It’s exciting times at the Sydney Opera House at the moment. Playing in the Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House is HAIR, the original tribal rock musical, which is currently on its 50th anniversary Australian tour.
My best description of this show is this : It really gets into the spirit of the sixties. We are really transported into this world, the excitement and the drama of it. For the two hours plus that the show runs for we are back there. with the hippies, the protest marches, the sexual liberation movement, psychedelic drugs, the Vietnam war conscription et al.
If you want something to take you away from your every day world this show is the one to see. Immerse yourself in it. Make it a whole experience. Like most of the people in my aisle did. They came dressed in colourful sixties clothes, had long hair (maybe some of them wore wigs?!) and wore peace sign pendants.
The hit songs brought it all back: ‘Aquarius, Let The Sun Shine In, Good Morning Starshine and many more. Thee are some forty songs sung on the night.
The cast immersed themselves in the time roles. The principals were excellent. Hugh Sheridan played Berger, Paulini played Dione, Prinnie Stevens played Sheila and Matthew Manahan . played Claude, Then there was Angelique Cassimatis played Jeanie, Harriet M Turner was Hud. Stefanie Caccamo played Crissy. Callan Purcell played Woof. The supporting roles in the tribe, as they were known, were all well played.
Cameron Menzies directed the production well. Things that stood out for me. I liked the free flowing nature of the production- an actor came down from the stage, jumping over people’s seats to say to his mum. Now, that’s relaxed!. At the end of the show some of the flower children came out into the audience and greeted people. Very groovy!
Most of the songs were rock and rolls songs, still it was the ballads that touched me the most…The song about ‘Why are people so cruel? ‘How can people do that? was beautifully sung.
There was a very poignant scene quoting Shakespeare’s famous speech, with the song what a piece of work is man? as the tribe see the destructiveness around them.
The title song ‘Hair’ had a big impact. It was sung boisterously with the cast letting their hair down, and flowing every which way..
There were some dramatic scenes such as the scene with Claude trying to find his independence and his berating, very conservative parents who tell him to go to Vietnam and fight for his country.
The show featured a powerful live band with musical direction by Tina Harris.
The only gripe that I had was that sometimes the sound was a bit loud and it was hard to sometimes understand what was being said or sung. Maybe the amplification was set too high.
HAIR is only playing until Sunday 6th October, 2019. Well worth the experience!
All production photos by Daniel Boud