Let the sun shine in. Again.
New Line Theatre’s mind-blowing, brain-expanding June 2000 production of the trippingly psychedelic American tribal love-rock musical Hair returned in the summer of 2001 for a sold-out six week run. Gerry Kowarksy of The St. Louis Post Dispatch called New Line’s first production of Hair "the first must-see of the summer." Judy Newmark of the Post Dispatch named it one of the top shows of the year. After a sold out run in 2000, dozens of people asked if New Line’s Osage tribe would ever reunite. So they did. Almost the whole cast and band came back together for more fun with Berger, Claude, Jeannie, Sheila, and the whole tribe. It was an experience none of us will ever forget. Read the terrific article in the November 2001 American Theatre magazine about New Line's HAIR.
And New Line's HAIR returned in 2008 as we head toward one of the most important national elections most of us will ever know. Click here to go to the 2008 Osage Tribe's webpage.
Hair remains one of the most important works in the history of the American theatre, and yet so many people know so little about it. Hair is so much more than its drugs and rock music and its famous nude scene. Without Hair there would have been no Rent or A Chorus Line, no Jesus Christ Superstar, Chicago or Cats. Hair changed everything. Drawing from the anti-war movement, the hippie culture, the experimental theatre community, the drug culture, rock and roll, the poems of Allen Ginsberg, and so much more, Hair emerged in 1967 as one of the towering achievements of the twentieth century, a work of theatre so fully realized, so culturally significant, so shockingly real and honest, so iconically American that still today it retains its power to move and shock audiences, and to change forever the lives of those who work on it.
The Osage Tribe, 2000
David Aikman
Kiné Brown
Bradley Calise
Karl Clark
Alexis Coleman
Justin Heinrich
Ken Haller
Beck Hunter
Robin Kelso
Terry Love
Mo Monahan
Uchenna Ogu
John Rhine
John Sparger
Nicole Trueman
Dale Hampton, lead guitar
M. Joshua Ryan, rhythm guitar
Darin Johnson, bass
Paul Hooper, trumpet
Scott Miller, keyboard
Adam Kopff, percussion
Scott Miller, director
Justin Heinrich & Bradley Calise, costumers
Paul Summers, lighting designer
Karl Berberich, scene painter
Amy Francis Schott, lighting tech
The Osage Tribe, 2001 (and their chosen Tribe names)
Kiné Brown (Venus Love Child)
Bradley Calise (Moses)
Wayne Easter (Zion)
Mike Heeter (Captain Britannica)
Justin Heinrich (Knight of Cups)
Mike Howard (Nougat)
Beck Hunter (Li'l Boll Weevil)
Tamara Kelly (Dances with Freedom)
Terry Love (Monsoon)
Mo Monahan (Mother Nature)
Joy Nash (Song Bird)
Uchenna Ogu (Marrakesh)
John Rhine (Priest)
Nicole Trueman (Sun)
Dale Hampton, lead guitar
M. Joshua Ryan, rhythm guitar
Dave Hall, bass
Carl Nelson, trumpet
Scott Miller, keyboard
Adam Kopff, percussion
Scott Miller (Kerouac), director
Justin Heinrich & Bradley Calise, costumers
Paul Summers (Rabbi), lighting designer
The Osage Tribe, scene painters
"Zany" Clark (Lightning Bug), lighting tech
and what the critics said....
