"Hair" — the "American Tribal Love Rock Musical," as it's billed — opened on Broadway 40 years ago this spring.
The passage of four long decades presents a challenge for Michael Watkins, who is directing the latest production of the show at Actors Cabaret of Eugene. It has been a sold-out favorite every few years for the little Eugene theater company, most recently in 2004.
But 40 years? Anyone still remember the generation gap? Remember not trusting anyone over 30?
Watkins does.
"I wanted a cast that was under 30," he said during a break in rehearsal the other night. "So my oldest actor is 29."
"My mom was a hippie!" says 25-year-old Cate Wolfenbarger, who plays Sheila, the apex of the play's romantic triangle. "She grew up on a Midwestern farm. And in her high school class she was the only person into the Beatles."
Watkins himself is 57.
"That means I've been doing a lot of explaining about things to the young cast. Hey, I was alive then."
He well remembers those crazy years of the late 1960s: Vietnam, marijuana, sexual experimentation, a manic energy that infused practically every walk of life, at least for those who were then younger than 30.
Like some kind of living history project, Watkins brought his old draft card in to show the young actors, many of whose characters are called on to burn their draft cards in the course of the story.
(Watkins remembers the draft well. He got a losing number in the first draft lottery and was called up for a military physical — which he happily flunked because of a kidney condition.)
"The biggest thing for me is, here we are 40 years later. And nothing has changed. We're in another war. We're killing off young men and women. Nothing much has changed."
[ ... ]
It hit just about every cultural hot button of the time, from desecrating the American flag to explicit profanity to an entire song built out of derogatory racial epithets.
Its disdain for the establishment was most clearly illustrated by "Hair's" famous nude scene at the end of Act I, when the entire cast disrobed and stood side by side on stage in an earnest proclamation of Edenic innocence.
In 1968 all this theatrical ferment drew police raids, court injunctions and even bombings as the show played around the world. Mexico closed "Hair" down after one performance; the cast fled the country to escape arrest.
In Boston the production defied a court order that actors keep clothes on; legal wrangling reached the U.S. Supreme Court before a split decision allowed the show to reopen, nudity and all.
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