Hair – the Musical

★★★★☆    Lets the sun shine

Playhouse: Mon 17 – Sat 22 June 2019
Review by Thom Dibdin

Over 50 years on and the Age of Aquarius is still providing a relevant, controversial (in parts) and – eventually – thunderously entertaining piece of musical theatre in Hair, at the Playhouse to Saturday.

Kicking off at a high pace, the hot visuals and musical dexterity from the on-stage band mask a meandering first half which, for all its enthusiasm, gets too caught up in a distinctly non-hippy series of plots about who loves whom. Don’t be tempted to leave at the interval, though. It soars in its second half.

Jake Quickenden. Pic: Johan Persson

Hair was created from a series of songs and sketches about the Sixties hippy peace movement, so the lack of focus to the opening half hour or so is understandable. There’s lots of references to free love, smoking dope and generally breaking the rules as the members of the hippy tribe introduce themselves. At lengths which are commensurate with their egos.

Chief among these is Berger, played with an outrageous strut by Jake Quickenden – who is happy to spread the love into the front row of the audience. Everyone, it seems, loves him – almost as much as he loves himself.

Then there’s Hud, given a strong and thoroughly commanding presence by Marcus Collins, whose plain speaking of slang names for people of colour in Colored Spade is indicative of the show’s political significance beyond the peace movement.

Daisy Wood-Davis is on the money as the tribe’s Joan of Arc figure, Sheila. She leads from the front in the march against war – however strange her beliefs might be – but would go to the stake for Berger.

ensemble

All three earn their places on stage well beyond any concerns of celebrity casting. But this is very much an ensemble piece, with the 14 strong cast providing a constant presence on stage, and breaking off from their roles as members of the tribe to bring in other characters.

Marcus Collins. Pic: Johan Persson

Aiesha Pease has a huge voice as Dionne and Tom Bales kills it as tourist Margaret Mead, come to get her picture taken with the hippies.

But wherever a powerful voice is needed you will find Natalie Green as Cassie. She has a fantastic purity to the top of her range but can drop down and belt with the best of them. Her scenes with Paul Wilkins as Manchester-born Claude, playing his mother against Collins as his dad, are splendid pieces of staging, too.

Yet, for all its sense of purpose, the first half probably doesn’t work as it once did. Partly because the lines which reference a depth of knowledge of the 1960s scene, and surely endeared it to its 1960s audiences, don’t carry the same resonance today.

Even the notorious nudity at the end of half feels feeble and somewhat twee. It’s hardly a statement, tucked away behind lights, and it certainly is not celebratory in the way it might be. You have to ask yourself “why?”. Not just for the disrobing, but the whole production.

Focus

The answer comes in the second half, when Claude’s draft-dodging escapades and pretences to burn his draft card come into focus as part of the show’s general anti-war vibe.

Natalie Green and cast. Pic Johan Persson.

And the whole thing takes off properly when Berger hands Claude a pencil thin spliff, the band drop into some sparse funk and it begins to take on a distinctly psychedelic edge with Walking in Space.

At first this simply seems like a cleverly created stage representation of being stoned – thanks to great lighting from from Ben M Rogers, and hugely effective physical choreography from William Whelton under Jonathan O’Boyle’s direction.

But with a big throb of bass it takes on a distinctly heavy vibe. This is certainly a trip and the visuals just get better and better – as Claude hallucinates his way back into the history of American oppression and we see the not-so great side of the founding fathers, it is a trip that gives the whole show a thoroughly political edge.

The pre-curtain opening scene with voice clips from American presidents, from Trump going back, feels a lot more coherent. It is not just a trendy and slightly clever conceit, but one which runs right through the piece up until its end, as Claude gets his wish to be the invisible man.

Originally created for Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre, this production might have lost some of its intimacy as it has been scaled up for bigger stages.

But a tight, on-stage band under MD Gareth Bretherton (who has truly funked-up the bass attack of the show) and big performances from all the cast, ensure that when it needs to get high, this production knows how to inhale.

Running time: Two hours and 30 minutes (including one interval)
Edinburgh Playhouse, 18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014.
Monday 17 – Saturday 22 June 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm; Matinee Weds, Sat: 2.30pm. 
Tickets and details: Book here.

ENDS

Tags: Aiesha Pease, Ben M Rogers, Daisy Wood-Davis, Gareth Bretherton, Hair, Hair the Musical, Hope Mill Theatre, Jake Quickenden, Jonathan O’Boyle, Marcus Collins, Musicals, Natalie Green, Paul Wilkins, Playhouse, Review, Tom Bales, William Whelton