History Theatre / Hair

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Berger ''may'' have been able to fill in for Claude for a single anonymous roll call (he's shown giving a knowing wink to another soldier who stares at him in surprise when he answers for Claude), but as soon as the orders came through for them to ship out to Vietnam, the cat would have been out of the bag no matter what. None of Claude's gear would have fit him, none of his Claude's squadmates would have kept silent because there's no way in the world they're going to deploy to combat with some asshole they've never seen before who clearly doesn't know what the fuck he's doing, Claude's squad leader, platoon sergeant, and platoon commander would have all done individual inspections of each soldier prior to boarding the plane, and Claude's squad leader would have been the first one to say "who the fuck are ''you''" to Berger. Long before the plane took off, Berger would have been arrested for trespassing and Claude would be classified as a deserter with every cop in the area on the lookout for him. Moviegoers with military experience were rolling their eyes big time during this scene.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Berger ''may'' have been able to fill in for Claude for a single anonymous roll call (he's shown giving a knowing wink to another soldier who stares at him in surprise when he answers for Claude), but as soon as the orders came through for them to ship out to Vietnam, the cat would have been out of the bag no matter what. None of Claude's gear would have fit him, none of his Claude's squadmates would have kept silent because there's no way in the world they're going to deploy to combat with some asshole they've never seen before who clearly doesn't know what the fuck he's doing, Claude's squad leader, platoon sergeant, and platoon commander would have all done individual inspections of each soldier prior to boarding the plane, and Claude's squad leader would have been the first one to say "who the fuck are ''you'' to Berger. Long before the plane took off, Berger would have been arrested for trespassing and Claude would be classified as a deserter with every cop in the area on the lookout for him. Moviegoers with military experience were rolling their eyes big time during this scene.

* RaceFetish: The song called "Black Boys/White Boys", where two groups of people -- one white, one black -- sing about how black boys and white boys (respectively) turn them on. The male white officers agreeing with the white women that the black boys are delicious like chocolate, and the black officers agreeing with the black women about how kissable the white men are. By making the fetishism a mutual affair, the song makes clear that it's not about racism or sexism. Also, the focus on shallow beauty/sexyness is done in such a way that it sends an anti-racist message: The difference between races is a shallow difference, merely a matter of how you look.

* EvenTheGuysWantHim: MickJagger, [[DiscussedTrope canonically]].

* MagicalNegro: Averted. While Hud is still treated as a good person, he's shown to have been an absolute jerk in how he left his ex-girlfriend. HeGetsBetter.

* CutSong: an odd example due to the Alternate Continuity of song lists in the play to begin with. The soundtrack for the film and the film itself contain different song lists. See page for details.

->''Hair'' can be a lovely silken thing, a long, stringy thing, or some strange musical we really don't understand.
-->Introduction from can of Oregon brand raspberries explaining how fresh raspberries have hair.

The original rock musical, '''''Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical''''', debuted in 1967 and is very much an [[TheSixties artifact of its times]], particularly the bohemian, [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippie]], Free Love and anti-[[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam-War]] movements, but at the same time has found new relevance in subsequent revivals, including the Tony award winning, 2009 Broadway revival. It was also very experimental for its times, involving nudity, audience participation and with some actors planted amongst the audience, not to mention scandalous for reasons which will be covered in the plot synopsis. The libretto (lyrics and dialogue) were written by its co-stars, James Rado and Gerome Ragni, and the music by Galt [=MacDermot=].

Audiences and critics ''loved'' the show, partially because it averted or subverted many of the era's most dominant tropes (and, for that matter, many of ''theatre''[='s=] most dominant tropes; among other things, the set was minimal and there were no curtains whatsoever). It did what it wanted to, and it worked. Plus, for all the shock and outrage it inspired -- hey, there's NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity. It was not only the first [[RockOpera Rock Musical]], directly preceding shows like ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'' and ''SpringAwakening'', it was the first ''{{Concept|Album}}'' Musical too (in which the central theme of the show is more important than the show's narrative), which culminated in ''Theatre/AChorusLine'' in '75. ''Good Morning, Starshine'' and ''Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In'' got some respectable airplay as singles. Most importantly, it helped revive the flagging theatre scene and completely rewrote the common perspective of what you could get away with onstage.

** Justified, given the era. All of the aforementiomed acts were regarded as equally disgusting and immoral by most of mainstream society.

