I shouldn’t be partisan. Anybody can read this and as a journalistic document or review, this should appeal to all people. Though there is something undeniably liberal about the classic 1968 musical Hair, which the University of Pittsburgh is currently staging through November 20th. You can see it when you walk in the door, a big “Love trumps Hate” sign. You can see it in the diversity of the cast, the hippie mentality. You can see it in the director’s statement in the program:
Our production aims to embrace the original purpose of Hair: to protest, praise and call to action. We wanted to put the concerns of today’s youth on stage—to show how these songs live in our world now. While our cast members may not have experienced the pain of a nation torn apart by war, we can all recognize an electorate toxically divided, and political rhetoric coarsened and vulgarized. We hear people argue in favor of religious intolerance, LGBTQ+ marginalization, and xenophobia. We see a culture of sexual violence dismissed with the wave of a hand. We march in the streets to protest the murder of yet another unarmed person of color.
And to go beyond the partisan opinion to talk about this production as an entity that is representative of two times and places: I have to definitively say this is very good. It is great. Badass and wonderful! It has made me proud to be alma mater at Pitt. I didn’t know they had it in them. I am impressed and I urge everyone who can to see this musical.
First of all, the students are so into it. This is an essence given from the before the play. The actors freely walk around the stage, on the balconies, through the crowd. This seems gimmicky, but it does a fantastic job of setting up a vibe. There is a lot of commitment in this play, which is a point I’ll come back to. I really loved the candidness with which these actors could improvise.