In between the Act One opening and closing numbers are more than 15 other songs (Hair has more than 30 numbers in all), some only a minute or two long, nearly all delightful. In 1968, Hair didn’t sound like other Broadway scores, but it also didn’t much resemble the pop and rock being played on the radio at the time. It had its own eclectic pop sound, and this may have prevented it from becoming a moldy period piece (even if some of the words have aged less gracefully).
First come a group of numbers that introduce the main characters. The hedonist clown and swaggering male egoist Berger (Will Swenson in the role originated by co-author Gerome Ragni) sings “Donna,” about the “sixteen-year-old virgin…tattooed woman” he’s been pursuing. Woof (Bryce Ryness), who “has a thing for” both Mick Jagger and Berger, sings about some of his other interests in “Sodomy,” which can still provoke astonished laughter in audiences hearing it for the first time. Hud (Darius Nichols), an African-American, fights racism with sarcasm in “Colored Spade.” Finally, Claude escapes his dreary home life in Queens by pretending to be an aspiring “genius genius” filmmaker from “Manchester, England.”
In a reflection of the hippies’ (and the authors’) sexism, the female characters aren’t supplied with similar introductory songs. They do, however, get lead or solo vocals in three of the biggest applause-getters in the show: “Aquarius”; the plaintive ballad “Easy to be Hard” (sung by Caren Lyn Manuel as Sheila, addressed to the jauntily obnoxious Berger); and that blank-verse masterpiece of hilarity that can also make you cry, “Frank Mills” (sung by Allison Case). And the “girls” get the biggest smash comedy ensemble number as well, in “Black Boys/White Boys,” a riotous highlight of Act Two.
The “characters” are really just sketches, and there’s not a lot for the actors to do with the dialogue. Most are content to be charming or funny. Claude is the one role that requires some approximation of an extended characterization. (James Rado, who co-wrote the book and lyrics with Ragni, was the original Claude on Broadway.) It’s understandable that the producers of this new Hair would think of Jonathan Groff, fresh off his success as another rebellious youth in Spring Awakening. But just as in that show, Groff’s singing far outshines his ability with dialogue. He succeeds quite well with two of his big numbers, “I Got Life” and “Where Do I Go?” But his wig gives him an unfortunate resemblance to 70s teen idols like David Cassidy or Leif Garrett – not the best models for Claude, who is supposed to be Everyman, earnest and a bit goofy, not a callow pretty-boy or a hippie Zac Efron. (Groff is with the show for two more weeks; then Christopher J. Hanke plays Claude August 17-31.)
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