New York: 'Hair' at the Al Mirschfield Theatre

My second theatrical experience in New York last week was so much more fulfilling than the first - 'Hair'! I've never seen it on stage or film but know half the songs already as classics sung by everyone who wanted to appear cool in the late '60s/early '70s. And, of course, Alex Harvey was in the Hair Band in London and recorded some of the songs himself.

It's opening in London in the Spring with, I think, largely the same cast as on Broadway, so that's something to look forward to. To blend in with the hippies I wore The Most Beautiful Shirt In The World covered in roses and rosebuds - well, someone has to wear clothes that aren't black. grey or navy blue (New Yorkers, please note that clothes come in many colours). Anyway...

'Hair' is the story of a group of young friends in New York in the late '60s - the Tribe -and that's about as far as story or plot goes. There are scenes of being expelled from school, of hair, of drugs, of generational misunderstandings, of hippies and love, of lots of things held together because they happen to or are sung about by the Tribe. In that, it betrays it's 'performance' and audience participation origin, but I didn't notice it as something lacking at all. The one thing that kept returning, particularly in the second half, was the Vietnam war and the draft when one of the Tribe is called up. The others all burn their draft cards, but not Claude. I'll leave it there so there are some surprises when you see it (and see it, you should).

Even though the play and music are over 40 years old it was almost a breath of fresh air after seeing 'Next To Normal', with good singing voices, lack of pretension and characters I could have some sympathy with. I thought the cast were excellent, particularly Cassie Levy who has a great voice and presence and Gavin Creel as Claude. The hippy language and clothes rung the right bells but every now and then I swear they were wearing Ugg boots and stuff rather than period clothes. And yes, they took their clothes off at the end of the first half but in a dimly lit and understated way - I missed seeing most of them since I was watching Claude sing and he kept his clothes on.

There were lots of nice touches like having a badly copied pink leaflet stuck inside the Playbill inviting us to go to a 'be-in' to 'burn your draft cards' and remind us to 'bring your own pot'. The biogs in the Playbill were also written in truly awful hippy loveliness (noting the star signs of the cast and sending out love to everyone). During some of the several forays into the audience by the cast they brought more leaflets to hand out and flowers to throw at us. Much as I squirm at the thought of audience participation I loved it (partly because I was safe in the middle of the second row).

There was a nice touch at the end of the show with knowing references to snow (this was the eve of Snowmaggedon after all, and we all knew it) and snow fell on the stage. When we got outside it was snowing so, as far as I'm concerned, they must've opened the roof somehow to let in the snow. They also held a 'rave-up' at the end, inviting the audience to join them dancing on the stage which is videoed and you can log on the following day and send the video to your chums, a nice piece of free viral marketing (click here to see what happened on the night we were there).

I thoroughly enjoyed the show and, on the way out, promptly bought the cast recording. I'll be happy to join the be-in when it opens in London. Let your hair grow, man...