No matter how long a tour has been running, and the 50th anniversary tour of Hair the Musical has been on the road since March, when an understudy takes the lead role, there is a freshness and an excited buzz that enthuses the cast and encourages them all to go that little bit further with their own performances.
Tom Bales is the understudy tasked with taking on the lead role of Berger and, as he takes centre stage, turns his back on the audience and reveals his naked bottom, it is obvious that he is going to give this opportunity everything that he’s got – quite literally!
Considering that Hair is celebrating it’s 50th year, it’s longevity is quite mystifying to some. It has very little in the way of a story, almost 50 musical numbers (some very short indeed and most, instantly forgettable) and is littered
throughout with racial slurs, drug references, bad language and a lot of anti-establishment / anti war sentiment. But that is also the reason for it’s success.
Hair is firmly set in both time and place. It is America and it is 1967. The stunning multi-coloured set, which develops themes of red, white and blue as the performance unfolds, emulates a “hippie commune” very well, with the five piece band settled neatly into the various tents and huts we see before us.
The show is a true ensemble piece, with stunning vocals from Marcus Collins, Daisy Wood-Davis, Alison Arnopp and Natalie Green really encouraging the rest of the cast to totally immerse themselves in William Whelton’s superb choreography. Once you add in Ben M Rogers psychedelic lighting design, Callum Robinson’s sound design and Max Perryment’s evocative soundscape, the audience is swept along on a tidal wave of sound and colour that only ceases when the finale and encore have been completed.
Having said that the show is all about the ensemble, there is one other stand out performance by an understudy. Bradley Judge looks every inch the All-American 1960’s housewife as Margaret Mead, and “she” just can’t wait to leave the stage and join her “husband” on the front row.
In theatre there will always be room for productions that fix themselves in a certain time or place, as long as they are done well, and Hair the Musical could not have been structured any better. Seeing, and feeling, the chilled out, drug fuelled, sexually liberated and in one famous scene, naked, joy that permeates the cast it takes no time
at all for a huge part of the audience to join the cast on stage in the finale and celebrate a 50 year “trip” that is likely to carry on for many years to come.
***** Five Stars