2000
“A gripping production from New Line Theatre. . . The in-the-round presentation, with actors running through the audience, suits director Scott Miller's intense style. His production moves with the studied emotional focus of a dream – or a memory. . . And this production perfectly captures the deep, genuine anger that the Vietnam War provoked at home. 'Three-Five-Zero-Zero,' a song in which the hallucinating Claude envisions his hippie friends falling in battle, is a stunning depiction of how immediate the threat felt to people a world away from the war.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post Dispatch
“New Line Theatre's production of Hair, which opened last weekend in the A.E. Hotchner Drama Studio on the Washington University campus, may pull you into a gallop down memory lane (if you're older) or (if you're younger) may cause an attack of envy because your parents lived in much more interesting times than you do. Whatever the effect, a strong, musical cast make the book, music and lyrics seem as fresh and fun as they were in 1968.” – Harry Weber, The Riverfront Times
“At once historical and iconoclastic, this classic hippie postcard from the summer of love remains as brittle and quirky as ever, but the New Line production reveled in the shaggy spirit, and proved largely enjoyable.” – Brian McCary, KDHX-FM
"Don't let the language and the nude scene fool you – there's a lot of innocence and idealism on the stage, and those are two things we need – any time – whether with Hair or without.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM
2001
“New Line’s production . . . forged an intense connection with its audience. . . The finale, ‘Let the Sun Shine In,’ was almost unbearably emotional and brought the audience onto the stage to tearfully hug and dance with the cast.” – Allison Xantha Miller, American Theatre Magazine
“New Line Theatre shows off its crowning glory in an open-ended run of Hair.” – Byron Kerman, The Riverfront Times
“When a director revives a play less than a year after he first staged it, he better have good reason – reasons like style, audience appeal and abundant energy. New Line artistic director Scott Miller has all the reason he needs for this summer's revival of last summer's hit, Hair. . . [It] is, above all, an ensemble piece. It emerged from a time when it seemed possible that group efforts to change society could succeed. This play, and New Line's production of it, succeed on exactly those same terms.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post Dispatch
“Director Scott Miller’s Osage Tribe is an ensemble cast of frenzied and frolicking psychedelic-perfection. . . The Osage shout, scream, wail, sing, point, dance, laugh, plead, and rage to the audience that is intimately wrapped around the stage like some morphed tribal council in trance. It is wondrous. . . it is the Osage ensemble that is the real star. Their unbridled energy and communal vocals framed within Miller’s imaginative choreography provide a manic tale that when finished finds you somewhere in between tears and euphoric joy.” – Colin Murphy, The Vital Voice
“Artistically, it was one of the best productions New Line ever staged, and everybody seemed to know it.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post Dispatch
Want to explore more? We recommend:
The original Broadway cast album of Hair
The film Hair on videotape or DVD
New Line's webpage for our 2008 production of Hair
Scott Miller's new book Let the Sun Shine In: the Genius of HAIR, or the book Letting My Hair Down: Two Years with the Love Rock Tribe – From Dawning to Downing of Aquarius by original Broadway cast member Lorrie Davis, or the book The Age of Hair by Barbara Lee Horn
An analysis of Hair by Scott Miller, New Line Artistic Director
A terrific article in the November 2001 American Theatre magazine about New Line's HAIR
Join Michael Butler's national HAIR discussion list, or join another Hair e-mail subscription discussion list
The Official HAIR Online Archives and a list of other Hair websites
A page from Rave magazine, May 1966 -- the source for "Frank Mills" (under "Boys and Girls, Lost and Found")
The Psychedelix website, full of 60s/70s graphics, wallpaper, etc.
Check out all the various Hair cast albums at Footlight Records
It’s not enough that we address the issues in Hair. It’s not enough that we feel bad about the fact that all these years later, we haven’t yet solved any of the problems Hair dramatizes. It’s not enough that we think about all these issues. Where does that thinking go when we walk out of the theatre?
Below is a list of organizations you can contact and/or join, and do something about making the world a better place. We can right the wrongs Hair brings to light. We can get involved in those causes, we can contribute to them, we can call and write, we can volunteer our time. We can make a difference.
Don’t let this be the last time you think about what’s wrong with our world. Do something about it. Let the sun shine in before it’s too late.
-- THE OSAGE TRIBE
Amnesty International
322 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10001
212 807 8400
www.amnesty.org
NAACP
4805 Mt. Hope Drive
Baltimore Maryland 21215
(410) 521-4939
www.naacp.org
MTV’s Fight for Your Rights: Take a Stand Against Discrimination
www.fightforyourrights.mtv.com
Doctors Without Borders
6 E. 39th St., 8th floor
New York, NY 10016
(212) 679-6800
www.dwb.org
or www.doctorswithoutborders.org
Heifer Project International
P.O. Box 8058
Little Rock, AR 72203
(800) 422-0474
www.heifer.org
Nature Conservancy
4245 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 100
Arlington, VA 22203-1606
1-800-628-6860
www.nature.org
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133-3312
(415) 788-3666
www.earthisland.org
National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
1001 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 710
Washington, DC 20036
202-483-5500
www.norml.org
OTHER MORE GENERAL WEBSITES
Protest.Net - worldwide calendar offers locations, dates and information for activism, protests, pickets, strikes, demonstrations, meetings, and direct political action.
Electronic Activist - e-mail address directory of U.S. Representatives and Senators, state governments, and media entities. Also includes activism how-to.
Progressive Secretary - letter writing cooperative sends out emails to Congress, the President, and elected officials on peace, ecology, civil rights, and other issues. Topics and messages are suggested and selected by participants.
E-The People - a nonpartisan site working with over 400 online newspapers, television stations and Internet portals to bring government closer to the people, allowing users to send an e-mailed or faxed letter or a petition to over thousands of federal, state, and local officials.
Go without hate, But not without rage. Heal the world.
-- Paul Monette