Now, at the 11th hour, I've finally found the best musical of the Broadway season...its that sloppy, vulgar, terrific tribal love rock musical Hair...formerly of off-Broadway.
Contrary to my expectations, it's even better on Broadway - - Galt MacDermot's music is more impressive on second hearing - - this is Aquarius...which has been moved up to open the show...The plot...which I thought sentimental and old fashioned, has been subordinated to the iconoclasm and the total commitment to a hippy aura. The staging...which I feared would suffer in the transition from thrust stage to procenium...is better now...because it has been moved by director Tom O'Horgan into the realm of controlled anarchy. O'Horgan has even found a way to get his cast to envelope the Biltmore, which was not designed for those sorts of goings-on. Several changes have been made in the cast...but this one is every bit as good...perhaps better. To name just some of them...co-authors Gerome Ragni and James Rado, Lamont Washington, Lynn Kellogg, and Shelley Plimpton - - all are marvelous. And...oh yes...there is a nude scene at the end of the first act, but it's hardly worth a visit to the Biltmore. What is worth the visit is that smashing musical...HAIR.
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