Fifty years ago, a revolutionary musical called "Hair" made its Broadway debut. The WKU Department of Theatre & Dance is marking this anniversary with a production of the quintessential American Tribal Love Rock Musical.
"We were struck by how many of the themes still seem resonant today," said Dr. Michelle Dvoskin, the show's director. "We discuss the show in my musical theater history class and when we were talking about the ending a few years ago, everyone was really overwhelmed by it and had a lot of feelings and I remember standing there and thinking we have to do 'Hair'. It's time to do 'Hair'."
Cavan Hendron, who plays Claude Bukowski, said the production has been a learning experience.
"Sometimes you get involved in shows and you'll just kind of learn the surface level of it," said Hendron. "But for this one we really dove into the history behind the show and all these different facts from the time period and the ideas of love, acceptance and community that are really relevant in the show and still are."
The WKU Theatre & Dance Department will be peforming the show nine times this month. Hunter Mayfield, who plays George Berger, says they've had to use caution in rehersal.
"This show is known, throughout 50 years of its history, is known to destroy your voice," said Mayfield. "And so we knew that going in and so we have been very proactive throughout the process making sure that, 'hey don't push yourself vocally because we have nine performances.'"
But doing the show over and over can have it's pluses, said Alex Gray, who plays the characater Hud.
"Each time we do a scene, we can find something new, and it's not the same scene that it was at the rehersal prior, and that for me is very special," she said.
The show runs November 9-13 and 15-18 in the Russell H Miller Theater inside the Fine Arts Center at WKU. Tickets are available here.