** Although in the 1960s, all of the above mentioned acts would probably be equally repellent to mainstream society

The musical stars '''Claude''', TheHero (Rado), the leader of a "tribe" of New York hippies, and his two friends [[TheLancer Lancer]] '''Berger''' (Ragni) and '''Sheila''', a SoapboxSadie. After various songs extolling the various practices and issues afoot (''Colored Spade'' for racism, ''Hashish'' for drug use, ''Sodomy'' for alternative sexuality, ''Ain't Got No'' for the tribe's semi-deliberate poverty), making it clear that this is a DividedStatesOfAmerica due to the differing values between generations. This is underlined when the play does a SmashCut to the entire tribe having an orgy (yes, onstage) and the maid walks in. Claude is promptly berated by six cast members representing his parents, each one with a different costume and concern (we ''said'' it was experimental), and is told that he should join the army. He leaves, and (after another couple of songs) returns to admit that he passed his draft physical and may be forced to go fight UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.

The original rock musical, ''Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical'' debuted in 1967 and is very much an [[TheSixties artifact of its times]], particularly the bohemian, [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippie]], Free Love and anti-[[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam-War]] movements, but at the same time has found new relevance in subsequent revivals, including the Tony award winning, 2009 Broadway revival. It was also very experimental for its times, involving nudity, audience participation and with some actors planted amongst the audience, not to mention scandalous for reasons which will be covered in the plot synopsis. The libretto (lyrics and dialogue) were written by its co-stars, James Rado and Gerome Ragni, and the music by Galt [=MacDermot=].

* DrugsAreBad: defiantly averted.

* AlternateContinuity: Just about every version that's ever been performed uses a different version of the plot, alternate lines, and alternate song list, which is why fans of the movie are not too irritated by deviations from the original play.

-''Hair'' can be a lovely silken thing, a long, stringy thing, or some strange musical we really don't understand.

* RaceFetish: The song called "Black Boys/White Boys", where two groups of girls - one white, one black - sing about how black boys and white boys (respectively) turn them on. The song is so very obviously about heterosexual race fetishism that it becomes very easy to overlook the fact that the song is ''also'' about homosexuality (with added Race Fetish) in the army: The male white officers agreeing with the white women that the black boys are delicious like chocolate, and the black officers agreeing with the black women about how kissable the white men are. By making the fetishism a mutual affair, the song makes clear that it's not about racism or sexism. Also, the focus on shallow beauty/sexyness is done in such a way that it sends an anti-racist message: The difference between races is a shallow difference, merely a matter of how you look. And in the end, each of us is lovable and beautiful to someone.
** The work is from the same time as the Civil Rights Movement. The black guy "Hud" is a fully accepted member of the otherwise white hippie gang, and the song can be said to say "not only are people of other races not evil, you may even consider having sex with them!". While CaptainObvious these days, it was a radical message back when it was made.

* HoYay: All over the place with the draft board, and the general seems to enjoy watching his men perform their routines.

''Hair'' was also made into a RockOpera Concert Album and various hit singles including "Age Of Aquarius" and "The Flesh Failures (Let The Sunshine In)", and [[BrokenBase interestingly]], was made into an [[CultClassic often forgotten (but still unique) film]], by [[Creator/MilosForman Miloš Forman]], starring John Savage. Both feature most of the original cast and variations on the original songs.

Audiences and critics ''loved'' the show, partially because it averted or subverted many of the era's most dominant tropes (and, for that matter, many of ''theatre''[='s=] most dominant tropes; among other things, the set was minimal and there were no curtains whatsoever). It did what it wanted to, and it worked. Plus, for all the shock and outrage it inspired -- hey, there's NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity. It was not only the first [[RockOpera Rock Musical]], directly preceding shows like ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'' and ''SpringAwakening'', it was the first ''{{Concept|Album}}'' Musical too (in which the central theme of the show is more important than the show's narrative), which culminated in ''Theatre/AChorusLine'' in '75. ''Good Morning, Starshine'' and ''The Age Of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In'' got some respectable airplay as singles. Most importantly, it helped revive the flagging theatre scene and completely rewrote the common perspective of what you could get away with onstage.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Jeannie loves Claude, but Claude loves Sheila, but Sheila loves Berger, but Berger loves everyone and doesn't seem to understand Sheila's affection. [[AmbiguouslyGay Also, Woof may or may not be in love with Berger.]]
* AmbiguouslyGay: Woof has a [[{{Understatement}} slight crush]] on Mick Jagger, and Jeannie says that he is "hung up" on Berger.

** Although in the 1960s, all of the above mentioned acts would probably be equally repellant to mainstream society

* DoggedNiceGuy: Claude to Sheila, Jeannie to Claude.

--> '''Jeanie''': This is the way it is. Sheila’s hung up on Berger. I’m hung up on Claude. Claude is hung up on a cross over Sheila and Berger. And Berger's hung up everywhere. As a prospective mother, I would just like to say that there is something highly unusual going on here. And furthermore, Woof is hung up on Berger.