. In Belgrade, there are digs at Albania and Mao Tse-tung. The spirit of the thing has sometimes proved harder to

catch. The producer-director, Bertrand Castelli, did both jthe French and German versions. “This is a very : individualistic country,” he ;says of France. “‘Hair’ is a group thing that requires comiplete engagement, complete enjoyment To make them i into a group was as difficult las making different kinds of birds fly in a flock. And on top of that, the French really hate to enjoy themselves.”

“Most people here don’t even know what hippies are,” says the German producer, Werner Schmid. “Before the Munich opening, we stayed here day and night, trying to explain to the kids what it was all about.” When the long-haired authors, James Rado and Ragni, came to Munich, they were turned away by one hotel.

The greatest variation! have come in the actors’ will- : ingness to get undressed. The i French cast Castellin says, accepted nakedness “almost : religiously,” and is the nudest of the foreign groups. The Germans, to appease the ’authorities, play their nude I scene behind a big sheet \ labelled “CENSORED,” lowering it to speak their lines. The British, not surprisingly, ; have found nudity the hardest to achieve.

“Oh it’s a drag to strip,” ' says an actress, Rohan McCullough. “It’s sweaty hard work. But it has to be done. I knew that if I didn’t do it the first night, I wouldn’t do it. So I did it. I struggled out of my clothes, flustered, and there I was, nude, standing in the Shaftesbury Theatre • with 1200 people looking. But they don’t see us as individuals, I’m sure. A great boyfriend of mine who’s been to i the show eight times told me > that he’s never seen me once.”