‘Hair,’ now playing at Vanguard Theater, remains relevant nearly 60 years after creation

by JAY LUSTIG
hair musical review

KYLE WATKINS

Cast members in the current production of “Hair” at The Vanguard Theater in Montclair.

Tribal. The word is right there in the subtitle of “Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical,” which is currently being presented at The Vanguard Theater in Montclair. And it is essential.

Cast members in any production of “Hair” have to create the feeling that they are a tribe: Not just a bunch of friends, but a community that takes on a personality and a pulsating life of its own. And the actors in this production do a great job of that, conveying the strong bonds between the characters in virtually every scene.

KYLE WATKINS

Amron Salgado, left, and Nick Rubano in “Hair.”

One imagines that the tenor of the times they are living through, in their real lives, is of some help. You could not imagine a better time for a revival of “Hair,” which debuted Off-Broadway in 1967 and moved to Broadway and London’s West End the following year — and was directly inspired by the turbulent politics and vibrant counterculture of the time. During the musical’s opening weekend at The Vanguard Theater, the biggest mass protest in United States history took place, with gatherings in Montclair and thousands of other cities; and a new war began, between Israel and Iran. Underscoring the link between then and now, director Janeece Freeman Clark (also Vanguard Theater Company’s founding artistic director) cleverly had the protest signs that tribe members hold up during one scene display ’60s slogans on one side, and phrases you would be more likely to see now — “Fuck ICE,” “Cease-Fire,” “I Can’t Breathe” — on the other.

Vintage-looking patterned rugs (scenic design is by Rodrigo Escalante), laid next to each other and covering the stage floor, help set the mood. So do the characters’ clothes (costume design is by T.J. Jenkins), which look, appropriately, as if they were hand-made, or bought in a ’60s thrift shop. Jenkins also handled the wig design, with Amber Ruffin serving as wig supervisor; though I couldn’t tell who was wearing a wig and who just let their own hair grow long and shaggy, there is no question the characters’ looks lived up to the musical’s title.

“Hair” is, by design, very disjointed, throwing traditional Broadway musical structure out the window in an attempt to reflect the free-form cultural moment. Though there is a central story — Claude (Nick Rubano), a member of the Tribe, has to decide what to do when he is drafted to serve in the Vietnam War — much of the musical is composed of standalone vignettes built around songs addressing one aspect of ’60s life: drugs (“Hashish,” “Walking in Space”), sex (“Sodomy”), racism (“Colored Spade”), pollution (“Air”), interracial dating (“Black Boys,” “White Boys”) and so on. Two of the musical’s love songs — the feverish “Donna” and the sweetly innocent “Frank Mills” — are about people we never actually see onstage.

KYLE WATKINS

“Hair” cast members include, from left, Zariyah Happonen, Isaiah Miguel, Riley Hahn, Amron Salgado and Samy Cordero.

Standout numbers include “Easy to Be Hard,” sung by the Tribe’s hardcore activist, Sheila (Riley Hahn); and “My Conviction,” sung by drag performer Joe D’Angio (aka Pissi Myles) as a middle-aged tourist in New York who befriends the Tribe and is delighted to observe “hippies” in their natural habitat.

“Easy to Be Hard” is, in my opinion, the greatest song in “Hair” — a heartbreaking ballad in which the tough-as-nails Sheila expresses her hurt after she is shunned by the freewheeling Berger (Amron Salgado). “How can people have no feelings?/How can they ignore their friends? … Especially people who care about strangers/Who care about evil and social injustice/Do you only care about the bleeding crowd?/How about a needing friend?”, she sings. Hahn delivers the words with an intensity that is rare to find on a stage of any kind.

“My Conviction,” on the other hand, is a comedic moment. The Tribe has won over D’Angio’s character, who tries to express sympathy in a kind but stuffy way: “It is my conviction/That longer hair and other flamboyant affectations of appearance/Are nothing more than the male’s emergence from his drab camouflage/Into the gaudy plumage which is the birthright of his sex.” The hippies gawk like they are observing a creature from another planet, and D’Angio’s booming voice and commanding seriousness heighten the humor.

“Hair” songs have been covered by pop and rock artists more frequently than songs from just about any other musical of the last 60 years. But I always appreciate a chance to hear them in their original context. “Good Morning Starshine,” for instance, may seem like a hopelessly dated, starry-eyed anthem when played on SiriusXM’s ’60s channel or a similar outlet. But as a burst of giddy optimism in the intense and trauma-filled second act of “Hair” itself, it offers welcome relief. And any musical would benefit from a celebratory grand-finale song like “Let the Sunshine In.”

KYLE WATKINS

A scene from “Hair.”

One final note: There are racial slurs and sexist behavior and other unsavory things in “Hair.” And it feels a little strange to encounter them in a Vanguard Theater Company production. The company, in its own words, “was founded as a response to the systemic injustices and inequalities that have plagued the theatrical industry for far too long,” and has always emphasized its progressive intentions.

Clark addresses this in the show’s program. She writes that while “a few careful edits” were made, “we chose to keep much of the original text intact — including many of the more challenging moments — because they still have something urgent to say.”

It is a way, she writes, “to confront the history they carry and the systems they expose,” while still making some changes that turns this “Hair” into “a dialogue between generations.”

The Vanguard Theater Company will present “Hair” at The Vanguard Theater in Montclair through June 29. Visit vanguardtheatercompany.org.

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1 comment

Jim Testa June 23, 2025 - 10:15 am

But does the cast get naked at the end of Act One? That was the most daring thing about the original production.

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